CLUB SHOW SUPPORT FOR AUTISM ACCEPTANCE WEEK

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Clarets continue ongoing support for National Autistic Society's work

2024-04-01T17:00:00.000Z

CLUB SHOW SUPPORT FOR AUTISM ACCEPTANCE WEEK

Clarets continue ongoing support for National Autistic Society's work

2024-04-01T17:00:00.000Z

Clarets continue ongoing support for National Autistic Society's work

At Tuesday's game against Wolves the Club will once again be recognising a cause close to its heart, Autism Acceptance Week.

A campaign for the National Autistic Society, the week of fundraising kicks off on Tuesday which is World Autism Awareness Day and runs through to Monday 8th April.

Figures state that one in 100 people are on the autism spectrum, and there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK alone. The National Autistic Society help autistic people, and their families and carers, access tailored information, guidance and support to overcome barriers they may face, along with opportunities to explore their interests, develop skills and build friendships for fulfilled lives.

To show our support for the fantastic work that the National Autistic Society carry out daily and to raise awareness of the week of fundraising, our players will be warming up in branded Autism Acceptance Week t-shirts ahead of the game. The squad's match worn shirts will also be available for auction after the fixture, with all funds raised donated to the National Autistic Society charity.

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The Clarets have a close connection to the charity's cause and ahead of the Wolves fixture former Claret and Academy Coach Dean Marney and Burnley FC Chief Operating Officer & Club Secretary Matt Williams spoke about the importance of Autism Acceptance Week and shared their personal experience of autism.

“We’ve both got sons with autism, my son was diagnosed when he was two, so it was quite early, he’s twelve now. So, it’s been an up and down journey. It’s difficult but I wouldn’t change it for the world," said Dean.

“Same as Deano," added Matt. "I’ve got an eight-year-old son who was diagnosed when he was three or four, which was really, really difficult to get a diagnosis at such a young age. It was really tough. I was fortunate that my wife really led the charge to get the diagnosis. She got that he wasn’t your typical two, three-year-old and we got a diagnosis really quickly and he’s been able to have some good support since then."

Dean’s son Jayden is at senior school now, a transition that he says as a family they found challenging, but it has had a positive outcome.

“Jay’s twelve, he's just started his equivalent of senior school which was a big worry because obviously transition is difficult particularly for children with autism. He’s got ADHD as well, so he has medication for that, which has helped him out massively. We were a bit reluctant to go down that route, we found that quite difficult at the start. But it made a big difference in his behaviour. He’s done really well at this new school, which is good.

“It is what it is though, I say it can always be worse. You see these children from a young age with cancer and things like that you know, with only a year to live or something. So, I never grumble.”

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With his son also at school, Matt and his wife had to work hard to put education plans in place that help son George.

“It’s such a wide spectrum, you’ve got non-verbal, fortunately my George is verbal. But he, as well as autism, he has ADHD and dyspraxia but he’s in mainstream school at the minute which is massive for us. He’s got a great one-to-one and we managed to, again through my wife’s persistence, managed to get a really strong EHCP which is an Educational Healthcare Plan in place. We had to fight local councils to get it in place, to get the funding to fund the one-to-one. She’s brilliant and has helped him on his educational pathway to thrive in mainstream school academically. But where he struggles is emotionally and sort of changes in routine, sudden noises.

"People associate autism with people with ear defenders and that’s not always the case. It’s too simple to say he’s autistic put some ear defenders on. That’s not what autism is.”

Autism Acceptance Week aims to raise awareness of autism in its many forms. From their experience do the pair initiate conversation around the topic when something happens that may be a trigger?

“I think the longer it goes on the more accepting George's peers parents' are," said Matt.

"Kids at that age, everyone’s different. It’s great to see the age group that he is, that there’s such a diverse class and everyone’s accepting of everyone else which is great. When I was 8, 9, 10, that wouldn’t have happened. I think the parents, because what we did on day one when he went to Primary School was basically sent a note to every parent explaining who he is, what he does, what his strengths are and also what his weaknesses are.

“His strengths academically he’s the best at mental arithmetic and times tables, reading - because of the autism you’re reading something, and he can recite it straight back to you. You take him somewhere once and he knows how to get there. He’s been to the training ground twice, came once in Covid and once eighteen months later and he was directing me from junction 8 of the M65.

“He struggles with change and routine. You could set a clock by him in the morning, he’ll be up at X o’clock, he does this, this, he goes to the toilet religiously at the same time. Every day he watches things and that’s his routine. If you deviate from that routine it has a negative impact on him for the rest of the day. It’s almost like a glass that’s getting more and more full. The more change you can see it’s affecting him and eventually once that glass is overflowing because there’s so much change that’s when we have issues.”

Dean added: “Jay’s never been in mainstream school he’s always been at a specialist school so it’s a little bit easier in terms of that. There’s a lot of children with autism so the parents all know the situation and if someone’s having a meltdown you just think nothing of it and try to help them.

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“Whereas if you’re out, with autism it’s not like you can look at someone and think there’s something not right because they look like perfectly normal children, but they obviously see the world differently.

“It’s getting a bit easier now. He’s started wearing ear defenders because noise was a big thing. But he would never wear them. So, the simplest thing of going to a restaurant, we’d go to a restaurant but one of us would have to go in first, to see how busy it was, ask for a table in the corner. And if we couldn’t get a table in the corner that was it, we would have to go somewhere else because he just couldn’t be in the middle around a load of noise. But now with the ear defenders it lets people know a bit. So, when he has his little moments or he’s shouting loud, it’s not a big deal.”

This experience and awareness of the important work of the National Autistic Society make the Club's support incredibly valuable to both Matt and Dean.

“The Club have been fantastic; I think this is the third or fourth time that we’ve supported Autism Acceptance Week which is massive," said Matt. "Any exposure that we can give, as a football club and as people, to what goes on. Because it’s all around you and I think as a parent you tend to spot other families who’ve got kids with autism or that they could be on the spectrum. You sort of glance at your wife and nod, as if to say he’s on the spectrum, in the nicest possible way. So, for me it’s massive. I know that we’re developing the sensory room at the stadium but there’s so much we can do to highlight autism and the different types of autism. It’s magnificent and I know that the national charity really, really appreciate everything that we do as a football club to highlight this week.”

Dean added: “It’s brilliant. When I was a player, it was never really mentioned at all. There was no sort of coverage of it. I always use to wish I was more of a high-profile player so I could have tried to do something, unfortunately I wasn’t good enough! But no, I’m really pleased. I think it’s becoming more aware and it’s weird when you finish football and you start speaking to people, there’s so many players with children with autism. And 90% of them are crying out for help because like we’ve said it’s so difficult. Like Matt said I was fortunate to be at a club where it was ‘You need time with the family’ then ‘no problem.’ Whereas unfortunately you aren’t always blessed with that. So, I think there’s players with families that are struggling and not able to reach out. I was thankful for that and that’s why I’ve done this, it’s a special club.”

As part of Autism Acceptance Week, the full video interview with Dean and Matt will be released across Burnley FC platforms later this week.

More information about the National Autistic Society's Autism Acceptance Week can be found here.

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