TV review: Channel 5 showcases learning difficulty
May 27, 2025
Dr Claire Taylor from Are you Autistic? (c) Channel 5
Exposure’s autistic author, Max Ferreira reviews new documentary exploring how young people like him experience everyday life
Two years ago I watched BBC Two’s Inside our Autistic Mind with Chris Packham and his team creating short films based on the lives of young people with autism.
Recently I found a new TV programme on Channel 5 about a GP (general practitioner) addressing the symptoms of autism and analysing how the learning difficulty makes each individual different from each other. It’s called Are you Autistic?.
Aired in April 2025, Are you Autistic? shows Dr Claire Taylor diving into what it’s like to be autistic. It features young people sharing their experiences with the special need and showcasing key features that make each of them special in their own way.
What I like is how Dr Claire Taylor gets a good insight into how the young people she interviewed go through everyday challenges, e.g. socialising, stimming (self-stimulatory behaviour) and sensitivity.
Every young person with autism is different from each other in terms of their behaviour and abilities
Claire does not have autism but what she’s discovered in the documentary is updated information that was not highlighted 20 years ago when she became a GP. For example, people thought young autistic people had obvious high care needs or were geniuses with super brains. Now it’s clear this isn’t the case.
This means every young person with autism is different from each other in terms of their behaviour and abilities. Those who don’t have Asperger’s syndrome or severe autism may have been misdiagnosed into something outside autism, like eating disorders, anxiety or mental health issues.
This is why we have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a gauge which measures low to high functions that characterise individual behaviour and abilities within the condition.
The most fascinating part in the documentary is where Clare goes to the ToddlerLab at Birkbeck, University of London. It’s a modern research facility testing young babies and toddlers to check if they may have symptoms of autism.
Compared to BBC Two’s Inside Our Autistic Mind, Are you Autistic? showcases an informative and eye-opening approach to help everyone understand the learning condition, with Claire Taylor picking up new information, like how some people with autism have a good sense of hearing or interpret what they see differently.
I found the documentary encouraging, resourceful and a very useful tool to raise awareness of autism
As there’s an increasing number of young people in the UK waiting for an autism diagnosis by the NHS, Claire stated, “Autism is not an illness like many would go to your GP for. It is a condition with a huge spectrum that covers a diverse range of people in different ways. So it’s not always easy to spot the signs.”
But with the right support and guidance, upon getting an official diagnosis, we can achieve anything in life.
Overall, I found the documentary encouraging, resourceful and a very useful tool to raise awareness of autism. It really gives us a good understanding how young autistic people, like myself, growing up with the lifelong learning difficulty and overcoming everyday challenges. So I really recommend checking it out.
You can watch Are you Autistic? on Channel 5.
