This month’s artwork is titled ‘Starman’. Read the rest of this entry »

When I have posted information about the right to a dignified, self-determined death, I find healthy young people with Asperger’s comment from a fear of Nazi like euthanasia. Read the rest of this entry »

Wondering in your screaming functionally non verbal child is in severe pain? Remember that a simple blood test will rule out pain if the inflammatory markers are low… it is simply fact, pain=inflammation, except in non-inflammatory peripheral neuropathy – neuropathic pain associated with nerve damage. Read the rest of this entry »

My abuser claimed in a letter to me as an adult that she’s only ever ‘smacked me when I was bad’. Read the rest of this entry »

I was the doorbell… wind, wind, wind, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, wind, wind, ring…. oh shit, they’ve replaced it with a battery one… Read the rest of this entry »

All humans, ALL humans, have combinations of around 4-6 of these 16 personality traits.
All humans process information differently among these very different learning and information processing styles

… so what about the myth of neuro typicality? Read the rest of this entry »

To the Gadoodleborgers;
translators, bridgekeepers between worlds.

He spied her in a magic wood,
a sensing creature in need of none

and dreamed of how he’d join her there,
his partner she would soon become.
He lured her back to the place he knew;
a world of hierarchy and of power.

And there she then began to die,
as surely as a wilting flower.

His heart began to break inside,
he knew only one thing to give.

Return her to her sensing world,
that she might find the will to live.
And there as she began to bloom,
she saw something he’d never seen.

That he was not of that world either,
a Gadoodleborger, he had been.
That he walked between two worlds,
he now had finally understood.

And so they made their home in neither world,
at the edges of the magic wood.

The End

NOTES:

The Gadoodlborger is a term that became familiar in my book Somebody Somewhere. It denoted a person who could translate different ‘normalities’, a ‘bridgekeeper’ between different worlds. It was the highest compliment I could pay to those who understood instinctually there was no one ‘normality’ and the inherent equality in difference – what it was to be naturally and truly diversity friendly. Read the rest of this entry »

Walking in Autistic Shoes; An autism presentation and question-answer forum with author, lecturer and autism consultant Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed Read the rest of this entry »

Exposure Anxiety is an ‘Invisible Cage’ that challenges the person to either side with it and identify self with their own compulsive self protection responses. It results in compulsive and involuntary avoidance, diversion and retaliation responses. In its different modes it can be easily confused with Oppositional Defiance Disorder, prompt dependency, Dependent Personality Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder or presenting like ADHD. Read the rest of this entry »

Baloombawop, is an illustrated 51 page off the wall hilarious adventure story by Donna Williams told in Dr Seuss/Roald Dahl/ Lewis Carrol like rhyme from start to finish. It was written and performed as a children’s rock musical by Donna and The Aspinauts throughout 2009 and captivated both special needs and mainstream alike including ‘kids at heart’.

The land of Baloombawop and its crazy characters – The Gadoodleborger, Dame Grumpty Do, The Brookenstein Fox, Boogerlooger, Charlie Warmton, Bluster Mc Fluster, The Whirly Twirl Girl, The Gimmety Gimme – almost spring off the page and each can easily lend themselves to individual drama activities.

Suitable for kids of all ages and kids at heart, Baloombawop can also be used as a springboard from which to discuss difference, individuality, diversity, and society’s fears of these…. and how our different ‘normalities’ make our world so much more colourful. Read the rest of this entry »