Having a grandchild on the autism spectrum

Overview

In this section you can find out about the experience of having a grandchild on the autism spectrum, by listening to people share their personal stories on film. Researchers travelled all around the UK to talk to 15 grandparents in their own homes. Find out what people said about issues such as early signs, diagnosis and rewards and challenges. We hope you find the information helpful and reassuring.

You may also be interested in our other autism sections: Life on the Autism Spectrum and Parents of children on the Autism Spectrum.

Having a grandchild on the autism spectrum - site preview

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Brenda

And how did you feel whenever you heard about his diagnosis?

Sad. [laughs] [tears in voice] I think for anybody, you know, if you see him, and know what he’s like, to actually know and read the report about, how he prefers adult contact, how he struggles to make relationships with other children, especially boys is sad, it is sad.

Janet

And then with the little girl, my granddaughter, she could see almost straight away, which was quite sad really, and people sort of think, well when you’ve gone through it with one child, it would be easier, but I think she was more devastated with the little girl because she hoped for the future for them, and it was just, knocked her for six a bit really.

And nobody really... people that she was not, not the health professionals that she deals with, but family and other people, just seemed a bit blasé about the whole thing, ‘oh well, you know, you know what to do. You know what’s going on now, you know, it should be easier this time.’

But she was just devastated because two children she had, and they both had this disability.

Bryan

I think actually, for me, anyway, and other people have a different view, but for me what I would have liked to have had is the sort of experience that you’re gathering now from other people who have been there and done that could, if you like, reassure me that my world hadn’t actually fallen completely apart and that there were compensations and good parts and as well as the disappointments that undoubtedly come. So I would have very much very much valued sharing the experiences of people who had gone there before. And I think I would have preferred that to textbooks on the subject, which tend by and large to be written from the point of view the “specialist”.

Jan

Somehow you move into a kinder bit of the world, and that’s no bad thing is it? You know, it’s sort of, it’s not a place you expected to be through this experience, but it is a place that I find myself in, that I’m quite surprised at actually how very, very nice some people have been, and certainly that event, was just very nice really that people were so supportive.

This section is based on research by The University of Oxford.

Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences logo

Funded by:
Department of Health

Publication date: February 2011
Last reviewed: April 2025