A year ago Emma’s mum, Jo, says she was withdrawn, happy spending hours watching DVDs and didn’t want to leave the house. Emma has never had much speech and the impact of autism has often made life challenging. Emma also has Down Syndrome and hearing loss.
Jo had to go back in time to a time and an activity that she remembered gave Emma joy. She experimented and bought a shredder. Emma now has a business – Master Shredder - with 4 business clients including a credit union and solictors’ offices. She can now see a reason to communicate and is wanting to go out on her own and with friends.
Do any of these feel familiar?
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The person I know has limited communication
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It’s hard to tell what they are interested in, or their interests seem very limiting
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Nobody seems to be able to ‘see past the behaviour’
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The person I know seems de-motivated and stuck
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Words like “They’re no walk in the park” sound very familiar!
Hi Libby and Donna,
Wanted to provide feedback on the Too hard basket webinar. I always need to take a little time to reflect and absorb. Firstly fantastic presenters very thought provoking.Great work mediator, as I knew you would Donna.
What was most helpful to me both as a parent and CA Coordinator is making me think again about strengths, passions and finding out how, i.e, to not focusing on why not. My daughter BTW is blind, in a wheelchair with limited spoken language but is a great communicator and loves music as well as a very loving personality. So my job is to tap into her many strengths and pass on my beliefs/ dreams for her to others. Had a recent hullabaloo about her being perceived as adult not child when her bedroom was painted lolly pink.(in a non ironic way). the subtext “shes blind so who cares” was palpable. Small battles for a real life. Thank you to speakers I look forward to transcript. My apologies I cant recall speakers names.Love to speak to you Donna as many CAs ask after you. Libby has my email. mob is 0424187974. Deb M x