Guest blog from Jodie Isitt
It started late on night, you know those nights when
everyone is asleep but you daren't close your eyes because as soon as you do
someone WILL wake up screaming. Life as a carer for three autistic children was
busy and oh so tiring, but in those days I was surviving on a couple of hours
sleep a night and pushing my body daily to meet the caring needs of my children
whilst attending hundreds of appointments a year! Was this it? Was I destined
to be a carer for my children all of my life? Would I spend my days researching
new conditions, learning sen law and attending umpteen IEP meetings a month? I
loved working, I have been a career girl all my life, starting out in catering
and following the birth of my children becoming the accounts manager in my
family building business. I was good at it. I enjoyed it. I love learning new
things. Unfortunately due to the extensive health needs of my family and
becoming increasingly unwell myself through exhaustion and stress I had to stop
working. It was too much. It consumed me. To be honest if I had been employed
by anyone other than my own family business I wouldn’t have lasted that long at
all. Pretty sure I had become unemployable due to the time I needed to take off
work just to simply attend meetings and see the children’s psychologists. It
was a full time job and one that paid lousy! Carers allowance was something like
£62.00 and I was working over 300 hours per week! Okay okay there aren’t 300
hours in a week, but when you’re a parent of three autistic children and a
disabled fiancée there sure as hell needs to be because I was fitting in 300
hours of stuff in a week that only has 168 hours. Parents like myself are
saving the government thousands with their caring - but alas that’s another
post for another day way in the future. So there I was, tossing and turning
unable to switch off and in that instant when everything was quiet just the
soft sound of the trees blowing in the wind, my daughters 18 bubble lamps and
youtube ocean music playing on repeat I had a brainwave. For months I had been
on-line actively advocating for people to learn more about autism, speaking to
adults, trying to make them understand, hell even some family members didn’t
quite ‘get-it’ Advocating for understanding and acceptance and I realised that
when I was a child I was NEVER taught about disabilities. Disabled people
scared me, unnerved me, and made me anxious. I didn’t know what they were
thinking, were they violent, why were they behaving in this unsociable manner?
What was wrong with them? It wasn’t until I had my children that I fully
understood disabilities as a whole and teaching myself everything I needed to
know about them I could finally accept them for who they were. We don’t need to
teach adults about autism, or disabilities or neurological conditions. We NEED
to start teaching children. Thats where it will count. Incorporating awareness
into their daily routine would be invaluable for generations to come. Creating
the most understanding, diverse, accepting and kind individuals of the future
would change the lives of millions of disabled people and what better way to do
that than through storytelling using the most cutest and relatable of
characters. A journey through mainstream school, using my daughter Lola as
inspiration I developed the next children’s book series designed to help
children understand and accept differences in the classroom. Drawing on her own
experiences and her own difficulties I have written four children books using a
Badger as one of Lola’s trusted friends to give the children the tools they
need in order to be a kind and helpful friend to someone less like themselves
without compromising their own wellbeing in the process. The books were
primarily designed and written for children who don’t have neurological
condition, a social story for the ‘normal’ child some might say, however
following the amazing reviews and feedback from hundreds of customers its clear
to me that they are more than that. They are a double whammy! They are not only
helping children understand and accept other children. They are helping
children understand and accept themselves. One child’s mum reports that she
wore her ear defenders to school for the first time in months and was proud to
be like Lola Rabbit. Another describes her child wanting to dress up, spending
ages choosing an outfit complete with hair bow to look exactly like her. Some children
have opened to their parents and admitted they felt like Lola, lonely and
scared of the noise. Giving parents the opportunity to finally realise what
kinds of things they were struggling with in the school environment. I am so
excited about this project, and I cannot wait to release the second book -
Lola’s wobbly lunch time where Lola gets very stressed out during lunch time
and has a breakdown in the lunch hall describing the smells and sounds and the
extreme busyness of the lunch hall dev
Additionally and because I'm not 'professional' I asked
expert speech pathologist Molly Dresner and Occupational Therapist Lucy Bates
to contribute in the book and they have done amazing job at explaining the
difficulties and giving teachers and parents ideas on how to help children
should they present like Lola Rabbit. This is a very unique addition to
children's books and I am super proud and honoured to be able to bring these
books to schools and homes near you!
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