Tuesday, 8 May 2018

Autism and PDA Positives

Stephs Two Girls May 08, 2018 autism, Pathological Demand Avoidance, PDA, PDA Life, positivity

Earlier today, I came across an infographic on Facebook which I thought was well worth sharing. Designed by a lady called Harriet Cannon, who posts info relating to autism on LinkedIn, this was a good reminder that we need to let people know that there are many positives to being autistic.

poster stating lots of positives of autism, from good attention and memory skills to creativity and integrity

I've always kept this blog as a true reflection of our life; I share as much on here as I have time for. That means the good and the bad is included, but there's never any intention to make it too much of one or the other, or indeed to make it balance out! It's just life, as it happens.

I've also shared many other experiences in my series 'Our PDA Story' and they're not always positive sadly; very real, but not always easy reading.

Some bloggers have recently received much bad press and even trolling for writing posts which describe the challenges they face. As per usual, I don't see this in black and white - I've always been a 'grey' kind of person. I'm very much for 'keeping it real' but I'm also aware that too much negativity can spread and give a false impression, so it's important to talk about the positives too. I think this infographic does that in a good way, and so I asked the author if she'd be OK with me sharing it here.

When I got in touch with her, I also mentioned the fact that not all of these points are positives for Sasha, or indeed for every child. Some children and families may read this and agree with every phrase; others not so much. Especially on a difficult day. After a quick glance, I hadn't seen the words at the bottom of this image which explain just that! That's why it's important to talk about autism and the positives more.

Hot on the heels of this was a new image created by Sally Cat in time for PDA Action Day which shows words used by parents to describe their PDA children. There's several in her which fit the bill for Sasha. You may have to zoom to see them all, so here's just a few I've picked out: vibrant, inquisitive, creative, witty, kind, loving, entertaining and awesome!

I also wanted to take this chance to share positives for our daughter Sasha. We have always said how lucky we are that she is generally happy and curious; she loves a joke and has a good sense of humour. She is kind and caring and currently cites her job aspirations as being an author, game developer, baker, running a cattery, leading an after school club for children and possibly being a teacher!

Sasha can concentrate for long periods on topics of her choosing and has an amazing memory for detail. There's not much about Pokemon that she hasn't taught herself over the past year, and she can still remember words and scripts from DVDs she watched when she was three. Since starting her new school we've discovered that she doesn't judge differences in others; she takes everyone as they are. She is supremely honest and loyal and has the most amazing imagination.

These are just some of the characteristics I love about our amazing autistic daughter. I wrote a post this year called 'Why I'm happy that my daughter is autistic' and there's more in there. Obviously, I'm biased, but I do believe other people love her too...

To find out more about our experiences, please check out our 'About Us' page. If you are looking or more information on Pathological Demand Avoidance, why not try some of these, my most popular posts?