Talking About Autism: Identity and Community

Recently I have become very aware of autism as an identity rather than a disorder. From speaking with autistic people and reading their blogs, taking note of the rejection of person-first terminology ("a person with autism") and the preference for identity-first wording ("an autistic person"); the posts listing "that autistic feeling when..."; the visual stim...

Our Easter Holidays

The school Easter holidays are nearly over and as usual I don't know where the time has gone. We went to the park, we went to town for new school shoes (Tom's only half a size smaller than me now!), we went to the cinema to see The Boss Baby, we went to the dental...

Talking About Autism: Autism Awareness (aka When You Think You’re Aware But You’re Not)

Today (April 2nd) is World Autism Awareness Day. The entire month of April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism blogs are already awash with articles on the awareness/acceptance argument, the evils of Autism Speaks, the tokenism of one day out of 365 and one month out of twelve for building awareness and the pointlessness of blue light...