Young autistic people today are handling this all far better than you ever have and ever will, it has been claimed.

Ever since accepting that you are no longer young, you have noticed the startling trend in various little cousins, neighbours and friends’ children, who seem to be navigating autistic adolescence with a measure of grace instead of clawing through their early teens like a nervous mess.

Full-time tweenager Anand Trivedi, 12, said: “Going to therapy has really put these 12 long years into perspective. Maybe you should try saying ‘no’ more often. I can lend you a book about it.”

“If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything,” said your cousin Mac, 14. “That’s why I sold my Switch 2 to focus on my activism. I’d hate to have gotten to this age without any principles.”

Secondary school teacher Pippa Durham, 41, commented: “Parents nowadays treat their children a bit more like people. We’re working as hard as we can to try and hamper their self-esteem, but young people are more informed and more resilient than ever, and it’s getting harder to convince them that they lack inherent worth.”

“You’re not imagining it: they are just better than you.”

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