Monday, November 26, 2007

Donna Williams YouTube - art

Click on the link below to view a YouTube video ('powerpoint' presentation) by Donna exploring the breadth of her beautiful artworks, incorporating photos of herself as a child, all accompanied by a piece of her inspiring music, sung with, what I call, a crystaline and angelic voice. She trully is a talented lady.
View her YouTube video "From Autism To Artism" here

Donna Williams YouTube video - siblings

In this YouTube video, Donna covers some of the issues surrounding the relationships between a child with autism and their sibling/s. Incorporated, in this video, are examples of her beautiful art works.
Watch Donna's video "Autism Has A Wider Context" here

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Rory Hoy's YouTube video - "AUTISM AND ME"

On researching YouTube recently, I came across a delightful young English lad, who has made his own short video about his personal perspective of what autism means for him and how he sees the world.
A lovely video for those interested in autism and, especially those young people who have autism and would like to hear another person with autism speak about their experiences and thoughts.
Watch Rory's video here

Monday, November 5, 2007

Joel Smith

Joel has a great website called "This Way Of Life", on which he discusses many things surrounding living with autism, himself, and information for parents/persons wishing to know more about autism. It is a very pleasant site to navigate and read.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Donna Williams

Donna Williams is an accomplished artist, author, composer and screenwriter. Here, Donna displays some of her beautiful art works and other sections discuss her experience of having autism and her accomplishments in the other fields mentioned.
I came across her site when searching for art works produced by people with autism. Her art pieces touch your soul.
Refer to link (right)

Dr.Temple Grandin

Dr. Temple Grandin (Ph.D) is a very accomplished writer/author and has appeared on many major television shows. She is an amazing lady.
Apart from all the wonderful information on her site, when you click on the ">article" tab, Dr. Grandin discusses "Autism - The Way I See It", you can read about her insights into Autism from her personal perspective.
Refer to the link (right).

Frank Klein

To view Frank's website, click on the link (right), then click on "Autistic Advocacy", description - "A repository of pro-autistic articles, editorials and humour by Frank Klein".

Personal stories via the U.K.

The National Autistic Society of the U.K. has a section of it's site dedicated to the personal stories of people with Autism/Aspergers. By clicking on the link (right), you'll be taken directly to this particular section.

The Mind Within

By clicking on the above title in the links list (right), you will be able to read about the thoughts, perspectives and personal stories of the author of this wonderfully colourful web site. Included are exquisite pieces of art work by the author and links to their other web sites.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A personal perspective


There is a plethora of information, regarding the diagnosis, therapies, opinions, beliefs, causes, and so on, surrounding autism. So much so, that it can be very daunting for parents who have newly discovered a diagnosis of autism for their children.

I don't believe that persons with autism should be 'cured'. I believe we as loving parents and carers can work 'with' our kids and provide them with the quality of care and education, love and support that they (as with all children) need to enjoy quality of life (just as we hope for ourselves).

Celebrating achievements, progressive milestones, honouring their rights as valued human beings, helping overcome difficulties, 'walking along side them' and , especially, 'hearing' their 'voice' and listening to their wants and desires, are some of the things I perceive as being imperitive to loving and living alongside our babes (children), friends and other persons who have autism.
I am a devoted mother of three children, one son who has autism. Many other family members have autism, diagnosed and undiagnosed, too. Throughout the years of this experience, combined with the experiences of working with children with autism, I have learnt many things. One of the most important things I learnt was that we cannot presume to force 'normality' upon our children (with autism). To deny them their real selves; to quash their intrinsic selves and try to redesign them, finding a 'cure' (not a word in my vocabulary) and demanding they conform to our ways of thinking and behaviour, to me is disrespectful. Assisting the person with autism to live a quality, happy and meaningful life (for them) according to their 'design' and not ours, to me, is paramount.
As I get time, I hope to post links to the many interesting and real personal stories from people with autism. An important part of learning about autism, I feel, is to listen to these stories; hear the voices from their heart and soul.

Friday, October 19, 2007

.....what I hope to achieve.....

This blog is a re-birth of my original blog of a similar name. My intention, as this one grows, is to provide interesting and informative links, posts and input from and regarding real life accounts from persons with autism, via web site links and graciously offered stories and information, again from persons with autism who wish to share their stories and experiences. The purpose of such is to help mum's, dad's, carer's, grandparents (and others who are genuinely interested) in learning and understanding more about the real feelings, thoughts, experiences, achievements and hopes of persons with autism.
Though my areas of 'expertise' are as described to the right of this post, and I am a mum of 3 gorgeous (yes, I am biased) children, 1 who has autism, and other family members with autism, I maintain that the real 'experts' regarding autism are the many wonderful souls I know, and the ones I don't as yet know, with autism.
So many, whether they be the specialists, therapists and others involved in working with or diagnosing persons with autism, I can't help but feel are on the 'outside - looking in'.
Just as I am constantly learning, as I read a growing number of beautifully insightful 'personal stories of autism', I hope that such real life stories can be a source of greater understanding, support and enlightenment for those who don't have autism and wish to learn more.
Many such stories can be full of humour, descriptions of successes, awsome talents, beauty, sadness, happiness, trials and tribulations, life's passions and pains (and so on...), but above all are the real voices of autism.
I am also hoping to help, in my own small way, increase the opportunities for persons with autism to have their 'voice' heard and touch the heart and soul of others, as mine has been.