An intense debate has broken out over the rate at which autism is being diagnosed, and whether the diagnosis itself still means anything. It follows an argument by one of Britain’s most influential autism researchers that the spectrum has become too broad to be useful.
Professor Dame Uta Frith, the UCL cognitive neuroscientist, writing in the journal , says the diagnostic threshold has been lowered so far that some people now diagnosed particularly in adulthood may not be autistic at all. In 1960s Britain, roughly four in 10,000 children were diagnosed. Today, it is around one in 57 schoolchildren. She proposes splitting the spectrum into different categories.
I have been writing about autism and special educational needs for about 10 years. I am autistic myself, identified, as many women are, well into adulthood. Frith might look at me, articulate, relatively successful, happy marriage, close friends, mum of two boys, and assume I am not really autistic. But she would be wrong.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
How to age well
without pain
Will Harlow, a physiotherapist
for the over-50s and author of Independence for Life, shares
the key signs you’re ageing
badly – and what to do about it.
How to know
Ageing well is maintaining the ability to do what you want you want for as long as you want without needing help. Everyone is talking about longevity but what’s the point in living longer if the last decade is painful and you’re [totally] reliant on people?”
The signs to look out for
- The most obvious early warning sign of bad ageing is pain says Harlow.
- Another is losing confidence in doing daily tasks, which can quickly lead to a lack of independence.
- One call Harlow often receives is people calling after having a fall and struggling to get up.
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How to age without pain
Not just stopping
When people retire, they often put their feet up and stop. Your body really is use it or lose it.
Throughout our entire lives, Harlow says we need between seven and nine hours of sleep.
Social isolation
The lack of connection can increase the risk of premature death by
as much as 29 per cent.
Strength training
It really is the proxy for
overall independence.
The more muscle mass you have, the less chance of heart disease, diabetes, falls and even anxiety, depression and dementia.
The brain can be linked to muscle mass too, Harlow says. It’s not just about being able to lift things. It gives you more energy, better sleep and you’ll look and feel better.
How to age without pain
Daily habits
Do short bursts of exercise, between 30 and 60 seconds, in otherwise dead time during the day.
Stretch in bed
Take joints through a full range of motion for five minutes to loosen it before getting up.
Don’t crash diet
How to age without pain
Harlow advises 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight to stop muscle loss alongside resistance training.
Don’t wait
Harlow finds that many patients put off making a change to their lifestyle until their lives are consumed by pain.
For most people, it’s about reducing the number of times per week you’re exercising, not reducing intensity.
The three ageing tests to do
- Lie completely flat on the floor and get back up to a standing position using any technique. This should take less than 10 seconds.
See how many times you can sit on the chair and stand back up again in 30 seconds. Men should be aiming for more than 14 times and women 12.
The single-leg stand, which involves standing on one leg and balancing for 10 seconds. Everyone should be able to do that and for those under 65, Harlow asks them to do it with their eyes closed.
Despite the job market hiring fewer entry-level roles, employers are still looking for grads…
But you should be prepared to keep an open mind.
We’ve compiled the sectors hiring graduate roles, what degree is required, and what they pay.
The degrees to choose for a career
Hiring in the UK could
finally be on the up
47%
of employers offered entry-level
positions from July.
That is up nearly 15 per cent from the same period last year.
700,000
But graduate unemployment rose to six per cent in 2025 and 700,000 jobless graduates were claiming benefits.
Finance and insurance
- Around 42 per cent of UK finance and insurance employers say they will be open to graduate roles this summer.
- Business loan company Portman Finance Group has taken on 50 graduates over the past four years.
Portman graduates start on £36,000 for the two-year programme and the education you need to apply is a minimum “ABB” of A-levels, and a 2:1 or above university degree. But not in a specific subject.
Trade and logistics
What makes it particularly rewarding is that there’s always something to learn.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of trade and logistics companies will be giving graduates a go this year.
Salaries start at £30,000 with an uncapped bonus, rising to £50,000 plus a company car as a senior account partner.
Technology and IT
More than half (52 per cent) of UK tech and IT firms are actively looking for graduates.
Successful entry-level candidates can earn a basic salary of up to £35,000, with the opportunity to triple that within their first three years of working.
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Public sector, health
and social services
46 per cent of public sector, health and social services organisations are also ready to take graduates, according to a survey by Manpower.
- For example, Police Now runs a graduate programme into policing. They recruit graduates from any degree field, as long as they achieve a 2:2 or above. Starting salaries range from £31,164 to £42,210 depending on location and rising each year.
Can we treat guests without blowing our budget?
According to Waitrose, a dinner party revival is underway led by younger people trying to reduce the cost of getting together.
Always have bread
People will feast on the
ELLA RISBRIDGER, AUTHOR OF THE KITCHEN BOOK – GOOD FOOD FOR EVERY DAY
bread, and then need less fish/steak/expensive whatever. All small plates restaurants know this: this is why the first thing on the menu is always artisan bread and butter.
Use vegetables as centrepieces
Add pantry items
Graham’s recipes include a braised cabbage with a preserved lemon sauce, a roast cauliflower with saffron, and harrisa roast carrots with mango labneh.
How to host on a budget
Improve the everyday
Guests will always appreciate a stellar interpretation of the ordinary. Think lasagna or curry.
Cooking dinner for your guests is spoiling them – you’re being generous with your time, your effort, and your home. So don’t feel the need to go overboard elsewhere.
Ask for help
Ask friends to bring a contribution, be it a nibble or a pudding.
Big platter energy
[Presentation] can be the key to elevating something . Spaghetti and tomato sauce suddenly looks like a feast when tumbled on a lovely big plate, dressed with olive oil and parmesan and placed in the middle of the table.
Food writer and editor Eleanor Steafel
How to host on a budget
Taco party
Have one expensive filling, like shredded chicken, and two cheaper options, like refried beans, says Ella Risbridger.
Shop-bought ice cream is so easily zhuzhed up with the help of handy toppings, says Eleanor Steafel.
Low-effort tricks for
a cleaner house
While many Britons feel inspired to tackle their homes during summer, the warmer months can also make cleaning harder.
But Lynsey Crombie, known as the Queen of Clean, says the hotter months can increase mould, musty smells and sweaty clothes.
Here, she shares the tips and practical
hacks she lives by.
A study of 1,000 UK residents by Domestic & General revealed that almost one in 10 Brits have never cleaned their washing machine, yet it could be grubbier than the toilet seat.
Crombie says after 30 washes, use 500 grams of soda crystals on the hottest wash to clean out the drum. If there’s sludge, run a quick rinse cycle with some white vinegar.
Always make sure to leave the door and drawer ajar for 10 minutes to dry out too and avoid stale smells.
Household ingredients to use
White vinegar
This is Crombie’s go to. It can descale the kettle and taps and deodorise places in her home.
Table salt
For tough stains like red wine, rub salt into the stain, leave overnight and wash as normal.
For stubborn water marks, use half a lemon and bicarbonate of soda and leave on for 30 minutes before rinsing.
Cold water is better
You’re damaging [wooden] floor [with hot water], making it expand, stretch
and cause gaps…
During hot days, Crombie says to avoid cleaning with hot water altogether to avoid adding humidity to the home.
“Cold water is much better, and if you’re using the right floor cleaning product, it’s still going to be clean,” she says.
Hacks for a cleaner home
Three is the magic number
Wash your towels after two to three uses and make sure they dry properly in-between.
Focus on hotspots
Clean the “high traffic” areas, like the toilets, kitchen worktops and the hallway daily.
Open the windows
To keep a home fresh open the windows for 15 minutes each day – even in colder months.
Weekly habits
Do it more frequently, to cut down how long it takes
One task Crombie does weekly is her fridge. This includes a 10-minute wipe-down, focusing on the salad and vegetable tray. “If you save that job up and do it every other month, it’s going to be a very big chore.”
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Hacks for a cleaner home
Stainless steel
Crombie’s hack is one product: Barkeeper’s Friend in powder form.
The expensive products
“If you spend more money, you get the floral scents. The difference is scent, not performance.”
Ignore online advice
The biggest issue she sees is product overuse. “You don’t need half a bottle of washing up liquid to clean a surface.”
Crombie’s essentials
Four products can do do a full clean of the house.
- Antibacterial washing-up liquid: “It can clean almost anything, and any brand works.”
- : It’s pet-friendly, eco-friendly and “ticks all the boxes.”
- Cif cream cleaner: “It’s an old school product. It’s so good.”
- White vinegar: ““It’s great for washing sportswear, gym kits and is a great stain remover.”
How to keep your sex life going in a heatwave
Don’t endure it
For some people, the heat and the sun boost the production of hormones responsible for joy, pleasure and connection like serotonin and dopamine. For others, the heat causes fatigue and irritability. For them, being touched can set off an anxiety response.
GEMMA NICE [BELOW]
Don’t endure sweaty cuddles
- Long-term partners can be upfront and honest with each other and say that it’s too hot to touch right now.
- For others, break the tension by having an open and honest conversation.
- Choose dates with built-in air conditioning, like the cinema.
- Don’t ignore the issue or
power through if you’re too hot.
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How couples can manage a heatwave
Take penetrative sex off the table
It may make you feel lightheaded, tired, and can even lead to erectile dysfunction because the body is overheating.
Indulge in dirty talk instead
Because you aren’t distracted by physical movement, your focus is entirely on your partner’s voice. This can help build a massive amount of tension and sexual desire.
How couples can manage a heatwave
This syncs up your nervous systems and can trigger a deep, full-body energetic response.
Mutual play
Set up a fan and touch yourselves while looking directly into each other’s eyes, says Nice.
Strip and chill out
Just sharing the space and being close to each other can strengthen your bond.
Why you shouldn’t have
sex in the sea
- Water actually washes away
your body’s natural lubrication. - It creates friction against the delicate tissue.
- This can cause micro tears and severe irritation.
- It drastically increases the risk of getting a urinary tract infection (UTI) or a yeast infection.
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The one easy habit which keeps your
brain young
From adopting a different running route to taking up a new hobby, here are seven ways in which new experiences can dramatically alter your brain health for the better.
Why we need new experiences
A well-connected brain is more resilient to stress, illness and the effects of ageing.
Neurologist Dr Steve Allder says when we try unfamiliar things, our brain is forced to work in new ways.
Over time, this improves the brain’s ability to adapt to change and respond to challenges, helping us to preserve thinking skills and emotional balance.
Why we need new experiences
They strengthen memory formation
Regularly exposing yourself to new situations – even small ones – helps exercise your memory systems, which improves your ability to store and retrieve information.
They improve overall learning ability
Just as muscles adapt to new exercises, the brain adapts to new mental demands. As we age the brain then benefits from regular stimulation and maintains sharpness.
Why we need new experiences
Boosts dopamine
New experiences naturally stimulate dopamine, which encourages positive behaviour patterns.
Reduce cognitive decline
New experiences activate different brain regions, helping to keep more areas working.
Your brain must evaluate options, test ideas and adjust its approach.
The benefits of new experiences
Each time you adapt successfully to something new, your brain learns that change can be handled. This improves emotional flexibility, making it easier to cope with stress and unexpected events.
They also often involve other people, whether through travel or social activities. This stimulate areas of the brain
responsible for communication, empathy and understanding others’ perspectives.
Your sleep has a huge impact on your heart health
- Adults who regularly sleep fewer than seven hours are at increased risk of high blood pressure, obesity, heart attack and diabetes.
- The risk of coronary artery disease is 45 per cent higher in adults with short sleep durations at night.
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The bedtime habits that reduce risk
Keep daytime naps to less than 20 minutes and aim for seven to eight hours sleep per night.
Wind down
A reasonable 20-30 minute bedtime routine can include reading, light stretching, and meditation.
Time your exercise
Vigorous exercise within three hours of bedtime can cause insomnia.
The bedroom environment
Sleeping in a bedroom with bright overhead light has been associated with a higher risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack (47 per cent higher risk), stroke (28 per cent) and heart failure.
Darken the room with blackout blinds or an eye mask, avoid blue light and leave your mobile phone outside your bedroom.
The bedtime habits that reduce risk
Food and drink
Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and large evening meals can all disrupt sleep quality.
Know your numbers
If your blood pressure at bedtime is consistently high, consider discussing medication with your GP.
Beware of snoring
Sleep-disordered breathing is linked with cardiovascular conditions, so it could be time for a GP evaluation.
The honest truth is that I find describing my autism (and ADHD) hard. How am I meant to know how my sensory experience differs from yours? I would like a brain transplant for a day, just to try a neurotypical one out. What I have noticed is how much I have in common with my neurodivergent peers, and with my children: the literal thinking, the anxiety, the limited social battery, the stress of noisy places, interrupting too much, not being able to stop my brain pinging about. Ping ping ping.
Obviously, I don’t expect a few sentences from me to settle either of Frith’s claims. But I do think we need to find a way to have the conversation about diagnosis rates, which is uncomfortable for the autistic community but not going away.
So, while I disagree profoundly with Frith on both counts, I wanted to know what parents in other situations made of it. I spoke to three mothers of autistic children, one of whom is autistic herself. Their lives and challenges are in some cases radically different from mine. Does it make sense that their children and I share a diagnosis? Should there be a way of distinguishing between someone like me and a child like theirs?
Joanna Richardson is 44 and works part-time in retail in Dumfries and Galloway. Her son Gabriel is five: non-verbal, with a cerebral visual impairment, severe global developmental delay and suspected epilepsy. He cannot be left alone. He is also, she says, the only child at his nursery who worked out that the fire alarm release at wheelchair height would open the internal door. “He’s a really intelligent boy that’s not made for this world.”
I asked her whether there should be a way of distinguishing between someone like me and someone like her son. Her first instinct is that there should. “People don’t understand how someone with autism who has a job, who goes to school, is the same as someone like my son,” she says. “On a piece of paper, I don’t know if a person reading it understands my son’s needs by just seeing the word autism.”
And yet, pressed on whether a separate category, “complex autism”, say, would actually help him, she hesitates. “This is a million-dollar question,” she says. “I would hope in a medical setting and in a school setting, yes.” Then she stops, and wonders whether it could lead to professionals underestimating him. “Would they then make the assumption that he doesn’t need support, when he actually does? He’s five years old. I have no idea what he’s going to be like in 20 years’ time.”
Laura Brown has no such hesitation. She is 37 and runs her own social media management and training company. Her son Ethan turns seven in October. Diagnosed as autistic just after his third birthday, he also has a working diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech; he is non-speaking as a result. He communicates through an AAC device, a tablet-style aid that speaks aloud the words he selects, and through Makaton, a system of signs used alongside speech. He attends a specialist school and understands everything said to him.
“I disagree entirely that autism has become too broad, and I hate the idea of the introduction of terms such as ‘severe’ or ‘profound’ autism,” she says. “These would be very damaging, and they wouldn’t result in the extra support that many parents are hoping for. I foresee the total opposite.”
Brown, who was herself diagnosed autistic a year after her son, says she has “witnessed professionals giving up on him from the word go”: holiday clubs that turn him away, research studies that exclude him. New categories, she believes, would compound it all.
She uses high, medium and low support needs to describe her son. But she hates the assumption that non-speaking means not understanding. “It is incredibly dangerous, and could hugely harm his potential.”
Jane (not her real name) has a 12-year-old son in London who was identified earlier this year. His difficulties are almost entirely social, she says, and mostly confined to school. “If you’re on a bench, he’d push up to you too hard and annoy the other person,” she says. “And when they got annoyed, he wouldn’t know when to stop.”
A decade ago he would most likely have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association abolished it, along with the other autism subtypes, and folded them all into a single autism spectrum disorder, precisely because the subtypes had proved unreliable.
When I asked Jane if she would prefer her son to be known as Asperger’s, she rejected the idea of labelling at all. “I don’t really think we should be labelling children with any of it,” she says. “At the end of the day, it’s him. Not everything about him is autistic, is it? It’s just a part.”
She is equally unconvinced that subdividing would help. “I’m not sure it’s going to benefit a child by saying you’re this level, or you’re the worst level.”
Dr Jenna Vyas-Lee, a clinical psychologist and clinic director at Kove Minds, which assesses and supports neurodivergent children, says people don’t always understand what the spectrum means. “People often imagine autism as a spectrum that runs from ‘less’ to ‘more’ autistic,” she says. “After working with hundreds of children and families, I find it much more helpful to think of autism as a colour wheel. Two children may share the same diagnosis but present completely differently.”
I feel strongly that being autistic is part of what makes me me, and that you can’t be mildly or severely autistic any more than you can be mildly or severely gay. And Frith’s suggestion that some late-identified cases may not be autistic does not take sufficient account of who those late-identified people tend to be. A significant proportion are women and people of colour. There is a clear reason for that: the criteria for identifying autistic people were built out of research on white boys.
I hope in time this debate becomes less polarised, and less stressful. My two boys are growing up knowing they are neurodivergent, and knowing what that means in both directions: that it presents challenges in some areas (not because of their brains, but because the world has been built for non-neurodivergent people), and that there are things they are brilliant at. What I want for them is a precise idea of both. I want them to be proudly neurodivergent. But most of all, I want it not to be a thing: no need to debate it, or to defend it. It’s just part of what makes them brilliant.