Irish national goes public with autism diagnosis – inspired by daughter

Ireland footballer James McClean has revealed he has autism. “It’s been a long road and now that I have the diagnosis it’s time to share it,” the 33-year-old wrote on an Instagram photo. He emphasized in his statement that he went public with the diagnosis to support his autistic daughter.

“As you all know, my daughter Willow-Ivy is autistic. The last four years have changed her life in wonderful ways, but also made it very difficult for me as her father as I have had to watch her overcome so many obstacles in her life and learn to deal with the challenges that she faces she faces every day,” wrote the Wigan Athletic midfielder.

McClean recognizes his daughter’s traits in himself

As he and his wife Erin learned more about autism, “we realized that in many ways I’m more like Willow than we thought. I see so many little traits in her that I see in myself,” McClean wrote. He then underwent an examination, at the end of which he was diagnosed with autism.

According to the federal association “Autismus Deutschland”, it is a complex neurological development disorder that impairs information and perception processing. About six to seven out of 1000 people are affected. Boys are about two to three times as likely as girls.

People with autism have limitations in the following three areas in particular:

• Social interaction: People with autism find it difficult to assess social and emotional cues, and they have limited ability to express feelings themselves. As a result, they often do not respond appropriately to other people’s feelings or in certain situations. Playful situations with imitative behavior (e.g. father-mother-child play) are difficult for them.
• Communication: The development of language understanding and the use of language is disturbed. Facial expressions, gestures or body language are rarely used by autistic children. Eye contact and physical contact are avoided. When spoken to or given their name, children with early childhood autism do not react or react with a delay, they seem deaf to others. Noises in the environment are often ignored.

• behaviors are stereotypical, repetitive and often limited. Tasks in everyday life for people with autism are carried out in the same routine every day and are characterized by rituals. If the process is not followed, people with autism have big problems.

If Asperger’s syndrome is an exception . There is usually no developmental delay or developmental delay in language or cognitive development. Most people with Asperger’s Syndrome have a normal general level of intelligence, which in some areas is particularly high. But they also have abnormalities, for example in social interaction.

McClean: “Shouldn’t stop her from achieving her goals and dreams”

McClean did not go into further detail in his diagnosis, but would like to draw attention to the topic. He continues, “I’ve thought about making this public for a while as I did it for Willow-Ivy to let her know I understand her and that autism won’t and shouldn’t stop her from achieving her goals.” and achieve dreams.”