Strange Sayings and Confusing Conversations!

LoveReading Says

Written by the founder of Aukids magazine, a positive parenting magazine for families of autistic children, and mother of twin autistic boys, and as the afterword tells us, also illustrated by an artist diagnosed with autism in his twenties, this genuinely helpful book is suffused with actual lived experience.

It is aimed at children, but it will be incredibly helpful for parents and teachers too, not least for modelling positive parenting behaviour and how to perfect clarity in explanation. It really is exceptionally well written and the non patronising tone will be much appreciated. It certainly makes you think about the easy use of slang, sarcasm and idioms in everyday speech and how confusing that must be for literal thinkers. As the author says in her introduction not everyone who is on the autistic spectrum is the same, but that she hopes ‘some of the experiences in these stories may be a little familiar to you because they’re common to lots of autistic people’.

Each gently humorous short story illustrates a dilemma caused by confusing language and in the story itself we learn a lot about how autistic children cope with the world and how adults can help. At the end of each story this is reinforced by advice in a Parents and Carers box. Often repeated is the importance of teaching autistic children self- advocacy. Giving them the confidence to speak up and ask if they do not understand and that it’s entirely usual for an autistic person to struggle with language when people don’t say what they mean. Neurotypical children often face similar difficulties in understanding, and I am sure teachers will find these stories an asset in literacy lessons as well.

The lively illustrations really add to the book’s shelf appeal and also contribute to revealing both the confusion and the explanations.

A really useful resource for families and for schools.

Joy Court

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