Alis Rowe's Blog, page 8

New Primary School Course For Children

We’re excited to let you know about our new online course suitable for children (aged approximately 8-11 years old).

Does your child like watching animations?Does your child like to learn visually?Does your child enjoy answering fun quizzes?Does your child enjoy learning on a computer, phone or tablet?Would your child like to learn from a relatable character?

Perhaps this course is just the way to bring understanding and self-awareness to an autistic child.

This course is particularly aimed at autistic children but may also be very useful for the rest of the family, siblings, classmates and teaching staff.

In fact, if you are a teacher, perhaps you would find a use for this course in an educational setting. We’ve created a version to be used as part of a classroom interaction.

Click here for the children’s course

Click here for the teacher’s course to use as a classroom interaction

We hope you enjoy our new resource!

Best wishes,

The Curly Hair Project

The post New Primary School Course For Children appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

Understanding the ‘energy debt’

Autistic people often feel very tired. One reason why an autistic person might feel tired is because they have accumulated an ‘energy debt’.

When a person has an ‘energy debt’, it means that they have not had a chance to recover from the stresses and strains of daily life. Autism means that it is more difficult for the person with the condition to do ‘normal’ activities and to interact with the world around them. This means that normal day to day activities can be overwhelming. The person might always feel as though they are at – or near to – their energy threshold.

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post Understanding the ‘energy debt’ appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

Autism and pedantic speech

It is often said that people with autism have ‘pedantic speech’. Pedantic speech refers to ‘an overly formal speaking style that is inappropriate to the conversational setting. It can be characterized by didactic patterns of prosody and very precise articulation, as well as unnecessarily complex vocabulary.’

Watch the video below:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post Autism and pedantic speech appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

10 ways for autistic people to deal with worry

Autistic people can experience frequent feelings of being intensely worried. The following 10 suggestions might help autistic people to better deal with worry:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post 10 ways for autistic people to deal with worry appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

How to change reactions to responses

For most people, whenever something happens, it will cause an automatic and immediate reaction. Although this reaction comes naturally, it isn’t always appropriate or helpful. The reaction can often be skewed and disproportionate compared to the situation.

Here are two examples that may help to understand a reaction:

1) A boss sends their employee an email.

Before the employee even reads the email, they automatically and immediately think they have done something wrong and are in trouble. They feel high anxiety straight away. The reality is that the email doesn’t say anything bad at all – it’s simply an email containing information. The employee’s reaction came naturally to them but it wasn’t really helpful and their anxiety was unnecessary.

2) A person takes the train to college. The train is late.

The person feels terribly stressed and decides not to go to college at all and goes back home instead. This is a very ‘black and white’ type of reaction, which means it is out of proportion with the situation that actually happened.

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post How to change reactions to responses appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

Why autistic people often feel confused

Autistic people can often feel confused even if they are highly intelligent.

Feeling confused so frequently can really impair an autistic person in their day to day living. Even the most “simple” or “ordinary” tasks and situations can be highly perplexing…

There are many reasons why autistic people may have a tendency to feel confused. Some of the reasons include: 

They have a different way of thinking from othersThey have trouble thinking flexiblyThey overthink things that were not intended to be overthoughtThey have trouble understanding othersThey think literally and logicallyOthers are not making logical sense

Let’s have a look at some examples of when The Girl With The Curly Hair was confused and discuss what is happening:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post Why autistic people often feel confused appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

Why autistic people might be underestimated

To underestimate someone means ‘to think of them as being lower in ability, influence, or value than they actually are.’

Many autistic people think that others have a tendency to underestimate them. I thought about why this might be and about how these situations can be managed:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post Why autistic people might be underestimated appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

Shyness in autistic versus neurotypical people

Shyness is feeling nervous, uncomfortable or awkward in social situations.

A lot of people used to describe me as “shy”, but my experience of being shy seemed different from some of the other shy people I had met. I wondered whether it was because I was autistic that my shyness came across differently and felt different.

I created this animated film to suggest how shyness might be different for an autistic person:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post Shyness in autistic versus neurotypical people appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

12 reasons autistic people might be sensitive to emotions

Autistic people can be highly sensitive. They might feel upset, disappointed, frustrated or hurt frequently. Family members might sometimes think that their autistic loved one is being “oversensitive” or “overreactive”. If they understood the deeper reasons as to why their autistic loved one is like this, it might help them to be a bit more sympathetic!

Here are 12 reasons why autistic people might be so sensitive:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post 12 reasons autistic people might be sensitive to emotions appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.

How other people can affect what an autistic person does

Based on my animated film, A Day Working at the Vet’s for The Girl With The Curly Hair, I have been developing e-courses to help autistic people at work and to help employers understand autistic workers. There was one specific scene in this film that inspired me to write this article. In the scene, The Girl With The Curly Hair has to go into a room to get something that she needs in order to do her job, but the room has lots of other people in there already and she feels anxious to be around them. She feels so anxious that she is even afraid to open the door to the room.

The scene made me think about how even the presence of other people can affect an autistic person’s own agenda and actions. Other people can, without realising, cause an autistic person to feel debilitatingly anxious.

Let’s have a look at the scene in more detail:

Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today

This article is available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article, along with receiving access to our exclusive animations and special offers – please click the Subscribe today button. If you are already a member, please log in.

Subscribe
Today Why support
CHP?

Free Autism
Alert Card!

When you subscribe to The Curly Hair Project, 
you will receive a free Autism Alert Card worth £6!

The post How other people can affect what an autistic person does appeared first on The Girl with the Curly Hair.