Thoughts & News

This is our page for details about some upcoming events and from time to time to share ideas or Social Stories™. Please browse our stories.

• I am having a Covid-19 vaccination1st April 2021
  Having a vaccination generates anxiety in most people. However if the purpose of a Covid-19 Vaccination is understood, people will endure momentary discomfort in order to benefit from the health benefits the vaccine brings. Armed with this knowledge people visit a vaccination centre, which may be a hospital or GP hub. It may also be a football stadium, church or other venue which has been adapted for the purpose. There they are guided through a process by helpful staff who wear tabards or lanyards identifying them as people who can help. In the vaccination area there are visual clues such …
• How can parents help prepare their autistic children for school return?4th June 2020
  Continual Uncertainty As a population we are all feeling anxious as we cope with continual uncertainty. We are in fact experiencing a taste of life on the autism spectrum, where uncertainty and unpredictability rules the day, with all information vague and ambiguous. The two things neurotypical people now crave, just like our autistic population, are accurate information and certainty of outcome, two things which are in short supply. One benefit of the pandemic may be a deeper awareness of how it may feel to experience life on the autism spectrum! We are in fact experiencing a taste of life on …
• Learning to wash hands again, carefully27th March 2020
  Adults teach young children the basic hygiene rules of washing hands from a very young age. We wash hands when they are dirty, before eating, and after using the toilet. We teach our children a reasonably thorough method that is likely to get general grubbiness and grime off, and on the whole with a few exceptions it is successful. Children and adults usually know how to wash their hands, but sometimes forget to do so. In a pandemic this is not enough. We are all required to wash our hands in a more thorough way to eliminate any trace of …
• A few thoughts on Corona Virus.19th March 2020
  Children are watching and listening to daily news reports and hearing frightening information. Everyone is rightly anxious at the moment but in our children this anxiety can spiral and become a huge problem. Adults are talking openly on the phone and to other family members in the home about the seriousness of the current escalating situation. There are a few things we can do to reduce our risk of catching the virus and also to help our children cope. Overheard comments by adults can be reduced by choosing to talk about this subject away from the child in a quiet …
• Welcome to the first post in ‘Thoughts and News’27th January 2020
  I plan to use this space to post news of upcoming events and also from time to time to share ideas or Social Stories™ that I believe may be helpful…… Now that the new school year is well under way I am being asked once again to write Social Stories™ for children on the autism spectrum around the topic of school breaktime (called ‘recess’ in the U.S.) specifically to help them join in games and to ‘be social’ and ‘make friends’. Break time is often one of the most challenging and uncomfortable periods of the day for our children. Break …