My Way!

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Category - Kids

My name is Helen Wood and I’m autistic. I am a girl who loves to have fun and fresh experiences. Autism means my life is very different from other girls my age but I probably also get a wider range of opportunities because of my autism.

I’m a bit different from lots of other autistic people because I can’t speak very well and I use communication aids to speak to family and friends and to do my schoolwork.

The simplest type of communication aid I use is just a flat piece of laminated card with all the letters of the alphabet and numbers printed on it and I simply point to spell out whatever I want to say. It looks like a flattened computer keyboard. That works well for me and I can say what I want really quickly but I have to have someone watching what I point to and be a fast reader.

My mum is easily the quickest reader I know so we use the pointing board a lot. I also use VOCAs – these are voice output communication aids and I can ‘speak’ out loud using the voices in the communication aid to say the words I type. I used a middle-aged man’s voice for years because it sounded really nice and how many people get a chance to do that?

The problem with using communication aids is that they are slow and don’t keep up with the normal pace of a conversation. Chatting with people takes a lot more time and effort than you can imagine if you are a speaking person who can gossip away without thinking about what a different way I have of speaking.

I had loads of friends at primary school but now I’m in Year 9 all the lessons are so packed and there’s very little time to socialise in class. Lunchtimes are such a crazy time with all the pupils rushing to eat and get through the day so the pace at secondary school is very different.

It’s quite hard to make friends and I tend to get on with an older generation of people so I make friends with my teaching assistants as we can spend lots of time together and they understand how I communicate. I also need a lot of support from adults so making friends with my own age group is difficult as I can’t hang out and speak to them without adult support. I would like to have friends my own age but all the autistic stuff makes it very difficult.

I adore all the attention I get and all the extraordinary things I get to do. I’m on the AET Youth Council; I’ve been in the media quite a bit – TV, radio and newspapers; I’ve contributed to a book; done public speaking/lectures and won awards. I can’t alter my autism but I’m certainly making the most of it to show people about autism and help them understand what autistic people have to offer.

You are a bit different if you are autistic but there’s nothing wrong with that.