Autism in Football: James McClean

SilentWitness said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65105573

As someone with a non-verbal autistic brother it is nice to see so many highlights in media regarding people with autism or celebrities sharing their diagnoses. It must be quite challenging in a football environment.
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I'm sure, especially in the era of locker room "banter" during the early years of his career. Luckily I'm sure it's very different today and the more people speak about these things, the more normalised they become. Some aspects of the football environment can also be easy, for example the repetitive routines and well-structured daily schedules are probably positive for most players with autism.

When it comes to the spectrum of autism, there's so many who have some form of autism without people even noticing or understanding it. And that's when it becomes hard when people are not aware of it and only think of autism in the "extreme" form. Of course it's surely even more challenging with more "severe" form of autism like your brother's, just thinking simply from my own perspective. We also have some mild-medium autism in our extended family and the challenge often is that some people in their lives are not aware or do not understand it and that often leads to misunderstandings and needless exhaustion from both sides.

Anyway always happy to see people share and speak out, so well done James!
 
Have a lot of respect for James McClean, seems to have been painted as a 'bad boy' for his aggressive play and political views.

But this is good to see and a nice fatherly gesture to say he's going public to show his daughter that it won't hold her back in her life.

Good on you Mr McClean. My respect for you has gone up even more.
 
SilentWitness said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65105573

As someone with a non-verbal autistic brother it is nice to see so many highlights in media regarding people with autism or celebrities sharing their diagnoses. It must be quite challenging in a football environment.
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John O'Kane wrote a book about being autistic in football a few years ago. He played for Everton after leaving Man. United.

John O'Kane exclusive interview: From Manchester United's Class of '92 to becoming a care worker and loving it | Football News | Sky Sports

At least nowadays there's plenty of media coverage about it and documentaries on prime tv involving celebs. Must've been very difficult in the early 90s when all you had really was Rain man.....
 
Champ said:
Have a lot of respect for James McClean, seems to have been painted as a 'bad boy' for his aggressive play and political views.

But this is good to see and a nice fatherly gesture to say he's going public to show his daughter that it won't hold her back in her life.

Good on you Mr McClean. My respect for you has gone up even more.
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Only painted as a bad boy by fecking assholes who dont know anything about where he comes from.
 
I think both Beckham and Rooney have more or less confirmed levels of OCD and ADHD based on interviews. There are a few (often successful, although divisive) managers who I'd say, in the most generous way, exhibit indicators for HFA (or what was known until recently as Aspergers).
 
What sort of idiots pay real money to hear Goldbridge repeat ad nauseam “ lots to get into tonight “
 
This is an interesting one for me. My daughter was was diagnosed at the age of four with ASD (six now), but most people would not ever notice; in fact we are still not 100% sure of it. I also teach high school and have interacted with many kids over the years who I could see as being on the spectrum, but were never assessed. My point is that ASD is so diverse and nuanced, that I believe there are so many people out there who would be given an ASD diagnosis but they'll never know it.
 
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FootballHQ said:
Plenty who are neurodiverse (ADHD, dyslexic etc).
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maybe mcclean is also undiagnosed for that and all this time he’s been fighting against being forced to have a poopy on his shirt.
 
I’m pretty certain that much of the stuff that Michael Owen is (understandably) mocked for is indicative of a degree of autism.

rimaldo said:
maybe mcclean is also undiagnosed for that and all this time he’s been fighting against being forced to have a poopy on his shirt.
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:lol:
 
Paul Scholes has a son with autism. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he is on the spectrum himself.
 
I think they need a new word for autism, or a new set of words. It makes no sense at all to give the same label to a person being diagnosed in their 30s with a few slightly different, barely noticeable characteristics and a non verbal ten year old with the mental capacity of an 18 month year old who still wears nappies, only eats chips and cannot communicate even the simplest idea to his mother. It doesn’t do either person any favours to be labelled the same nor does it help the rest of society understand better. Calling it a spectrum simplifies it too much and doesn’t help as most people don’t even know what that actually means.
 
Ramshock said:
I think we all are to some degree.
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I absolutely agree with this, as more and more of the spectrum is understood, it wouldn't surprise me if we eventually realise there is no such thing as neurotypical.
 
top1whoisman said:
I'm sure, especially in the era of locker room "banter" during the early years of his career. Luckily I'm sure it's very different today and the more people speak about these things, the more normalised they become. Some aspects of the football environment can also be easy, for example the repetitive routines and well-structured daily schedules are probably positive for most players with autism.

When it comes to the spectrum of autism, there's so many who have some form of autism without people even noticing or understanding it. And that's when it becomes hard when people are not aware of it and only think of autism in the "extreme" form. Of course it's surely even more challenging with more "severe" form of autism like your brother's, just thinking simply from my own perspective. We also have some mild-medium autism in our extended family and the challenge often is that some people in their lives are not aware or do not understand it and that often leads to misunderstandings and needless exhaustion from both sides.

Anyway always happy to see people share and speak out, so well done James!
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Agreed. It's quite a shame with my brother as though he's non-verbal it isn't due to him not having the vocabulary or intelligence. He's probably the most intelligent in the family but it coincides with severe anxiety which hampers him terribly. Thankfully everyone in the family and people around us have been very supportive and programmes and celebrities coming out with their stories always helps.

FootballHQ said:
John O'Kane wrote a book about being autistic in football a few years ago. He played for Everton after leaving Man. United.

John O'Kane exclusive interview: From Manchester United's Class of '92 to becoming a care worker and loving it | Football News | Sky Sports

At least nowadays there's plenty of media coverage about it and documentaries on prime tv involving celebs. Must've been very difficult in the early 90s when all you had really was Rain man.....
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Thanks for posting that, didn't see it before.

FootballHQ said:
Plenty who are neurodiverse (ADHD, dyslexic etc).

This got a nice reaction a few weeks ago, Ken Sema giving a rare interview as he has a stammer:

Ken Sema: Watford midfielder on becoming a role model for people with a stammer | Football News | Sky Sports
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I believe Ayling at Leeds also has a stammer.

Neil_Buchanan said:
I think they need a new word for autism, or a new set of words. It makes no sense at all to give the same label to a person being diagnosed in their 30s with a few slightly different, barely noticeable characteristics and a non verbal ten year old with the mental capacity of an 18 month year old who still wears nappies, only eats chips and cannot communicate even the simplest idea to his mother. It doesn’t do either person any favours to be labelled the same nor does it help the rest of society understand better. Calling it a spectrum simplifies it too much and doesn’t help as most people don’t even know what that actually means.
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There are different types and names for the different types and they are sometimes referred to. It is also tricky because labels in the past that have been used and still sometimes are like high/low functioning are very unhelpful because you're categorised as there is a pre-concieved notion of low intelligence etc. I don't think it is that difficult to have autism as a general term for varying degrees of spectrum and then just asking the person to communicate what that means for them. For example with non-verbal autism there are ways to communicate without speech etc.
 
DutchRed7 said:
There is not that many autistics in Football, are there?
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I think there are way more than you think. Some undiagnosed, some because they fear the verbal abuse.

Sports might be one of the areas where it's not a huge disadvantage to have autism. It might even be advantageous in some cases.
 
BEST No7 said:
Everyone knows where he comes from. Northern Ireland. Same as you.
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To be fair there's a difference in knowing the place someone comes from and understanding the place someone comes from.
 
Ramshock said:
I think we all are to some degree.
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No, either you have autism or you don't. It's like being pregnant, you can't be a little pregnant

Drizzle said:
How do you know?
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I should have said: not many of who we know

Scandi Red said:
I think there are way more than you think. Some undiagnosed, some because they fear the verbal abuse.

Sports might be one of the areas where it's not a huge disadvantage to have autism. It might even be advantageous in some cases.
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I'm not sure about that, can you elaborate?
 
DutchRed7 said:
I'm not sure about that, can you elaborate?
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You do realise that autism is measures on a spectrum? You have probably talked to several people with autism without realising it. In some cases it takes 2 seconds to notice, in others it never gets picked up. That's how broad the spectrum is.

As for why autism can be an advantage in sports: people with autism can be extremely passionate about a single subject and be willing to pursue it with an incredible intensity and dedication. They can also enjoy rigid routines. These traits are perfect if you want to become a professional athlete. It's obviously more of an advantage in individual sports but it can certainly be helpful in team sports too.
 
Scandi Red said:
You do realise that autism is measures on a spectrum? You have probably talked to several people with autism without realising it. In some cases it takes 2 seconds to notice, in others it never gets picked up. That's how broad the spectrum is.
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I'm on the spectrum and I fully agree. Nobody ever asked me if I'm on the spectrum because they can't see it. But I've met a kid/young adult who had some tics and talked in a certain way and you'll notice it right away.

Scandi Red said:
As for why autism can be an advantage in sports: people with autism can be extremely passionate about a single subject and be willing to pursue it with an incredible intensity and dedication. They can also enjoy rigid routines. These traits are perfect if you want to become a professional athlete. It's obviously more of an advantage in individual sports but it can certainly be helpful in team sports too.
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Tom Stoltman talks about the rigid routines a lot, says it helps him very much. So yeah I get what you are saying
 
Well done McClean. My respect for him just went up even further.

Hopefully more successful people on the Autism spectrum ‘come out’, and society can start understanding that given the right set of circumstances for the individual, people with Autism can be incredibly high achievers.

The drive and focus of some people with Autism when / if they find their passion is absolutely unbelievable.

I often wonder how many great inventors and forwarders of science and maths have been people with undiagnosed Autism…

A lot of the greatest achievements of the human race are certain to’ve had Autism involved in their formation but due to past attitudes it’s gone unknown - I want that to change.
 
DutchRed7 said:
No, either you have autism or you don't. It's like being pregnant, you can't be a little pregnant
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Okay thats a very binary way to look at it. You can be 3 weeks pregnant or third trimester pregnant one is more obvious than the other. My son has Aspergers but is high functioning when compared to other kids on the scale. Why does a scale exist then if everyone is the same?
 
Neil_Buchanan said:
I think they need a new word for autism, or a new set of words. It makes no sense at all to give the same label to a person being diagnosed in their 30s with a few slightly different, barely noticeable characteristics and a non verbal ten year old with the mental capacity of an 18 month year old who still wears nappies, only eats chips and cannot communicate even the simplest idea to his mother. It doesn’t do either person any favours to be labelled the same nor does it help the rest of society understand better. Calling it a spectrum simplifies it too much and doesn’t help as most people don’t even know what that actually means.
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You spoke my mind. I have a daughter who fits the exact description you have put up. It is concerning when people put up every deficiency under ASD and undermines the severity and repercussions one has to go through
 
Ramshock said:
Okay thats a very binary way to look at it. You can be 3 weeks pregnant or third trimester pregnant one is more obvious than the other. My son has Aspergers but is high functioning when compared to other kids on the scale. Why does a scale exist then if everyone is the same?
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We are talking about two different things. What you are saying is correct. I.e. your son and myself are high functioning while others with autism need more assistance. But we are autistic none the less. And lets say my dad is not autistic.
So whether you are high functioning or less high functioning, you have autism.
And you said: ' I think we all are to some degree'. And that's not true.
 
DutchRed7 said:
No, either you have autism or you don't. It's like being pregnant, you can't be a little pregnant



I should have said: not many of who we know



I'm not sure about that, can you elaborate?
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As someone who got their autism diagnosis in the past 18 months there are certain ways that someone with autism may have strengths in particular fields of interest. Our interests tend to be hyper focused and almost all consuming. So someone with autism may obsessively think about a certain interest or thing and learn a lot about it, with the negative being having little to no interest in most other things that the general person will be expected to know/learn about. In other words we tend to be specialists at certain things that we're interested in, but we'd likely have some weak areas in some things you might expect someone to know about life, general stuff, pop culture maybe, things like that.

So lets say you are someone with autism and your particular field of interest is playing football. You will likely be someone with more time studying football and thinking about it, so you might have down particular techniques, been able to copy some popular players via analysis, might be better at understanding tactics (some people with autism are especially good at recognising patterns) and so on.

But then there are the downsides which someone with autism may or may not have - communication, fatigue from working harder to fit into social situations, they may have trouble doing delicate things, balance, over or undersensitive senses - being uncomfortable with what the average person might consider a reasonable amount of background noise, light, smell, taste

And so someone with autism will likely have many strengths and weaknesses in related to playing football. They might be amazing with the ball and find space on the pitch, or make runs splitting the defence and waiting for a pass with ease identifying a tactical edge. But they might also find it harder to get along with teammates, or be on the same page and understand what those players are thinking. They might find playing at a consistent level hard due to constantly changing circumstances. They might struggle with last minute changes being asked to play when they were going to be a sub. They might find it hard interacting with fans and signing lots of photos and doing media. Many things that a footballer would just be expected to get on with. A lot of those things create more stress for someone with autism and they would likely need more down time/peace and quiet than others.
 
DutchRed7 said:
We are talking about two different things. What you are saying is correct. I.e. your son and myself are high functioning while others with autism need more assistance. But we are autistic none the less. And lets say my dad is not autistic.
So whether you are high functioning or less high functioning, you have autism.
And you said: ' I think we all are to some degree'. And that's not true.
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Autism exists on a spectrum. A spectrum that includes “normal”. Many of the traits and behaviours which are used to define a diagnosis of autism are also experienced by people that wouldn’t fulfil the criteria for a diagnosis. If, for example, they don’t cause any problems for the individual experiencing them, at work or at home. I presume that’s what he means and it’s true.
 
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