It’s a common phenomenon for many of us with children on the spectrum – those pesky fine and gross motor skills, with a dash of scattered sequencing and a dollop of mis-matched motivation – a recipe for disaster if ever I heard one.

They come to the fore every mealtime to taunt and tangle with us. Although we persevere with cutlery my children insist that everything is finger food. Let’s be honest here, how many other parents, cooks and nutritionists also have to factor in ‘splash, spill and ping,’ distance into their calculations?

But they keep getting bigger, so something must be reaching their intestines, one way or another. Just lately, it’s ‘another,’ because although they don’t conform to the conventional, they’re nothing if not inventive.  

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I think I’m a good mother, but I have more moments than I ever wish to admit where a meltdown of all that is holding me together occurs.  I don’t know why.  From playing a more-or-less single mom for 1 ½ months with the same time to go? The pressure?  The insurmountable number of aIl I have to do in order to balance family and self?  Or just what’s on the family list?  Or am I selfish for wanting, for needing a “self” list?   More Here...

I have an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) yet I consider myself very fortunate that I have had little need to access any support services. Had it been possible to have received a diagnosis as a child perhaps I would have had support and my life may have been different. Whether it would have been any better I can't say, I like my life and I have no complaints. However there are many people on the spectrum whose autism is a serious impairment to living a full and productive life around half of whom it would appear are not well served by support services. When I say "around half" that is a guess because without accurate recording of people with autism, their requirements and provision of services we really don't know how inadequate the provision is. We do know from a recent survey by NAS Scotland that 48% rated their overall experience of services to help them with their autism as either poor or very poor and that a third of people have had to go to a tribunal to get the right support. The same survey found that 95% of people believe it is necessary to create a legal duty on local authorities and health boards.   More Here...

I’m going to speak about some of the symptoms in this post, mentioned on sites such as the National Autistic Society (UK) and if/how I’ve experienced them. It’s about time I got around to doing some more posts…I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with computers and such.

Anyway, it’s time I got on to it.

“difficulty understanding gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice”

As such, I haven’t had too much of a problem with facial expressions. Sometimes I get them mixed up and try very hard to determine what people are thinking or feeling like from the look on their face but get it wrong – though this is very rare and I usually have no difficulty at all with processing facial expressions.

Tone of voice is more of a problem with me than facial expressions and hand gestures. I will find it hard to determine if you are being sarcastic or not, joking…or being serious. It can be difficult at times, but it’s usually not a problem with me.   More Here...

For those of you who do not have a child with autism, ask yourself "what would I do if my child was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder"?  Most of you would seek treatment - as soon as possible.  Most of you would want the best and most effective, scientifically-proven method of treatment for your child.  And some of you would seek alternative treatments - any means of possibly "curing" your child of this disorder. A disorder so few people know anything about.


But most of you would find out that ANY treatment for autism is very expensive, difficult to obtain and not covered by insurance companies.  More Here...