Sometimes I just want to shake the world.

Why do you have to be so black and white?

Why do you wear blinkers?

What happened to your patience and understanding?

What happened to you being able to help?

Where is all the grey and colour gone?

Why do you put everything in boxes?

Is it because a square is safe?

What is wrong with a circle or triangle?

Can you delight in difference or

Could you weather challenge to

your traditions and your blinkered normality?

World, why so right and wrong?

If I could close my eyes and imagine a world,

It would be colorfully filled with unimagined shapes

Joining together to communicate,

Acknowledge,

Help.

To be,

Different and

To love it all with abandon.

By Tara

Written 20 August 2014 

A teachers gentle communication of a problem

When my daughter started school she wasn't diagnosed.  I told the Principal she was outside of the box (meaning she was different) and he was happy to accept that.  Her first teacher accepted her just as she was.  The class was small in numbers, quiet, roomy and positive.   My daughter was happy to go to school.  Most weeks we got some positive feedback.  Slowly, the feedback seemed to be about her writing.  The teacher told us how my daughter wrote the most extraordinary stories.  They were outside of the box.  My daughter would also include the most detailed, pictures.  As a family we experienced success at school in the form of positive feedback from the teacher.  As parents we felt confident that the teacher valued our daughter.  She could see her special talents.

Towards the end of the year, while walking towards the staffroom, the teacher gently said "I think your daughter may have Autism".   "Thank you, Yes, we now think that too, we will go ahead and get a diagnosis, do you know how?" We felt supported because all year the teacher had been feeding back to us positives.  The news that our daughter may have Autism was well received because of the relationship we already had with the teacher who clearly accepted our daughter and saw her strengths.

Tara O'Neill