Louise Hearman and the Archibald Prize fail to truly capture Barry Humphries . To capture Barry Humphries you’d have to have been the 8 year old autistic child experiencing attempted rape at a party in his Barry MacKenzie heydays. Read the rest of this entry »
The ‘I am autism’ trend is narrow, ignorant and passé. The stalkers and trolls and obsessed are frankly frightening people who feel that those who don’t identify the entirety of themselves with being ‘an autistic’ (some actually feel it is a crime against THEM if anyone publicly doesn’t identify this way or address them and ‘theirs’ solely in terms of these politics). The ‘we autistics’ is so disrespectful to the entirety of any one of us by making irrelevant the vastness of what makes each of us who we are that I hope we can all get over that ignorant and passé trend too. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s a teacher in this picture, front row, fourth from the left in the red top. It’s a picture of teachers at Thornbury Primary School in 1978, and she is familiar to me. I look at the picture and I remember a hero who rescued a young autistic girl. That girl was me. Read the rest of this entry »
When I was in high school there were some girls who sought to have their dress an inch above their knickers. I remember one in my class with whom boys would engage sexually with her at the back of the class. It disrespected the learning environment because the behaviour of all involved was making it a brothel and a joke so nobody could learn in there. Read the rest of this entry »
If you think FASD is not relevant to ‘good mothers‘ of children with autism, take this in:
It has been found that no level of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. Up to 50% of women are drinking alcohol in the first weeks before they realise they are pregnant and commonly many doctors are still suggesting they can drink up to a glass of wine a day.
Binge drinking impact on father’s sperm has also been implicated in FASD.
80% of those with FASD will ultimately be diagnosed on the autism spectrum.
If the mother has no public record of her drinking, most pediatricians will never suspect and the child themselves will almost never know they have FASD.
HOW MANY TRUMANS DO WE STILL NEED?
 Things are not merely what they seem.
They can be gateways to other times, other places
Pick up an object…. yes, right now….
now close your eyes… now let your mind forget WHAT it is… tune in ONLY to its SENSORY ASPECTS, handle it, tap it, smell it, rub its surface…
what does it evoke in your memory….
where does the pure sensory experience immediately take you.
then list in the comments below:
a) what the object was
b) where the sensory experience it took you
Polly Samuel (aka 'Donna Williams') Author, artist, consultant and presenter. http://www.donnawilliams.net I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.
 Beware overcaring for it can promote Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) in a disabled child and they can self injure, self endanger, self deprive to compulsively monopolise the carer out of an pathologically exaggerated belief in their their own incapacity and vulnerability. DPD co-occurs in children who have had Separation Anxiety Disorder and Avoidant Personality Disorder. However, the compulsion of those with DPD to control the carer through progressive helplessness/loss of skills is, by far the most disabling of the three commonly co-occurring conditions. There are solutions to turning around co-occurring Dependent Personality Disorder in children deemed ‘Severely Autistic’ and where it is turned around the child will still be autistic but generally not nearly as ‘Severely Autistic’ as their Dependent Personality Disorder was presenting them to be. Â
 NARCOLEPSY
Speak not of the luxury of choice
of the choice to indulge
to decide, to rest, to sleep
for I can only dream of such things
once again devoured by invisible clouds
of sedation uninvited
like the eye of a hurricane
pulled down through the pillow
into REM sleep in the blink of an eye
sleep’s addictive call
its inarguable claim
of body, of mind
stealing wakefulness
stealing time
stealing luxury of choice
with one cast of its wand
in the clutching grip
of a hand called narcolepsy
What ways are you autistic?
My autism effected my functioning on these 14 levels: 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 .