Books

So this is a B I do like.  I really do like books.  I wish I had a library (or multiple book shelves altogether somewhere) where all our books could be respectfully displayed & ordered, easily perused & picked up.  Space for the books we own already & the books yet to be acquired.  

Actually, I remember creating a library in my bedroom as a child.  Every book was categorised, each had a hand-drawn 'loan' stamp in the front, each had a location code taped to the spine & each shelf in the glass fronted cabinet was labelled.  I think I could lay my hands on one or two of those books right now. 

Like many, I love the feel & smell of a book ~ some I could literally stroke (momentarily) or bury my nose into, they feel & smell so good!  

So, given my love of books, of aesthetics, of the need to understand all things autism, it won't be a surprise to learn that our book collection is growing at a rapid rate.  With some books I simply enjoy looking at the pictures ~ these are the books that satisfy my love of aesthetics.  I'm in famous company.  Andy Warhol is quoted as saying:"

I never read, I just look at pictures."

With others I absorb the words ~ within this category are many of the books on autism & in these are numerous underlinings & notes in the margins.  At some point I'll revisit these & share highlights & musings here.  Going forward, as I finish a book, I will aim to post a review, as a memory jogger for me & in the hope it might be useful to passers by.

 For now, I have a stack of books waiting for their first page turn, waiting to be discovered & enjoyed.  These are a mix of fiction & aesthetics.  These are the ones where I want to carve out time to sit & enjoy without risk of interruption   And I have at least 3 books that are part read, 1 fictional, 2 factual ~ about autism (of course!).

The one I want to finish most urgently (& which was started most recently) was recommended to me by our CAMHS Consultant.  There's already much underlining ~ & I suspect my pencil work is as unfinished as the book ~ but I would already recommend it to anyone wanting to understand more about Pathological Demand Avoidance, or PDA.  It is:

Understanding Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome in Children / A Guide for Parents, Teachers & other Professionals

by Phil Christie, Margaret Duncan, Ruth Fidler & Zara Healy 
via Jessica Kingsley Publishers

I am reluctantly including an image (& link to the publisher ~ other retailers available) but doing so jars horrendously with my desire for appealing aesthetics, for which I can only apologise!

via Pinterest (original source unknown)

Autism Friendly Design

So, I had this light bulb moment recently about how I might bring together a life-long special interest in art & design with my new special interest in autism ~ autism friendly design.

And it turns out The National Autistic Society are running a one day conference on 1st November 2016 in Manchester on 
Autism Friendly Design.

Since autism became part of our life I've had many opportunities to observe, & experience first hand, how ill-suited many environments can be for autistic people & the very real difficulties caused by autism unfriendly environments.  Schools, shops, leisure centres, transport hubs, homes even, the list goes on.

Having literally given up the day job in 2013 to focus on the unexpected demands of family life with autism, my plan was always to return to the workplace once 'things had settled' & we'd found our 'new normal'.

After a couple of false starts, we've still not reached a 'new normal'.  But that hasn't stopped me pondering the retraining opportunities a forced career break might open up.  Could this be my chance to pursue the creative education I'd not had the confidence to pursue way back when or should I find a way to formally build on the knowledge I'm acquiring now about autism with a view to helping others - after all, demand is clearly outstripping supply in terms of diagnosis & therapeutic support whether relating to autism, sensory processing or the mental health issues that can ensue.

Then it dawned on me that there might be a way of combining the two ~ & clearly I'm not alone!

Could I, should I, am I too old, will I be taken seriously, or do I come at it from another angle, from within the autistic community?

That internal debate continues to rage so watch this space.

Pastel Stained Glass via LOVETHISPIC

Why Aesthetics & the Arts?

Alongside autism, another area of special interest for me is in a self-defined category of 'aesthetics & the arts'.

I would quickly add that I consider myself an amateur in this arena too ~ I'm certainly no expert in the arts, individually or collectively, nor am I an expert in any associated formal discipline.

But, I really do take great pleasure from pictures & words, and from music & drama, popular & otherwise.  And I can become absorbed by anything I find to be aesthetically or sensorily rewarding, from single pieces of art to images of the wider world around us, naturally occurring or designed, as seen through my own eyes or through the eyes of others.

The arts ~ art in particular & now authoring ~ have been an effective escape for me, even a refuge on occasions.  I used to lose hours to art, to writing too sometimes, to listening to music, even to creating ideas that never saw the light of day (just the bottom of a bin).  And now I stay awake far too late at night collecting aesthetics (or pictures) & words, courtesy of Pinterest ~ a visual thinker's dream social media channel, in my view, & an easy way for me to communicate what's in my head.  Whether anyone else understands my clumsy attempts at non-verbal, visualised communication is another matter but it is all in the pictures.

Interestingly, while aesthetics & the arts are my arenas for escape & expression, these subjects do link strongly back to autism.  Certain autistic traits lend themselves to creative pursuits, like:

• an ability to focus for an extraordinarily long time on one thing (if of interest!)
• a very keen eye for detail
• an idiosyncratic, sometimes advanced, vocabulary
• an ability to think differently, outside the box
• an intense alertness & awareness of surroundings 
• extreme empathy & sensitivity  

So, actually, there is a satisfying synergy & logic bringing these interests together in one place with the anticipation of exploring further in future posts.

And, you know, maybe my passion & autistic traits actually do make me a little bit more than an amateur in those specific areas of the arts that I focus on.  After all, it's a growing frustration in the autism community that autistic special interests are often dismissed as being "unhealthy obsessions" yet if non-autistics were to show similar focus, it would be regarded as dedication, commitment & expertise.

Many an autistic expert is hidden away in their bedroom ... undervalued, overlooked ... their unique skills & expertise untapped & unutilised (I may have made that word up ... if it doesn't exist, it should!). 

The Harvest by Helen Tilbury 2011

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