When your child can’t go to school Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is something many families in this community are living with, although it often feels like a very lonely place to be. There are lots of reasons children may find it difficult to access school. Sensory overwhelm is a big one. Classrooms can be […]
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When your child looks “fine” I want to share something that happened recently, because I think so many of us have been here. You know those moments when you share your child’s diagnosis and someone says, “But they don’t look autistic.” And it always leaves me thinking – what were you expecting? What does autism
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The reality of always being switched on I’ve been thinking a lot this week about hypervigilance. About what it does to us as parents when we are always switched on. From the outside, it can sometimes look like our children are “not listening”, or that we’re too soft, or that we’ve somehow lost control. I
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The exhausting flip side of PDA I’ve been thinking a lot this week about a side of PDA that doesn’t get talked about enough. We know about avoiding demands – but what about when our PDAers aren’t just avoiding them, they’re making them? And not just the odd request, but constant, relentless demands that can
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Not every parent is looking forward to summer Let’s have an honest conversation. Not all parents are happy or excited about the school holidays. For some, they bring dread. Panic. That rising anxiety as you wonder how you’re going to get through the next six weeks. It doesn’t matter whether your child is currently in
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When your child needs your nervous system to cope I used to joke that I couldn’t even go to the loo without a small shadow following me. But it wasn’t really funny. My child, who has a PDA profile, relied on me as their external nervous system. They needed constant engagement to feel safe. Unless
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