A (very) quick but fairly jolly post to brighten your Monday. Cass-Man, our youngest has been almost totally non-verbal for his entire life - I mean he has words but frankly can't be arsed using them as there are far more interesting ways to communicate obviously. It's just way more fun to make us figure them out ourselves. Anyway as I've posted previously (the first) lockdown saw him in his element, he absolutely loved it but being stuck at home with everyone meant he was vying for attention with the entire clan so suddenly out of the blue he started using language. Lots of it. And he even has a new game he plays which, if I'm honest is top quality fun and totally and utterly grade A autistic genius. He'll run in and announce a kids TV show and network before proudly proclaiming its first date of broadcast. The trick is to guess if it's the correct date or not. A right answer gets a high five and "Well done!" from him and an incorrect answer gets a k...

 Just been asked to be part of a new user led information service for & by disabled activists & parents. You can find us on Twitter here or over at the (still under construction) website . Cheers.     

 Obviously someone is worried that Sia is gonna steal the utterly uneducated shite award this month....

   Just watched Sia's Power of Women conversation for Variety magazine and have to say it's possibly one of THE most horribly uncomfortable things I've ever sat thru. And as anyone here who reads my film blog will know I have a pretty high tolerance for crap. From the comments about the issues with using a non-verbal character:   "...There's this person who can't speak, she might as well be an inanimate object like a wig..." To making up utter shite like:   "They’re called special abilities now not special needs."   Part of me wants to think this is some massive Producers/Mel Brooks style exercise in bad taste and and some point she's gonna pop out and go "GOTCHA!" but I know that's not going to happen. Scarier still tho' was how Sia - after she announced how much respect she has for the 'autistic community' and how it would be 'cruel to talk about autistic people as if they’re not in the room reacted to criti...

So (non autistic) fright fringed songstress Sia Kate Isobelle Furler - or Sia as the kids cry her - has teamed up with (non autistic) children's writer Dallas Clayton  and decided to make a heart warming musical film quoted as being a " love letter to caregivers and People With Special Abilities" called, surprisingly enough Music. The 'plot' has Zu (Kate Hudson), a free spirit estranged from her family, who is newly sober but deals drugs, become the guardian of her half-sister, Music, a teenager with autism - loving the PFL here - played by non autistic 'actress' Maddie Ziegler - don't worry tho' as 'Ziegler told Marie Claire she watched documentaries and YouTube videos to prepare' ), after Music's grandmother dies.  Zu struggles with this new responsibility but gets assistance from a neighbor, Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.). So far so disability porn but the best (and by best I mean really offensive) bit is the fact that - gasp - the ...

Between my last post/rant and life in general it's been a fairly stressful few weeks not helped by the fact that as soon as a Covid vaccine gets announced the whole "vaccines cause autism" bollocks flares up again on t'internet quickly followed by the news that Glasgow is going to phase 4 lockdown Friday meaning that my Twitter news feed is choc full of "my child can wear a mask/I have no face and manage to wear one so you can too!" posts. And to be honest the sick, twisty feeling in my stomach means I really can't be doing with it. I remember posting previously how the whole Covid situation has made it feel like I was running on emergency battery power with absolutely no purpose or idea as to why or how I was doing anything. As I said then, I usually work from home so I'd gone from having my own space and routines to a houseful of folk all with different needs and routines that (quite rightly) come first. Yes we've been back to school an...

With all this talk about a Covid vaccine the whole MMR rubbish has reappeared on social media from those sad, deluded fools that can't do facts.   So, one last time, this doesn't cause autism.    Thank you.  

Was a really odd week last week, our school escort has been ill so I've been accompanying the brood to and from school, which in itself is fine (and quite fun) but has been kinda stressful in other ways. And by other ways I mean the way that NT planning and prep is in no way compatible with our 'unique' way of thinking. This may need a wee bit of background so bare with me. And if it gets too much just remember you're only reading this, I on the other hand lived it. So regular (?) readers with long memories - but not short fuses - may remember the various school transport related posts from a few years back (you can find them around here if you're interested), anyway since then everything has run fairly smoothly (or as smoothly as can be expected) and scarily since returning to school since lockdown was lifted - really smoothly. Taking to various drivers this is because taxi work is hard to come by and the school runs provide a steady income so to expect it to go b...