Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) used to be associated with orphans in Romanian orphanages, the battered, neglected and abused children of some disturbed or addict mothers or children given up for adoption. But what if, like autism, RAD is actually a spectrum? Today, the causes of RAD are far more diverse Read the rest of this entry »
Autism expert Bernard Rimland had time for people. And he made time for me. Read the rest of this entry »
This morning I ran a bath. I then announced to my husband Chris that I could now run baths.
I’m 43.
I’ve been trying to run baths for 28 years. Read the rest of this entry »
I wrote that finding out I was autistic gave me “hope for forgiveness”. When I friend asked me what this phrase meant, Read the rest of this entry »
Fellow author, Temple Grandin, wrote and lectured much on ‘thinking in pictures’, imagining that, because a majority of high functioning people with Asperger’s did think in pictures (though many were auditory thinkers who thought in words) that, therefore, this was indicative of how ALL people with autism thought. On this basis she claimed that as ‘the woman who thinks like a cow’ that not only all autistic people think in pictures, but went further to project this predominant visual thinking style onto animals too. In fact visual thinking is the most common mode of thought for ALL people – around 60 %-65% of the population think in pictures. So how about the rest of us? Read the rest of this entry »
I was asked, if I was a religious person would I pray for someone’s autistic child that this child would become ‘reachable’.
My husband and I were driving down the road when we saw two parrots by the side of the road, one alive, one dead. We were quickly struck with sadness for the living parrot obviously mourning its partner. But the next morning, the thought was still nagging me. How the hell did we KNOW the living parrot was mourning? Read the rest of this entry »
We went to visit an old friend on the weekend. He’d be diagnosed with coeliac 12 months ago in his 50s and had been through lots of health complications (including being told to increase bran!) before finding out. Read the rest of this entry »
Donna Williams is an Australian born adult with autism who was assessed as psychotic at the age of 2 in 1965, labelled disturbed in the 1970s and diagnosed as autistic in her 20s in 1991.
She acquired functional speech in late childhood and went on to become a qualified teacher with an honors degree in Sociology and a degree in Linguistics. She is the author of two international bestselling autobiographies and has 10 published books including 4 text books widely used in autism education and two books of poetry and prose.
As a screenwriter, she wrote the screenplay to “Nobody Nowhere”, the first book in her 4 book autobiographical series. That screenplay is currently under option to become a Hollywood film. She is an professional artist, singer-songwriter and published poet as well as a world renowned public speaker on autism now living with her husband in Australia. In her presentations she draws not only on her own experiences but on international experience as a professional autism consultant since 1996.
Donna’s is a speaker in demand around the world due to her unique perspective and ability to share her feelings and experiences on a very personal level. More information about her and her life’s work can be found on her website at http://www.donnawilliams.net .