MAY 12th 2012:

SIX TALENTED CHILDREN FROM ONE FAMILY WILL SING 50 SONGS for 50 YEARS OF THE N.A.S.

Those of you who are close to me will be aware of the challenges my family and I have faced over the last 22 years.

Before I had children I was terrified I would have an autistic child!

The perceived public idea of autism is that of classical autism, where a child may be unable to communicate, incontinent, aggressive,  or unable to care for themselves at all.

Several years later and with 4 possibly 5 (those with ASD children will understand this!) children with a diagnosis along the autistic spectrum somewhere, I am pleased to say I no longer fear autism. I respect it, I face it, I challenge it. And sometimes I really do love it. The eccentricities my children have are, to be honest, sometimes very very funny.

However it can be incredibly hard work, especially when this disability can be invisible. Although there is better understanding , thanks in part to the work of people like the National Autistic Society, life is still a daily struggle in some ways. Whether it's the self restricted incredibly controlled diet of my youngest, or the language issues around my very intelligent/genius/insane teenage son; whether its the hours I spend hunting for my 17 year old autistic son who has no concept of how I am feeling and thinking when he disappears or his phone is dead! Whether it's fighting the education system to help them understand that the conforming child they have in front of them is actually suffering from sensory overload, or is so terrified of breaking the rules that they use every ounce of energy to be calm and controlled at school, only to completely let rip at home without being able to explain why. Whether its answering a constant barrage of questions from a child who just HAS to know and cannot read facial signals or comprehend that he really ought to stop! Whether it's protecting a child with such a problem with sensory integration that they burn themselves on lightbulbs and bath water without knowing and can walk around on a broken foot for a week!

Anyway, I am immesnly proud that my children have a talent in music and performing, and that this massively boosts their self esteem which gets destroyed in so many other areas.

I hope you are able to come and enjoy their performance on May 12th, and maybe get a sense of how amazing and funny and talented autistic children can be.

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