A social enterprise helping people on the autistic spectrum and the people around them.
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4 Conversation techniques to add to your social script
Posted: 10 months ago
Many autistic people create for themselves a 'social script' to help them know how to interact in social situations. A social script is a guide for planning what to do and say inside a social setting.
The Girl With The Curly Hair uses a social script whenever she meets up with her friends. Specifically, she uses 4 conversation techniques:
The steep learning curve
Posted: June 7, 2019
Do you remember the first time you were able to ride your bicycle without stabilisers? Or the first time you could read? Do you remember the feeling inside your stomach of joy and satisfaction? And then what happened thereafter? That skill was mastered and you were able to carry on with it forever. The process of learning anything technical, to me, looks like the beginning of a mountain to climb. At the start there is a massive, very steep incline, then there is a summit to get over, and then afterwards it flattens out.
One skill you need for a less overwhelming life
Posted: May 29, 2019
Ever since I learned the skill of being able to prioritise, life for me has become so much less overwhelming. To prioritise means to determine the order for dealing with a series of tasks according to their relative importance. To be a successful prioritiser means executing the tasks in that order. I realise why a lot of autistic people may have trouble prioritising. The fundamental answer is that prioritising is a skill controlled by executive function, which is an area of difficulty in people who are autistic.
5 amazing ways to manage deadlines
Posted: May 19, 2019
Deadlines are vital for everything that is important because they facilitate people actually getting things done. Without a deadline, tasks can just get left or forgotten about. I love deadlines and I have them for every single thing that I do, however, if not carefully managed, they can cause me to feel very stressed. One… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to…
How to cope with overwhelming thoughts
Posted: May 9, 2019
Some autistic people have a great number of thoughts all the time throughout the day. In fact, they can have so many thoughts that they feel completely consumed by them. I thought I would write an article about the different types of thoughts that a person may have and how they could sort and manage them, and ultimately de-clutter their mind!
Food crazes and autism
Posted: April 30, 2019
Eating can be another challenge that comes from having autism. One of the challenges that I personally have is having a craze about particular foods. This means that I eat the same thing for a long period of time. The positives of being like this are that 1) I always know what I'm going to eat and 2) it's easier to manage my money. But there are some drawbacks as well:
5 ways to cope with disappointment
Posted: April 19, 2019
I wonder whether disappointment is a feeling that autistic people more commonly experience. The reason I say that is because when someone is disappointed it is usually because a situation has not occurred in the way they had expected. This is perceived as an unplanned change or that what was predicted did not happen. Here are my top 5 ways to handle disappointment.
What does “different not less” mean?
Posted: April 9, 2019
There is a phrase that goes around the internet that says, “Autistic people are different, not less.” I never understood what this phrase meant until I stopped and thought about it. There is actually quite a lot of deep insight behind this phrase that many people (including me!) do or did not understand. What is… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue t…
Alis Rowe featured on BBC World Service
Posted: April 4, 2019
The BBC published an article titled ‘Is autism being missed among women and girls?‘ on 2 April 2019. Alis’s thoughts were mentioned in this article including the first headline in bold text! Read it here…
Now available: Alis’s new book
Posted: April 2, 2019
It has been a very long time coming but I'm excited to announce that my new book, 'What I have learned about Life', is now officially published! Regardless if you're completely new to the 'autism' word, or you're highly educated in the field, I hope this book is a help to you. Thank you so much for your support, it is greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy my new book!
If I didn’t mask, I wouldn’t speak
Posted: March 29, 2019
I don't like the idea of masking because no one should have to hide who they really are. Individuality should be loved and accepted. But masking is also a means of being able to interact, and often, if a person did not mask, they would not be able to interact at all.