I was reflecting recently on how much my adult children with autism have achieved. When they were younger I worried about their futures. I needn’t have, they are amazing young adults who have achieved so much. This made me think about how lives are like rivers, weaving their own unique landscapes.
I thought as it is Autism Awareness Month, I would share with you a poem written by one of my autistic daughters. All my children exhibit high anxiety (as is common in autism), but I think this poem highlights the level to which their anxiety impacts them on a daily basis. Autistic people like me…
I have mentioned in a previous blog the amount of stress parents face when parenting a child with Autism, but it is not just the parents who can suffer stress. Siblings also can feel the effects of having a brother or sister with Autism. Siblings can feel a whole range of emotions. They may go…
Platypus is a specialist training and consultancy organisation based in Bristol, our training provides a unique blend of research based knowledge and more importantly, lived experience. Whilst I have a MA in Autism and am a qualified Trainer writing and delivering courses for over 12 years, it has been my children that have taught me…
Parenting Children with Autism is Stressful! Research has confirmed what we already know about parenting a child with Autism. It is stressful. In fact the research suggests that parenting a child with Autism is more stressful than parenting children with other disabilities such as Downs Syndrome. Cashin (2004) describes Autism as a vortex that consumes…
Now this may not seem like a big deal. Surely, it’s not that serious? Well, maybe some days it wouldn’t be. But some days it is. As I collected my daughter’s clothes for school that morning from the utility room I noticed that her blue T-Shirt wasn’t there. My heart sank. Tuesdays was a blue…