The AuDhd Teacher

Love the meaning of the Māori word for autism (takiwatanga) - “in his/her/their own time and space”.

As we commemorate eighty years since the D Day landings of 1944, check out this sand sculpture. It’s called Sands of Remembrance, and it was sculpted on a Normandy beach in 2004 (Whispers, twenty years ago!). Isn’t it incredible?

Original Image: Bernard Clerc-Renaud. 2004.

How many feel like this? 🤷🏼‍♀️

I tried to be normal once. Worst two minutes of my life!

Who else needs to unlearn these things?

If you had a thought that you were a unicorn, would you believe it?

So, why do you believe it when you have a thought that you are ugly or stupid or crazy or unloveable?

… and how many of us neurosparklies find it so hard to believe that we are beautiful or intelligent or amazing or fully loveable?

When we were at ADHD_love_’s brilliant Small Talk Tour a couple of weeks ago, Rox mentioned that she was gluten free.

I’m also gluten free (the effects are not pretty!). It got me wondering something.

How many Autistics and/or ADHDers (and anyone also neurosparkly) have some kind of food intolerance? … and which one(s)?

I can relate to so many of these. Which ones do you relate to?

Who else gets exhausterwhelmulated?

It’s Half Term in the (hopefully!) sunny UK 🇬🇧. I’m aiming to take most of this week off work. I would like to do some reading, probably some mindless chick fiction. But if you’re looking for a guide of what to read, how’s this?

(Seriously though, an excellent book that I’ve recently read, meaning I listened to it on audible, is ADHD_love_’s Small Talk. It’s about ten of the things we say about ourselves as neurosparkly are not true and practical ways that we can work towards eliminating these “lies” from our minds and mouths!)

Anyone else recommend a great, easy to read, book?

Look at the lack of speech marks in this book. How does it affect your reading of it? Would you be able to read it?

I just started reading a book, and it has NO SPEECH MARKS. How can this be?? How will I be able to hear them talking in my head if there are no speech marks? 😱😱

Seriously not sure if I’m going to get past the first chapter on this one!

Some of us who are slightly older probably didn’t get diagnosed as children. No doubt, there were comments on our School Reports that suggested that our teachers thought that we were quirky, especially if it was a subject that we didn’t “enjoy”.

A few examples of my own (I’d argue that I was the ideal student if I enjoyed it!):

… has the potential to be brilliant at this subject but has more of a tendency to go off on an interest based tangent.

… doesn’t understand the rules of this game (PE. Can I point out that I fully understood the rules of the game, I just couldn’t see the point of the actual game!)

… struggles to understand what is being said between the lines. (Tell no one else. Still don’t!)

So, what did your School Reports say?

How many of us feel like this for either our children, or even ourselves?

The current education system needs radical changing to meet the needs of our children, who are the ones that we love deeply!

Anyone going to any of these?

The Autism Show The Autism Show, in association with the National Autistic Society, is the national event for autism.

Apparently I don’t need any more rulers. I told Mr Audhd (he hasn’t got it between) that I was about to order some more rulers for my classes as WE NEED THEM!

I went to my exercise class last night and came back to this pile, and an instruction not to get any more 🫤.

Photos of my, now organised, rulers (!)

What do you have too many of, but like to get more of?

This is very true!

A big part of being neurodiverse is struggling to fit in, be accepted and navigate a neurotypical world. Sometimes without even realising why it's so difficult. There are so many presentations that we can be expected to hide or mask that we can learn to hide anything that may present as a 'problem'.

This can lead to overthinking everything, on order to make sure we fit in and are acceptable. Becoming a people pleaser in order to achieve this. Internalising ableism with regards to the expectations we hold of ourselves. Masking our true selves. All to present as someone else externally.

However this is a vicious circle. The more we hide, the more that is expected. The more that is expected the harder we struggle. The harder we struggle the more we have to hide that we are.

https://diversitydoodleprint.etsy.com

Introducing the phrase - neurosparkly.

I’ve spent far too much of my life to date hiding and masking the fact that I have AuDhd and I am autistic with ADHD.

I think it’s time we started sparkling. We have so much to offer.

Let’s be neurosparkly and shine out our neurodivergence brightly into the worlds that we live in - and ultimately we will thrive in!

At the weekend, I went to a school friend of mine’s 50th birthday party (I’m not sure how we reached this age either!) This friend did a lot to limit neurosparkly stresses but there was the lots of background noises.

However, something happened with another friend and it got me thinking. How do we explain our “masking” challenges to others? Do we need to?

After the party, a group of other friends decided to go for a drink and were making plans. I immediately decided these excluded me and so my mind went to plan to leave (and return to my little sparkly bubble!). I then said bye to the other friends, who immediately asked, “Aren’t you coming too?”

For me, I needed them to be explicit in inviting me. When implicit, I struggle to read between these very blurred lines.

So, what about you?

What do you wish neurotypical knew about living a neurosparkly life (by gift, not choice!)?

A very warm welcome to the AuDhd, ADHD and Autistic family here ♥️

Nothing!!!

This is true for me. I love studying people to learn how they learn too (and how it’s different to me!)

Sundays are a perfect chance to slow down and unwind, but is it something that you can do easily?

Pic says - When you realise the real luxuries in life are time: Slow mornings and the freedom to choose what you want to do (Unknown).

This is a good reminder. Each one of us is an incredible mosaic of beauty! Morning all!

QUESTION: What are your go to Autism or ADHD pages? Share them here.

My favourites are The AuDhd Teacher, ADHD_love_, The Autistic Teacher and Jordan James The Autistic Photographer. I know there are plenty of other amazing knowledgeable pages!

Friday 17th May 2024

Despite talking about this for a while, this page is BRAND NEW today! This is very exciting as we venture on our learning adventure from today. I look forward to getting to know you and learning about the things that you would like to know.