There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

Autism Awareness The month of April is given over to Autism Awareness Month with hundreds of activities and events taking place to raise awareness and much-needed funds for the National Autistic Society. It begins with World Autism Awareness Day celebrated on 2nd April each year that starts World Autism Acceptance Week from 2 - 8 April and aims to raise awareness, with educational events, exhibitions, social media posts and discussions, bringing people from all walks of life together. Autism Spectrum Autism is a lifelong developmental disability (or differbility as Ryan has described it) that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people.  It is also a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways.  Asperger syndrome is a form of autism and the diagnosis given to Ryan, however this term is no longer used now. Many people with autism are of average or abo

Ryan has always been a sickly child and missed a lot of school when he was being diagnosed with and treated for Glandular fever and severe anaemia. He was given some school work to been done to catch up once he was well enough so as not to fall too far behind in school. I had asked him several times about completing it and things came to a head one Wednesday when at first he tried to lie that he had done the work, but then became quite rude verbally so I asked Dadi Skilts to help me out, but Ryan was this time really rude, so Duncan turned off the PC and it became a full-blown meltdown. He punched the bedroom door enough to make his hand bleed and then took several chunks out of my kitchen table. Eventually, he cried himself out so I was then able to sit at the kitchen table and managed to talk him down, and I realised just how isolated from and scared of the world that Ryan feels and I am seriously concerned now about his total obsession with his PC/Laptop and Discord as his way of

I recently read a very interesting article in my local paper the South Wales Evening Post with the following equally interesting headline: Sad story of lonely parakeet living in Swansea's Singleton Park - where none of the other birds will make friends with it. I was immediately drawn to this story as it instantly reminded me of my Ryan. No, I don't think he looks like a parrot, as gorgeous looking like both of them are, but I do understand how isolated he feels and up till recently how lonely he has been for most of his life.  Ryan's autism has caused him to be excluded from the 'flock'. He has been the 'odd one out', desperately trying to fit in and make friends but never quite managing it. Certainly not through primary school.  Iolo's description is so nice to hear. Smart birds, really smart. Just like Ryan, but even with an exceptional IQ for his age the ability to convert that intelligence to be able to make social inclusion work for him prov

Does Ryan have Autism, or is Ryan Autistic? That is the question.  Having Autism suggests an illness, something that can be medicated or even cured. Having Autism indicates an illness or condition that has occurred during Ryan’s life or something he has caught. A friend has depression. She wasn’t born with it. It is something that has occurred and she takes medication to help manage her condition.  Dadi Skilts has Type 1 Diabetes. He wasn’t born with it; it is a condition that developed when he was 30 and he takes medication to manage his condition. Now I would not say my friend is depressive, but I would say Dadi Skilts is diabetic and I would say and do say Ryan is Autistic.  I absolutely believe Ryan was born Autistic, it is not something that developed after he was born, which is why I choose to say Ryan is Autistic.  It is part of him, part of his ‘make-up’, part of who he is just as his brown hair or blue eyes, or being right or left-handed.  The reason I say Dadi Skilts is Diabe

The aim of our blog from the start has always been to offer an insight into living with Autism and Asperger's and to help just one person on their own journey by offering support, guidance and advice. I have been, not quite bombarded, but certainly encouraged strongly to place adverts within my blog to make money from people reading our story and it got me thinking. Should we cash in on Autism? I will be the first to admit that money is tight. It always is and I am sure every single person reading my blog will relate, however setting up our blog was never intended as a way to make some extra cash, however much I sometimes may be tempted.  We want to share our story and pay it forward. I am a big believer in karma. However, I am certainly not against money-making ideas, especially those that fundraise for charities. The National Autistic Society’s excellent marketing idea of jumping on the Loom Bandwagon was genius and I have done my fair share of fundraising events to support t

BLOG NAME When Ryan and I started our blog we ran a competition to design our logo. Ryan chose the winning design and I love it. With our new logo now chosen by the lovely Ryan and during the running of our competition it got me thinking about the name of our blog and why we called it such an obscure name that has nothing obvious to do with Autism at first glance. I don’t need to give you three guesses on who chose the name.  I can’t remember the exact date that Ryan first mentioned Pandas and Bellybuttons to me, but he was around 10 or 11 years old. He woke up one morning and said to me “Hey mum, did you know there is a Panda in my Bellybutton.” I laughed and said that would make a great title for a book and he told me about a dream he had where there was a Panda living in his Bellybutton.   He had said before that he wanted to write a book about his Autism so I suggested he use that title and the rest is a wonderful history of blog posts to date and readers from across the globe. I h

It can be difficult to motivate Ryan to do tasks that he is uninterested in or doesn’t see the purpose of. Sometimes he can be motivated with a reward such as computer time or ‘down time’. Although his verbal responses are very good he finds writing very difficult and needs a lot of time to finish work as the process of thinking about what he wants to write, sending the correct message from brain, down arm to hand and then formulating correct letter pattern with pen gets very muddled and confusing.  It can also take Ryan some time to respond to a question or statement which can come across as though he is ignoring you, or daydreaming, when in fact he is taking time to process what has been said/asked of him and to formulate a response. Ryan has quite a sense of humour but doesn’t always respond as you might expect. Things he says, does or writes which we don’t generally find amusing he might or vice versa (see previous post on neologisms ) .  He can use humour at inappropriate