Living with Autism

So it is World Autism Awareness Day and here I am without a blog post.

I am feeling very autism aware as Grace decided last night that she needed a Letterland phonics Video which has been out of production for about 15 years. So I had a small girl stomping her feet saying "I want AAY, BEE, CEE, PURPLE, VIDEO" and then putting on her hat and coat and demanding to sit in the car until 2am.
Today, when we were all a bit calmer, I helped her to make this sentence using google images:


so we were able to work out exactly what video she wants and where it is - School! 

which doesn't reopen for another 2 weeks. Ebay it is then.


Autism Awareness for me is about making everybody else in the world aware that we exist, we are here to stay and you better get used to us. It's a chance for family, friends and acquaintances to catch up and realise that their sister/brother/son/daughter needs them to be aware of autism and perhaps be a bit more supportive. It is about being accepting…

In the next few days I am going to write a long article about Niamh Cadogan. At the moment it hurts too much to think about it for too long. I have been looking at her emails she sent me, which included a lot of photos and this one just made me smile. I think we were both trying to get Liam to look at the camera and say "cheese" and he just kept on saying "Camembert" in his deep teenage voice and playing with the iPad.



This was the day she came to Dublin with the Munster Lions Club for the judging of the All Ireland Lions Club Youth Ambassador. I brought her 2 props; one was my giant "iFoam" with the Grace App on it and the other was Liam, my 14 year old son who sat and played with the iPad while Niamh and I chatted to William from the Lions club and her mum Jean.

While I adore and cherish both my autistic children; if I ever get a bit of time off I have to confess that the very last thing I want to do is meet other people's autistic children.
(forgi…

22nd June 1994 - 19th March 2012

Guest post from my lovely friend Taz who used to blog at tazzymania about her experience with adopting twice! and how her lovely little boy Button; just happens to also have autism. Taz is the epitome of Love Stretches - her love for her kids goes twice around the world; and I believe she is planning to go again.




Taz and I agree on how us Autism Mammies tend to have a little touch of the bug ourselves. And we think it is a power for good. She kindly agreed to do the Dr Simon Baron Cohen tests online - to assess ones Empathy, Systemizing and Autism potential. Or as I like to call it, "Whether you should choose the furniture in the flat-pack store, or assemble it" I will disclose my scores at the end. Thanks so much Taz. I am so proud to know you. xx





"Before I get started on this blog, I feel you should know something about me. I love tests! Not
exams, but tests. The ones where the results don’t really matter. In my teenage years the first page
I turned to in my Jackie or J…

Dear Sir
I would like to offer to write a detailed response to the Examiner'sFeelgood article of 3rd February which was published with respect to the role of the author as a "parenting expert' and the subsequent editorial response which said that he had a right to an "opinion."
(click on the highlighted words and you will go straight to whatever link I am referring to)
As the first article clearly set out to influence through the authors noted 'expertise' and made reference to a soon to be published book; I think it is only fair to give a right of detailed reply to someone who has spent 14 years studying autism parenting first hand, who has written thousands of words on the topic of day to day life with autism and who has made it their lifes work to give people with autism the ability to communicate independently.
I am talking about myself of course. As the creator of the Grace App for autism- a means by which a person with a speech disability can communi…

So where have I been lately?


Orlando, Florida actually for a Assistive Tech Conference which brought together companies from around the world to discuss and show off all forms of assistive technology for special needs and disabilities.




I took this at the hotel next to mine - on a rare walk around the grounds. I'm told that practically all waterways have 'gators and they are happy enough to leave us alone if we leave them alone. Apparently walking a small dog will get their attention. Which is okay as long as you can run faster than your small dog I guess....


Here I am being a girly swot in the front row of my friend Barbara's presentation at 8 am on Saturday morning. (can you imagine an Irish trade show starting at 8am?!)

Barbara has her own App company called Smarty Ears, and as a professional speech therapist almost all of her Apps hit the spot for us; both for articulation but also for language therapy. They also have built in recording and data can be shared via em…

Growing Up Geek: Steven Troughton-SmithOriginally posted by John Turi on engadget, Dec 23rd 
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have a special guest:programmer, app designer, artist and geek, Steven Troughton-Smith. I was born to be an artist. I was always the kind of kid that doodled when bored in class; I used to spend hours creating the most intricate symmetrical robots or plotting maps for world domination. Somewhere along the way I realized that the thing I really wanted to design was software, and I'd really have to learn to start programming to be able to make what I saw in my head exist.

As a child of four I was exposed for the first time to a computer -- a Macintosh IIsi. When I wasn't playing SimCity 2000 or Spelunx, I was dabbling in Photoshop 3.0. I was fascinated by the Mac and would spend hours learning all the intricacies of how it w…