Donald Rumsfeld famously stated that there are “ Unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know” which accurately described my feelings 3 and a bit years ago – the only thing I was sure about was that I knew nothing about what was coming and couldn’t even begin to form the...
T is for Terminology
I’ve said several times now that you learn a lot on the Autism journey. There are a lot of new phrases and terms related to autism that we have heard for the first time, but which now play a significant role in our lives. Victoria only has a diagnosis of Autism but it is...
S is for Stimming
I’ve said before that you learn a lot on this journey and “stimming” is another thing I’d never heard of 3 years ago but is just part of our vocabulary these days. Stimming is the repeated and unusual movements and sounds people with autism make to cope with emotional and overwhelming situations. And when...
R is for Routine
Routine can be important. Doing things in a certain order and a particular way are sometimes crucial. Building a house or defusing a bomb probably wouldn’t go to plan if you didn’t do things step by step! But the resulting fallout from a mistaken change in routine would be nothing compared to what we...
Q is for Questions
You ask yourself a lot of questions as a parent. Most are based around the simple question “am I doing this right?”. And when you’re sitting in A&E with your young daughter (see M is for Meltdowns) you naturally call that into question! Once you get a diagnosis of something like autism then the...
P is for Paddy and Christine McGuinness
I’ve read and watched a lot about autism over the past few years. The internet is full of information and there are many documentaries, TED Talks and other programmes on the subject. But the programme that followed the lives of Paddy and Christine McGuinness which aired shortly before Christmas really struck a chord with...
O is for Obsession
“I’m a bit OCD”. It’s a phrase we hear people say all the time. They’re not of course, because you can be a “little bit OCD” any more than you can be a “little bit autistic”. There are degrees of severity of the symptoms but you either have it or you don’t. It’s not...
N is for Normal
The English language is a funny old thing. If anyone has gone through phonics with their kids you will know that children learn to read words through the sounds the letters make. Every word sounds exactly as it is spelt, except for those that don’t, and those you “just have to know”. To make...
M is for Meltdowns
We’ve probably all been there. Doing the weekly shop and you see a kid having the mother of all tantrums. Sitting on the floor in the middle of aisle 6… shouting and screaming… refusing to do as they are told whilst a frantic parent desperately tries to reason with them, hoping they will stop...
L is for Learning
I’ve touched on this several times throughout these posts that a person with autism interacts with the world in a different way to other people. Their senses are heightened or suppressed, the way they process information differs and so the way they learn is different too. We quickly realised that Victoria struggles with spoken...