World Autism Day 2014

World Autism Day is Wednesday 2^nd April 2014. Each year it is recognised with events around the country.

One of the biggest events is Light It Up Blue.

"Light It Up Blue" is a global campaign that sees thousands of iconic landmarks, cities and towns around the world turn blue on April 2 to recognise World Autism Awareness Day. The campaign highlights the pressing need for greater public education and awareness of autism in our community.

Each state is celebrating the day by lighting their most celebrated monuments with blue light.

If you’re in Sydney, head to the Harbour to see what this year’s blue surprise will be.  In other states, your capital city will light up your buildings blue on the night of April 2nd, too. If you are in regional areas, check with your local council or health centre to see what is happening locally.

In Melbourne this year, World Autism Day will also be celebrated on Saturday 6^th April at Luna Park where families will be given private access to the funfair between 9 and 11am.

The park promises:

• Reduced sound
• Reduced lighting effects
• Understanding staff
• Quiet area available
• Ability to stop rides if needed
• Closed to the public

We think this is a great idea and would love to see the concept spread around the country.

It is not too late to hold your own Light It Up Blue event but you need to register quickly. Light your home or office up blue, or wear blue clothes to work.

If you’d like to make a donation to show your support please click here to go to the donation site.

Easter Toy Ideas

Easter is approaching and your kids probably think they’re in with a good chance of a week-long diet consisting of chocolate and hot cross buns and not much else.

It’s terribly easy to purchase more chocolate than intended, particularly if you inadvertently get caught up in the idea of Easter Egg hunts and the giving of Easter themed chocolates as gifts.

Rather than the gift of chocolate, and the likelihood of the overeating of chocolate, there are plenty of other ideas for kids that are much healthier, rely on the use of their imagination and creativity or are just fun to play with for months after all the chocolate is consumed.

Packs of crayons, pencils or textas and Easter themed colouring books featuring rabbits, lambs and chicks are great for creative kids.

If they’re more into craft and love doing things with their hands, then do-it-yourself kits to make rabbits and chicks is a great alternative to the all the confectionary available. Whether this involves cutting and pasting, sewing or fine motor work with beads and threads is up to you.

An Easter hat craft kit is a perfect gift for crafty kids. They can even put on a fashion parade for you afterwards.

Stuffed toys, particularly those with highly textured fur or that feature a variety of textures over its surface are great, and can often make a long term beloved toy for your child, providing them with something that helps them to feel calm and safe.

Smaller items, which could readily replace an Easter Egg Hunt are small, egg shaped music shakers, which fit neatly in the palm of a child’s hand, make a great sound when shaken and still work with the Easter theme.

Play things such as the Sylvanian Families characters and play sets are great for fine motor play, imagination and creating stories, and feature many of the creatures we associate with Easter.

Toys make Easter last longer than a long weekend, and provide experiences and memories for years. They’re a healthier alternative to chocolate on many levels, and a good option to include, as it’s always far too easy to overindulge in the chocolate, even if you don’t intend to.

On Sale!

Who doesn’t love sales? We certainly do!

We have a huge range of goodies on sale now so take a look at them… while they are still in stock!

Carrot Skipping Rope - An ordinary rope, you would say…but no, it is not! Unlike many other ropes, this one has convenient handles, shaped in the form of a carrot and a bunny. Each handle is 7cm x 4cm, designed to be convenient for little hands. This skipping rope is 1.8m long, which is a great size and we can say without doubt that your child will love it!

Little Hands Card Holder - This great and certainly innovative item will make card games fun again! If your little partner struggled to hold their cards in fan shape with one hand, they can be sure that the Little Hands Card Holder will solve this problem. No more card dropping and ruined games!

What I Wish I Knew Before I Became A Mother - Sisters Peace Mitchell and Katy Garner undertook this writing project in order to prepare other women for this wonderful but a bit scary period of their life. The book deals with all the major topics related to pregnancy, birth and the period after it, and can be considered an invaluable preparation for the big event.

Party Hop Potato Sack Game - Some games never grow old! One of them is the Party Hop Potato Sack Game. You must remember it from the times when you were a child – when playing outdoors was something much more preferable than sitting in front of the TV. Now you can change your kids’ thinking with the help of this Party Hop Potato Sack Game, which consists of 6 woollen hopping sacks that will give much joy to your kids and will turn the family picnic in a fun Hop Potato Race.

Deluxe Pound A Peg - This great game is exactly what your toddler needs in order to properly develop their motor and colour recognition skills. The happy smiling pegs in different colours go up and down and the player will have to pound them with the sturdy mallet included in the set. A great tool to keep your toddler engaged in something that will not only give them pleasure, but will also develop their skills!

You will be glad you had a chance to browse the current range of gifts on sale and you will probably find that many of them will bring back memories of your own childhood.  Items like potato sack races, skipping ropes and pound a peg toys never go out of style.

Sensory Play Ideas

We all know the benefits of sensory play for processing and stimulation as well as both fine and gross motor development and skills. However, coming up with fun new ways to keep stimulating your little one’s senses can be overwhelming and tricky.

Sand play is always fabulous, and you can vary this up by using other items, like rice, for example.

As a great bedtime and relaxation play idea, try Lavender Rice which provides stimulation for little fingers, as well as colour and a calming aroma that also aids in relaxation and sleep.

·         Place 2 cups of uncooked rice in a plastic bag or large mixing bowl

·         In a small bowl, mix a few drops of red and blue food colouring to create purple

·         Pour the colouring into the rice

·         Add a few drops of lavender essential oil or lavender flowers

·         Mix ingredients well

·         Spread rice across a shallow baking dish and leave overnight to dry

Play dough is another great tool, and aside from making your own, there are variations of this product that provide different textures and strengths for varied stimulation.

Ice Cream Dough

·         ½ cup of cheap hair conditioner

·         1½ cups of cornflour

·         Mix well

·         Optional: divide up and add a drop or two of food colouring to each portion for a variety of colours

Mud Dough

·         In a mixing bowl or sensory play tray, add 1 cup water and 1 cup of vegetable oil

·         Add dry dirt and mix well. It’s a good idea to add a bit at a time and mix well to determine if you need more

·         If needed, add a little corn flour to remove moisture

Rainbow sensory balloons are another great idea, and fun for the kids (and maybe a bit of stress relief for you!).

·         Grab a rainbow coloured selection of water balloons and an equal number of tubs of play dough

·         Roll the play dough out and feed into the balloon (1 tub for each balloon)

·         Once full, roll or squish the balloon to remove all air bubbles

·         Tie the balloon and draw faces on each, varying the expressions, with a permanent marker

You can also fill small balloons with a variety of items, like sand, instant coffee, flour, rice and marbles to provide a range of stimulation for little hands and fingers.

Kids love this kind of sensory play especially when they see mum or dad getting involved in the fun as well.

Are Our Children's Toys Contributing To A Rise In Disorders Along the Autism Spectrum?

As parents and caregivers of children with ADHD, or disorders along the autism spectrum, we know that our children can be much more sensitive to their surroundings than many of their peers. So, we take steps to help our kids cope with the added stress that too much stimuli from their environment can bring. But, I wonder how many of us have ever stopped for a moment to consider the possibility that it might be the actual common, everyday items in our environment that have contributed to rise in the diagnosis of these disorders

A recent article in The Sydney Morning Herald discusses the results of a review of recent research in The Lancet Neurology. The article states that studies show that many common, everyday items, like our clothing, dinnerware and even our children's toys may be filled with hazardous chemicals that can directly and indirectly cause neurodevelopment disorders such as dyslexia, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.

Currently, the list of chemicals that are known to cause such conditions has doubled in the past few years from six to 12. Some of these chemicals are already either banned or strictly regulated in Australia, such as DDT and lead. Others such as industrial solvents, or the methyl mercury that are found in fish, are not as tightly regulated. Scientists can't even agree on which chemicals are to blame, as some say that the fluoride that is found in treated water could be one of the culprits.

Perhaps the most frightening fact to come out of the article is the fact that most chemicals haven't been tested at all to see if they might affect the development of children or unborn babies. According to the article, over 80,000 chemicals that are used in industrial settings in the United States have never been tested for their effects on the neurodevelopment of children and unborn babies. Australian authorities are just now working on prioritising the risk of over 38,000 chemicals that may contaminate the environment or leech out of manufactured products and contribute to these disorders.

While scientists continue their research and conduct more studies, it is hard to know what one can do to keep their children safe.  As a parent, it's chilling to realise that if this article is correct, science and industry can't really say if these chemicals and the products that are made with them are truly safe for our children.

Going forward, I will continue to look for ways in our daily life to minimise our contact with chemicals.

After reading the article, what steps do you plan to take to minimise your family's contact with these potentially dangerous substances?

5 Ways To Keep Your Kids Positive About Life

Life can sometimes bring you down, and kids are not really different to adults. Their priorities are different, and they don’t have the big stressors that adults have; mortgages, job insecurity and being 110% responsible for children, for example, but the world around them can get to them, too.

Whilst children tend to live in the moment, each of those moments can forge the direction they’re headed in life and whether they’ll take a positive or a negative outlook on life in general, and themselves specifically.

All is not lost and you can help kids to keep positive about life, particularly when things are seeming to drag them down and sadness is settling in.

1. Stay Positive

Model the behaviour you want your children to inherit.

They will notice how you handle situations and this will be their education when faced with the same or similar scenarios.

The way you speak about others, or situations in general, the emotions you give off and your behaviour in general; whether this is sitting, hunched and sad, or being proactive and productive and taking control, for example, will be what they learn and how they approach life.

Use positive language; ‘do’, ‘can’ as often as possible, and speak positively about what’s going on.

2. Find the Positive

Regardless of the situation, there is always a silver lining, a rainbow or a bright side. Sometimes, that silver lining is hidden deep within the dark clouds surrounding the situation, or it is difficult to attribute to a situation.

Look for the a positive, however small, or find a different way of looking at the situation. What is another perspective, how may someone else view the scenario? Or what can be learnt from what’s happening in your, or their, life right now?

3. Encourage

Keeping with the positive language, encouragement rather than condemnation or finding fault will help them stay positive.

Know it is okay to fail, and that many successful people have failed multiple times, gives them a positive outlook in a sad moment. Point out the things they did right, and the opportunities for learning, rather than stating them as failures.

4. Quit the Comparisons

It’s very easy to compare children with their siblings and peers, or even what you were like at that age.

It’s important, however, that children are recognised as individuals, with their own likes, dislikes and, in this case, talents. Most kids will be ‘average’ at most things, but all children will have something they either enjoy doing or are good at doing.

Usually, if they excel in one area, they may be just average in another; if they’re great at maths, for example, they may not be so great at P.E., and that’s okay.

Let them know this, remind them of those things they’re good at and that no one person is great at everything. Encourage and be positive.

5. Laugh

Laughter is not only the best medicine, but it is also great for the mind, body and soul.

Although some moments may be hard to deal with, finding a way to laugh at them will help. We can also get a bit caught up in it being taboo to laugh in some situations; but laughter will help deal with the situation much more easily, break the ice and allow for more open discussion and connection between people.

If nothing else, find every opportunity to laugh throughout your day, for no other reason than because you can.

Salt In The Wound - Misconceptions About ASD

For those of us with children along the autism spectrum, it is often a difficult task to navigate our local educational system and other sectors of society just to ensure that our children receive the support that they need as well as to make the most of the unique gifts and talents that they also possess.

Sometimes, it seems that one of the biggest challenges that we face is that we spend so much time and energy educating everyone about what autism spectrum disorders are and are not.

Whether it's the teachers, caregivers, well-meaning family members and friends, or society as a whole, we each have our own private mission, our own private battle, to educate and to explain. We do this so that our children and their peers can live in a better, more informed, more understanding world that supports each member in a positive, nurturing manner.

Dealing with the misinformation and negative stereotypes surrounding ASD is very frustrating, time consuming and draining, but it is a battle that we each must fight so that our children can receive the support that they need.

As a result, many groups have sprung up to help parents and others who have children and loved ones with a diagnosis of ASD. As expected, most of these groups have been very helpful and supportive to those of us who have loved ones with ASD. Most ASD groups are usually founded and composed of people just like us. It's comforting to have someone to listen to our frustrations, hopes, fears and dreams when that person knows how we feel because they've "been there."

So, one would naturally expect and assume that having "been" there themselves, all of these ASD support groups would automatically portray and represent children and grown-ups with ASD in a fair, balanced and positive light. After all, while having ASD has its unique challenges, it's not like having a terminal illness or a contagious, deadly disease. Children and adults with ASD are like others in the fact that they each have individual talents, individual strengths, individual gifts - they just need some specialised attention and assistance to make full use of them.

So, when those who are ignorant go out of their way to portray those with ASD in a highly negative light, as though having ASD is some great curse akin to having the bubonic plague or leprosy in the Dark Ages, it is very hurtful. What's even worse is when these hurtful remarks come from individuals or groups that should know better. It's akin to rubbing salt in a wound when those words come from "one of our own."

Recently, in an open letter written by Susanne Wright of Autism Speaks, Wright referred to  the "grave illness" of autism, and blamed a host of ills on ASD, saying it causes families to "split up," "go broke," and that families with those "afflicted" aren't really "living." Since this group claims to support ASD individuals and families, wouldn't you expect that she should know?

Of course, other ASD groups have come forward to condemn Wright's words. Some, even go so far as to suggest that those of us who have a moral compass should call for a boycott of the supporters of Autism Speaks. I am not going to tell others how to spend their money, but at the very least, as someone who has "been there," I will add my voice to others who are speaking out for our children and other loved ones with ASD. I encourage you to do the same. Living with someone with ASD has its challenges, certainly, but it also has its blessings. Blessings that are so perfect and pure that I would not trade my children, or my journey.