Living with Autism

Receiving a World Summit Award - Mobile for m-Learning & Education from Dr Peter Bruck  at the Gala event in Abu Dhabi 6th December 201

My Fellow winners from right to left (I am in the Arab World!) The Team from BBC Janala - Bangladesh, Sophie from Tickle Tap Apps - Canada,   Dr Peter Bruck from WSA with yours truly giving a speech, The Boys from Drona - India who are behind Dr Peter and Shadi from Hesabi (which means "My Math" in Arabic) from our host country, United Arab Emirates.  Rather than competitors my fellow winners turned out to be extremely encouraging and supportive and very very good company for the last 5 days. Thank you WSA for choosing Grace App and giving me the chance to be here.

and now, it's time to come home. xx

Found out that someoneelse is using "Extreme Parenthood" as a theme for Special Needs Parents finding their power. So I'm gonna go back to an old favourite - Using your special powers.

Like all super heroes you have to go through turmoil to find your true awesomeness as a special needs parent. But when you do, you can wear your all in one Lycra jumpsuit with pride.

Here is a summary of how to get there. Ripped off from my own, "12 steps" with abbreviation to 5 in the spirit of my own favourite power - impatience!

I will list my own 5 powers of awesomeness at the end. I want you to comment and add yours.



Step One: Admitting you are powerless

The first, is to admit, to allow yourself to believe that nothing you did caused your child's diagnosis to happen. That you had no power to stop it.
My other take is to do the opposite to step one.
REALISE your own power. Once you get through dealing with the shock and have time to adjust your expectations, you have the …

I am not a psychologist or behavioural specialist or a Psychiatrist.
(I'm not Elmo either but he is here for a reason)





So, I am not going to talk about the triad of impairments or assessment scales etc etc.




What I can tell you is that Autism is a sensory disability in which everything a person sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells is distorted.



They may see every strand of hair on your head individually with more detail than a dandruff commercial, hence the need to push your hair off your face.

They may taste food in individual components that make the slightest change to the recipe seem like an entirely different food.


Touch can be too light to feel or too intense to bear, or both!

And sound most unfortunately can be very distorted, either because they hear everything and cannot tune in to what’s important, ie. your voice, or because they only hear the higher sounds or the lower sounds that are in their environment.


There are a myriad of variations on these “Unders and Overs” a…

Irish iPhone app “Grace App”, conceived and created by Lisa Domican, a mother of two children with autism, and developed by Steve Troughton-Smith ; with the support of O2 Telefonica, will be awarded the United Nations World Summit – Mobile Award for e-Learning and Education. Grace App chosen was chosen by a jury from the best mobile contents and applications out of over 400 nominations from nearly 100 countries.
The World Summit Award Mobile (WSA-Mobile) is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best in mobile content and innovative applications within the frame work of the United Nations.
The Grand Jury of 20 internationally recognized experts selected the global winners from over 400 nominations from nearly 100 countries.
“The Jury members hail from all continents and they worked to award visible great m-content, no matter whether it originated from,” explains WSA Chairman Prof. Peter A.Bruck. “The World Summit Awards therefore represent what is top on the global plane…

Yep, Grace App was  joint winner of the Best Mobile Application – Sponsored by O2  Of course - I couldn't even have entered without the magical work of Developer  Steve Troughton-Smith
That's me, along with the lovely Vinnie Coyne with his winning Eirtext app and my   Made in Hollywood Giant iPhone 4
(yep, my mascara was smudged. They were calling me Halle Berry afterwards)
It was an excellent night and I would like to thank all the organisers and generous sponsors,
And Mr Damien Mulley. 

Big thanks to the host Rick O'Shea who was very supportive when I was dissolving into buckets of tears waiting to do my speech, AND he gave a little shout out afterwards to get everyone to donate their lanyards from the Most Excellent Goody Bags!

The lanyards are used to make shoulder straps for iPhones to be used with Grace App
A big thanks to everyone who sent their congratulations via Text, Facebook and Twitter - I was really quite tickled.
The Mansion House is an excellent venue - the ba…