When Difference Is Interpreted as Risk: Neurodivergence, Autistic Motherhood, and Child Protection

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Speaker: Cathleen Long

Date and time: 27 January, 1-2.15pm

Location: Wearside View 101, St Peter's Campus and online (online link will be sent the day before the lecture)

Neurodivergent parents, particularly autistic mothers, can encounter significant misunderstanding within child protection practice. Differences in communication, emotional expression, help-seeking, and responses to professional involvement may be interpreted through risk and parental-deficit frameworks rather than understood in the context of neurodivergence.

Drawing on research undertaken as part of a PhD by Publication, extensive social work practice, and lived experience as a neurodivergent woman, this lecture explores how autistic motherhood can become pathologised within child protection processes. It pays particular attention to Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII), examining how professional interpretations of parental behaviour can influence safeguarding assessments. The lecture considers how the Double and Triple Empathy Problems, epistemic injustice, and the neurodiversity paradigm can help explain these processes.

Recognising neurodivergence does not diminish the importance of safeguarding. Rather, effective child protection requires careful evaluation of evidence, consideration of alternative explanations, and recognition of how differences in communication and interaction may influence professional judgements. The lecture concludes by exploring the implications for relational, neurodiversity-affirming social work practice.

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