Living with Autism

Every year around the start of the cold damp weather, I have a drawer that keeps sticking. It's in a tall boy I keep in the attic, very close to the skylight so I guess on one of the many times I forget to close the skylight, some moisture gets in and warps the timber a bit.







This year it was my sweater drawer. At first, I just tried to yank it out with force. I brace my foot against the base of the unit and force it out with two hands,jiggling it until it gives. Then i tried a quick fix with a bit of candle wax rubbed along the draw runners and more yanking. When this became impossible so I got around it by pulling out all the sweaters one by one and put tights in there. Then I could just open it and then pull the tights out of the small opening. Of course it eventually reached the point where I didn't know what was in there and I kept running out of clean tights. Not useful. I went back to force.
Eventually, after falling on my back one day with the drawer still f…

From the Excellent Prosperity.ie Blog Originally Published as an Ezine on  8/12/2010  Written By Elaine Larkin
An iPhone app developed in Ireland has been awarded a WSA World Summit Mobile Content Award this week in Abu Dhabi.
Lisa Domican, a mother of two children with autism, travelled halfway across the world to collect the award for the Grace App for Autism which was recognised alongside apps like he Guardian, Marks & Spencer and Angry Birds.


Organised by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) in Salzburg, the World Summit Award Mobile is a global initiative within the framework of, and in cooperation with, the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in collaboration with UNESCO, UNIDO and UN GAID. The WSA-mobile is the only ICT event worldwide, which reaches the mobile community in over 160 countries and is able to promote the best mobile content and innovative applications out of this huge selection.

Developed by well-known app developer Steve Tro…

Video produced by Stansilav Miller for the World Summit Mobile Awards 2010

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…