The language of disability can be difficult. Have you ever worried about how to refer to someone with one? Due to the anxiety that you might offend, have you, perhaps, avoided talking about it at all? I know I have. In recent post of mine ‘An apology to my autistic students’ , was received very well. In… Read More
It’s a small thing. So small. We had just returned from the shops and you were bundled up warm in your winter coat. I helped you take it off and off you skipped, into the living room. I continued to unpack the shopping and it was a few minutes before I followed you. And there… Read More
I am sorry. I am a good human being – a good teacher, I think. I listen, I learn, I strive to be better. I know it is a great responsibility to shape young minds, young opinions. I thought I knew what it means to teach a pupil with autism. But experience has given me something… Read More
I hear your voice from the other room: “Hello H. I am running about in the kitchen! I was running about and then you came!” It is the longest utterance you have addressed to your sister. In fact, I can’t ever remember you speaking directly to her in this way before. My heart swells. I… Read More
When my son was born, I wrote this: Woowar Inside your safe and dryness, storm-drenched, I’m happy. Wrapped in your sighs and smiles, all aches and shivers, I’m well. Beside your sleeping skin – soft as silk, pale as paper -Wakeful and despairing, I’m peaceful. Bound up in your absurdity, afraid and… Read More
It took time. My second child, a girl, was born in January 2015. I felt the same instant rush of love I felt with my son two years previously – the same desperate need to protect, whatever the cost. Though, I know, this doesn’t always come at first. But I would be fooling myself if… Read More