Last week we visited a garden centre near us, and as we were looking around, Penguin stopped at the owl doorstops pictured in the photo below. He looked across at me to make sure he had my attention, and then he said “ow” (which for a guy who doesn’t talk, is a pretty good approximation … More The Ability To Use Words Does Not Equal Communication Skills
Last weekend went to have a look around a showroom for sofas and armchairs, as our current sofa is well and truly worn out. Penguin sits down very heavily on it, and that has taken its toll. As we were looking around the shop, trying a few different sofas out for comfort, a sales person … More He’s got the look…
It’s only been about 18 months since I first started listening to podcasts regularly (yes, I was late to the party). Actually, it was being invited as guest onto the ‘Let’s Talk Autism’ podcast that prompted me to listen to more podcasts, and I was soon hooked. I find it very handy to be able … More 8 Great Autism Podcasts!
In this post I will talk about what it means to be autistic with learning disability (a.k.a. general learning disability, intellectual disability, or intellectual impairment). I’m not a medical professional, and I’m not autistic myself – I’m ‘just a mum‘ of an autistic 15 year-old boy. So this post will be based on what I’ve … More Autistic With Learning Disability Or Intellectual Disability – What Does It Mean?
I don’t usually add trigger warnings to my posts, but I feel it might be appropriate here to start off by letting you know that this post will be kind of heavy, and will mention child loss. Not us, we’re fine. But others sadly are not… A few days ago I learnt that the young … More This Life (And What To Do With It)
This post is about some important aspects of learning to use high tech AAC (such as an AAC app on iPad, or similar). I’m ‘just’ a mum, not a speech and language therapist, but we’ve been on a journey of learning AAC for a good few years now, and I have learnt a lot along … More 5 Important Things To Know About Learning To Use AAC!
Over the past few days, most of my time and energy has been taken up by tidying and cleaning our house. We had a person coming round for ‘inspection’ of the house we’re renting, on Friday afternoon, and although it’s the house being inspected rather than our general tidyness, I wanted it to be nice … More How Is Your Functioning…?
This is a picture of something Penguin created in a drawing app on his iPad last night. He was laying down, scribbling away on the screen, with a contented smile on his face, looking like he was very pleased with his project. At first glance it might look like a random mess of scribbles, and … More Differently Abled..? A Story About Letters, Literacy, And Being Nonverbal In Two Languages.
How much do you know about our senses? Most people are very familiar with the five senses that helps us process information about the world around us: Our sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell (a.k.a. the visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory senses). Then there’s the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, which are both to do … More Interoception: The Lesser Known But Oh So Important Sensory System
Disclosure: This post is about a book that we’ve been gifted a copy of, for the purpose of this review. What I share below are my own honest thoughts about the book, and our experience of the activities we’ve tried so far. Last week saw the release of a fab new book called ‘100 ways … More Book Review + Giveaway: ‘100 Ways Your Child Can Learn Through Play’
Sensational Learning with Penguin 