Hugo is finally included at school

Hugo started school this year with only 3hrs a day of Learning Support Officer time; a one on one aid; to provide the adjusted learning curriculum that he needed and supervision that was required in the playground. It wasn’t acceptable. He wasn’t able to access what a typical child could. Despite praise from outside professionals

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Not a normal baby; my dark road of Autism

In the earlier years of Hugo’s existence, the pain and aguish his little face portrayed robbed me of my sleep and my happiness; his non-stop crying throughout the day and the night, the continuous sickness without avail. Then death’s door knocked at 6 months old, hospitalised with pneumonia. And on it went. Week after week. A

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FERGUS & DELILAH LAUNCH

What a great day the kids had! And what a perfect book launch we had! The Farm Byron Bay lent us their “stables” complete with hay bales and picnic tables. We brought along the world’s largest bubble making clown, efficient face painters (not the wait inline for 40 minutes while one kid get his entire [...] Continue reading »

THE WRITING BEFORE THE WRITING

Six months ago I met Misa and we decided we were going to create a picture book that would change the way children see disabilities.  I would be the author and Misa the illustrator, simple! Little did we know that writing a picture book with a social message attached to it, is very different to [...] Continue reading »

WE ARE NOT ALONE!

Misa and I had the pleasure of being able to attend Shaping Outcomes Byron Bay’s launch party for a wonderful Inclusion Resource for Preschool centres.  It was great to see how another organisation is approaching inclusion and also how excited and willing professional educators are to start tackling such a major problem affecting our children.

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WHY SHOULD OUR BOOK SUCCEED WHEN OTHERS HAVEN’T?

Yes there are other children’s books available that discuss varying issues about disabilities, but do you know of any “best sellers?”  We have done a great deal of research and reading into why picture books that strive to inform the reader about disabilities are not becoming popular amongst the mainstream. Our book will be unique [...] Continue reading »

BODIES OR NO BODIES

Character development is not as simple as it appears. Every feature on our delightful Fergus and Delilah characters we have toiled over, drawn and redrawn, analyzed and discussed with friends, family and coworkers, or anyone who was willing to listen. Our biggest dilemma by far was the bodies versus no bodies debate and while we [...] Continue reading »