It was fantastic that so many bloggers joined in with last month’s SEND linky; there has indeed been a lot to cover over this period. World Autism Awareness Day/Week/Month following shortly after World Down’s Syndrome Day, along with the screening of a new TV drama on BBC1 called The A Word, has led to a huge increase in blog posts. The lovely Anne from Raisie Bay set up a Blog Hop this month so that we could all share posts on autism in the hope that they would reach a wider audience. You can find it in her post Living with the A Word. I’d love to see this Blog Hop become a regular monthly thing as I think there’s great value in sharing as many of our stories as possible.
The A Word has been a huge point of discussion over the last few weeks, with many blog posts covering different angles and opinions as to whether it is hitting the mark or not. Parenting By Numbers was mulling it over before the series even started and I stayed up late after the second episode to blog my thoughts on the experiences which rang true for me, in The A Word Part 2: True to Life?. It has made many of us revisit those times around diagnosis – Diary of an Imperfect Mum remembers all the questions and excuses before diagnosis in My battle over the A word and Life with ASD and the Rest talks about social isolation and education in her review of episode 2. Meanwhile, My Asparagus Girl looks at the Mum and identifies with her in her post The A Word – The Mum.
Following on from Down’s Syndrome Awareness Day, Nancy and Laura make the brilliant point together that every day should be odd socks day. Down in Front Please advises that ‘With great power comes great responsibility‘ – this is such a powerful post, I urge you all to go and read it and share it widely.
Stories About Autism gave us 20 things you need to know on World Autism Awareness Day as we were reminded that acceptance and understanding need to follow closely on the heels of awareness. I saw a variety of views on the idea of turning blue for autism awareness; Raising the Rainbows gave us hers in Don’t Light it up Blue and I also covered it in my post Are you a neutral kind of person? One of my favourite posts ever about autism came from Missy B when she made the point of asking for understanding of individuals in Autism… Not just for April, and Diary of an Imperfect Mum shares the positive presentation on what autism means for her son in ‘Autism is…‘. Awareness month seems to be a time for reflection; I’ve been reliving the early days of my blog in posts such as Autism, The A-Word and the Future (written after our girl’s diagnosis of autism at the age of 2) and A blog about raising my autistic son looks back at the assessment process and difficulties there in Unexpected Battle.
Rainbows are too Beautiful asks for stories of how you broached the subject of autism with your children in It’s Time to Tell Him and Our Inclusive Home talks about the challenges of undiagnosed children (SWAN) in Slipping Through the Cracks. There were a couple of posts linked up about Pathological Demand Avoidance; Riko’s Blog gave us Tips for Parenting your PDA child and Life with ASD and the rest talked about The Guilt of not coping with my Son’s Demand Avoidance. Awareness Day for PDA is coming up next month so do look out for that, anyone who would like more information!
In the meantime, please do link up below any great posts you write this month if you’d like them to be considered for inclusion next month.
About Steph Curtis
Steph Curtis is mum to two girls and blogs at Steph’s Two Girls. She started blogging over six years ago after her youngest daughter Sasha was given a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (also called ASD or Autism). A buyer of toys and stationery in her pre-children life, Steph has now become a Trainer to help all parents of children with disabilities find support and information. Although ASD was the original diagnosis for Sasha, it is believed that she actually has a specific type of autism known as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Steph is keen to raise awareness of this condition and runs courses for parents to help with strategies for everyday life. Steph is on Twitter as @stephc007 and is a huge Facebook and Instagram fan.
An imperfect mum (Catie)
Wednesday 27th of April 2016
Another fabulous review Steph. Thanks for including me!
Inclusive Home
Tuesday 26th of April 2016
Loads of posts this month! Hopefully I'll get a chance to sit down with a cuppa and read through them this afternoon while the wee one is at nursery :) Thank you so much for including my post on Undiagnosed Children's Day (coming up this Friday!)! V