Welcome to the Attention Deficit Disorder Expert Podcast series by Attitude Magazine.

I'm Carol Fleck, and on behalf of the Attitude team, I'm delighted to welcome you to today's ADHD

expert's presentation titled

Autism in Midlife and Beyond, what research tells us today.

Leading today's presentation is Dr. Gavin Stewart.

Dr. Stewart is a senior postdoc research fellow at King's College in London.

His research focuses on the life experiences of autistic people at midlife and beyond, and his work underscores the importance of

developing effective resources for this underserved population. Our understanding of autism has evolved considerably over the last 50 years,

so much so that many autistic adults who were overlooked or misdiagnosed in childhood are finally

pursuing a proper evaluation and diagnosis. But even as our understanding has grown,

we still know very little about the unique needs, supports, and challenges of autistic people in midlife and at older ages.

In this webinar, we'll explain the latest research findings and approaches to help autistic adults improve their well-being as they age. So without further ado,

I'm so pleased to welcome Dr. Gavin Stewart. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you very much for inviting me. Great. So good afternoon, everyone. As Carol mentioned,

I'm Gavin Sturt, and I'm a research fellow at King's College London in the UK.

Today I'll be talking to you all about the cognitive health and social experiences of autistic people in midlife and older age.

And when put together, this information will help us get closer to answering the question,

what happens to autistic people when they grow old?

Before I begin, I want to say that I'm not a clinician, I'm an academic researcher.

However, my research does have a strong clinical focus,

and I work with many clinical colleagues to conduct my research.

So in my talk today, I'll start off with a brief introduction to autism and then I'll move on to talk about autism in the context of aging.

...