An Atypical Life

Love the idea of these hand signals 🙌🏻

Self-advocacy systems have to be embedded class-wide. Otherwise our neurodivergent kids may not feel able to access them.

Why? Because it would mean standing out.
Drawing attention to the fact that you need help, and no one else seems to.

Many of our kids just prefer to struggle silently.

Class-wide self-advocacy systems are very possible, and they start with the teacher. The teacher introduces it, has visuals around, and then integrates the body checks and language into the daily routine.

The teacher models what it looks like, e.g. 'My brain is feeling a bit tired right now. I think I need to move my body for a minute and get a drink. Anyone else?'

Everyone has needs.
It makes sense to talk about it?

The language becomes familiar.
The process becomes safe.
Self-advocacy is scaffolded and encouraged.
Needing something different is not seen as a problem. It's just a normal thing that you get with groups of humans.

This learning benefits every kid in that space.

Please can we make it happen?

Em 🌈

Some people love the interesting parts of your story..

The quirky parts.
The inspiring parts.
The funny parts.
The resilient parts.

But disability, neurodivergence, trauma, chronic illness, parenting, and caring are not made up of only the easy parts.

Sometimes there are meltdowns.
Sometimes there is grief.
Sometimes there are hospital appointments, endless advocacy meetings, cancelled plans, burnout, overwhelm, and seasons where simply surviving takes everything you’ve got.

And that’s often when you notice who quietly disappears.

Not because you’ve changed.
Not because you’ve become “too much.”

But because the reality of your experience no longer fits the version of you they were comfortable with.

Over the years, I’ve learned that many people come into our lives for a chapter.

And that’s okay.

But in our world, the people we hold closest are the lifers.

The people who don’t just love our children when they’re smiling.

The people who don’t only show up when life is easy.

The people who can sit beside us in the messy, complicated, exhausting parts and stay.

The people who don’t need us to mask, explain, minimise, or make ourselves easier to digest.

The people who accept the whole story.

The whole family.

The whole experience.

Those are the people who matter.

Those are the lifers.

And if you’re lucky enough to have even a few of them, hold them close 💛 because they are the village we can call on to get us through another day.

If we don’t laugh, we’ll cry? 😅

Sounds ridiculous, right?

And yet many disability families are being told that because progress has occurred, support can be reduced. That’s what’s happening in the world of the NDIS right now..

Progress happened because the supports were there.

For our family, the NDIS hasn’t just funded services.

It’s funded participation.

Friendships.

Community access.

Communication.

Confidence.

Family wellbeing.

The ability to leave the house and actually enjoy life together.

The ability for our children to learn the skills they need to navigate the world safely and successfully.

None of that happened by accident.

It happened because support was there.

That’s why so many families are worried right now.

Because when people only see the outcome, they often miss the support that made the outcome possible.

The media often highlights all of the associated challenges of the NDIS system - let’s start talking about the benefits.