30 Nov

Posted at 11:53h in Uncategorized by
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A little while ago, Hendrix, Summer, and I moved ourselves to South Africa. We bought a small holding with 12.5 hectares with the dream of creating Earth Rock Village. The aim is to create a healing village, where you can come and complete longer-term assessments of need, learn strategies, grow, and connect to yourself and your child. Talk Autism are working in partnership with a quantum healer and her partner who is a self-taught chef. All three of us were significantly impacted by the events of the last three years. We have all shared a vision to help people to...

27 Oct

Posted at 12:57h in Uncategorized by
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The giant and the gremlin   Sometimes I feel like a giant. I feel safe and secure and strong. Sometimes I feel like a gremlin, like I could sleep the whole day long. The giant is my hero, my fighter, my guide. The gremlin is all that I fear deep down on the inside. The days that I feel like the gremlin, I may cry; throw my toys and scream. I don’t like feeling like the gremlin. He makes others think that I’m mean. The days that I feel like the gremlin I can hide and keep myself inside. I don’t like feeling like the gremlin, it...

22 Jul

Posted at 18:12h in Uncategorized by
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I know reflection occurs for most in December but working with schools switches my reflection time to July and so here it is! Hendrix and I have got to the end of another very busy year and as of August 1st we will officially be two years old! 2020 has been a year of the twos for us. Hendrix turned two in March, he moved in with me two years ago in July, and now Let's Talk Autism turns two next month! I’ve always had an interest in numbers and their meaning so I decided to look at what two means to...

03 Jun

Posted at 16:18h in Uncategorized by
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Many of my clients find grounding to be a vital and necessary skill. Many of my clients don't know how to ground or even why they need to. Grounding is a word that is more commonly used these days in many circles but we do need to explore the rationale and reasoning behind this technique and why it is so important to teach, especially in this current climate of Covid-19. One definition of grounding is that we have a basic overall awareness of a subject. School and education grounds us in many different subjects. We come away with an overall...

11 Dec

Posted at 12:13h in Uncategorized by
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I have been a special needs sibling now for thirty years. My brother has complex learning disabilities, self-injurious behaviour and a rigidity that could be mistaken for rigour mortise! With Christmas just around the corner I wanted to share one of my stories of the festive season. Christmas is a time when we are supposed to celebrate, rejoice and create happy family memories. For many this is the case and at times I am envious of the feeling of joy that people portray and experience; in what appears to be such an easy and natural fashion. Christmas was often a hit or miss experience for me and the family growing...

10 Nov

Posted at 10:11h in Uncategorized by
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Its been a while since I last had the urge to write anything. The last few months I’ve found myself needing to take some of my own advice and rest, recuperate and reflect on my own needs for a while. This has been relatively tricky for me as I am so used to being on the go and active in the care of my schools, clients and families. Despite this, it has been a necessary pause and after a few months of doing absolutely nothing with my time, I am finally understanding of why I needed this time. Therapist’s are notorious for taking on the issues...

29 Sep

Posted at 08:09h in Uncategorized by
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There has been an awful lot of hate in the media lately. Hate directed towards a young lady with Asperger’s who has the tenacity and bravery to talk openly about her beliefs and passions to save the Earth. I’m no scientist. No environmentalist and so I don’t really know what to say or think about climate change and so I won’t say anything until I am better informed on that subject! I am however a professional experienced in supporting autistic people and I am appalled by some of the comments I have seen posted about this incredibly brave and strong young lady who is technically still a child....

29 Aug

Posted at 18:31h in Uncategorized by
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I have worked and lived with autism and learning disability for over 30 years. In all that time, society has continued to work towards finding a solution to the problems associated with these diagnoses. We find ways to normalise the person with the label, help them change elements of their behaviour and activity to fit in with society and education. Yet still diagnoses rates continue to rise, still there is a stigma attached to the label and support services our children access. A recent article that popped up from the telegraph commented that within ten years we won’t be able to...

29 Aug

Posted at 18:01h in Uncategorized by
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We have been super busy this school year and have now finished our adolescent training classes ensuring that Hendrix will sit, stay, walk nicely and not jump up on everyone when he sees them. We are still working on the jumping but so far, he is doing very well! So well in fact that I took him recently into a special school with me for the day. It was AMAZING! I work as part of a small team of Speech and Language Therapists within a special school and from the moment the team arrived in school, Hendrix started his day. He fussed over our signing lady who has...

29 Aug

Posted at 18:00h in Uncategorized by
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In July 2019 I took three days out of my busy schedule, booked a hotel and sent Hendrix to stay with his dog sitting family to attend a conference delivered by Humanima CIC in the beautiful countryside of Staffordshire. I have to admit, I was a little miffed to start with that I couldn’t take Hendrix along with me for the experience. I’d even found a dog friendly hotel to stay at! Otherwise I was super excited to learn more about how animals can be used to support clients meeting therapy objectives. We were a small group of about 9 and on arrival I was greeted by...