For a long time I didn’t really understand what the big deal was about being with other people. Yes, they could be funny, kind and interesting. But frankly, as far as I was concerned, I was already all of those things for myself. The other people bit, especially when there was more than one, justContinue reading “Communal Space as an autistic person or: What’s the big deal about other people?”
Tag Archives: autism
Autistic Nuances; A personal perspective
This month I wanted to write something a little different.April is a month of ‘Autism Awareness’ campaigns; the good, the bad and theconfusingly misguided. I am fully behind those who call for this month to beabout acceptance not awareness. I hope celebration will follow, and then, oneday, maybe our society and culture will function inContinue reading “Autistic Nuances; A personal perspective”
Playful Communication Part 3: Wordplay
Previously I’ve written about the importance of recognising and valuing different forms of communication and the need for us to allow for expressive as well as functional communication. In this piece I’m going to take a specific look at language as a form of expressive communication and in particular what this can look like inContinue reading “Playful Communication Part 3: Wordplay”
Play Diary: Wanted kids and missing flamingos
It was a quiet chilly day at the playground and I’d been chatting with a fellow playworker about what to do with an underused and in-the-way wooden leaflet stand. I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired and was mostly coming up with overly complex ideas involving a box of wool I’d uncovered and been a bit desperateContinue reading “Play Diary: Wanted kids and missing flamingos”
Creating inclusive play spaces: a place to start
If one hundred people wrote a guide to creating inclusive play spaces the result would be one hundred different guides. That’s no bad thing, they could be a hundred fantastic and useful guides filled with innovative and creative ideas, but, “inclusive” is not a fixed state. And as it is informed by multiple ever changingContinue reading “Creating inclusive play spaces: a place to start”
Playful Communication #2: Permission
In play work we talk a lot about permission and in my role I definitely spend a lot of time giving it. Sometimes it’s something simple, just a “yes, you can use that” or “yes, you can climb that’. Sometimes it’s a more complicated “yes if” or maybe a “tell me more….” Sometimes children aren’tContinue reading “Playful Communication #2: Permission”
Let me process my sensory processing
content warning: this post contains discussion of mental health and has self harm mentions I’m a sensitive guy When I say I’m Sensitive, I really mean it, in its most literal sense. Certain noises make me flinch and squirm, certain lights make me nauseous, and food is a textural minefield. Wagon wheels (a biscuit withContinue reading “Let me process my sensory processing”
Play Diary: Telling Stories
I know a child who speaks in headlines and snippets from stories of mischief and chaos. He mixes characters, plot points and slapstick action with highlights from days in his life. Though it may sound like a random collage it’s never outside of a certain rationality; rules and facts of life drawn from the workingsContinue reading “Play Diary: Telling Stories”
Playful Communication: the joys of the ‘non-functioning’
“Communication is about our ability to share our lives with other people” Working in play, particularly in disability and additional needs settings, has blown open my understanding of what communication is. The quote above from therapist and author Phoebe Caldwell is, to me, is the best explanation of where I’veContinue reading “Playful Communication: the joys of the ‘non-functioning’”
Play Radical 