Living with Autism

I will save the thought provoking essay for a time when my eyes are not threatening to go on strike
but instead I will share with you the few photos I managed to take while on my annual trip home to Aus.


Singapore Zoo, 1/1/2010
My attempts at Zebra Therapy continue:

We arrived at the zoo at 5:30pm after Boo declined to leave our hotel room any sooner. So missed the normal days entry but a lovely girl in the help desk let us in for free for a look around before the "Night Safari: started at 7pm.
We had such a good time going around in the empty zoo, that by the time 7pm arrived we were ready to go home. Highlights of the evening? A giant snail making its way towards an exotic plant by the light of the lanterns, some kind of tree shrew that was hopping around on the WRONG side of the enclosure which freaked me out entirely. And an impromptu dip in the waterplay area by Boo, surrounded by off duty ponies from the petting zoo.
Absolutely poured rain at times but it all added to the tropic…

In this post, I am going to try and explain why some of our kids have trouble getting dressed in the morning and staying dressed all day - or adapting their clothes and shoes to suit the weather or the occasion.

This is not an issue that affects everyone with autism, like the big bugbears of Toileting and Sleep it can be a dividing line between those that do and those that don't have a problem.

But when it is an issue it can be incredibly stressful. Often it is one of the earliest signs of the sensory distortion of autism, and one of the first battles that parents get themselves into with their kids.

Like it or not we are judged by the way we look. We are also judged as parents by the way our children look.

We used to go to a community child care centre where a mix of kids would attend and the director had started a clothing bank.
As well as the usual back up for toileting accidents, she would collect jumpers for the cold days when some of the kids arrived in just t-shirts, and sh…

Just watched this movie with my niece and nephews in Australia. That's right, we all sat in the living room and watched a film together. And it was lovely.

This - from The Sydney Morning Herald:

"Elliot based the film partly on his own life. For 20 years he has corresponded with a New York man who has Asperger's syndrome. In the movie, this is Max Jerry Horovitz, a 44-year-old Jewish man (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman) who weighs 150 kilograms and lives on chocolate hot dogs. Elliot is now 37 so he must have been about 17 when the pen-pal relationship began. In the movie, his alter ego is a lonely eight-year-old girl, Mary Daisy Dinkle ........."

Look it up and rent it. xx

Wagamama, South King Street Dublin 2



From my earliest days of attending support groups, I remember quite clearly the lament of the family with typical children and a child with autism: "we can't take him/her anywhere!" Anywhere meaning The Christmas Panto', The Cinema, and those hideously over priced and under serviced "theme" restaurants where the waiters dress like the characters in American Sitcoms, but treat you like prisoners of war.



I'm afraid the complaints got little sympathy from me.



And I gotta say, I am frankly astounded at the willingness of some people to eat badly prepared food in dirty restaurants with bad service;



And to queue and pay extortionately for the pleasure??!!



The only benefit to this exercise in my eyes, seemed to be that Mother did not have to Clear Up and Do Dishes after the meal.



Unfortunately the restaurant staff didn't seem to like doing this either,

(as evidenced by food left on tables and stuck to the bottom of plat…

After the most manic of weeks - we got on the plane to Amsterdam at 6am on Saturday morning, had a smooth flight and changeover at Schiphol and arrived here in Singapore at 6am Sunday, local time.

Boo and I are chilling in The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Changhi - and we even found some time to go check out the Zoo on this rather fine and sunny day.

The hotel is on the edge of Terminal 3 so we are actually heading down now to check in our suitcase (this lady only brings one) and then come back up here to the hotel room to chill a bit more before boarding at 11pm. Very civilised.

Then it's up to the front of the plane! for a points awarded business class sector to Melbourne. Looking forward to that!

I am missing my Bratty and Mr H - very keenly as we didnt get much quality time in the week before we took off. But also looking forward to seeing my sisters and their families in the morning.

Sometimes it is very tough to be living with my heart in two places.....

xx

Grace - RTÉ News Six One from Steven Troughton-Smith on Vimeo.


Grace - Picture Exchange from Steven Troughton-Smith on Vimeo.

Steven Troughton-Smith

Original Artwork by Mary Moroney, edited by me on Picnik.com

App features developed by Grace, interpreted and created by Steven Troughton-Smith

Project supported by O2 Corporate Responsibility - thanks Sinead!