Top Tips on Love and Relationships from Louise Weston Louise Weston is a Registered Nurse from Queensland, Australia. She was the former co-ordinator of a monthly support group for non-spectrum (NS) partners and spouses of individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Louise is happily married to her husband Graham. After they were married in 1999, Graham was diagnosed[... read more]

Top Tips on Love and Relationships from Sarah Hendrickx Sarah Hendrickx is a specialist Asperger syndrome trainer, consultant and coach, providing individual, couple and family support on all aspects of life, including anxiety management, dating, relationships and work. She is the author of Love, Sex and Long-Term Relationships and Asperger Syndrome – A Love Story. Sarah’s[... read more]

Top Tips on Love and Relationships from Jonathan Griffiths Jonathan Griffiths designs software for a living and had no girlfriend until the age of 22, but is now married to a beautiful Australian. His father used to be a train-spotter, so his very existence just goes to show that there’s hope for us all. He[... read more]

Top Tips on Love and Relationships from Rudy Simone Rudy Simone is an Aspergirl, writer and AS consultant who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA. She is the author of 22 Things a Woman with Asperger’s Syndrome Wants Her Partner to Know, 22 Things a Woman Must Know If She Loves[... read more]

Before Christmas, JKP author Josh Muggleton came to our offices and recorded a series of top tips for parents, professionals and people with Asperger syndrome, all based on his own hard-won experience. In this video, he offers parents and professionals advice on tackling an all too common problem for children on the spectrum: bullying.  [... read more]

“The idea was born out of a spirit of collaboration that came up when we noticed that our students were working on similar projects but with an OT or SLP spin. Another way we came together was when the speech team would make quesadillas with the students to work on sequencing, vocabulary and describing goals. And the OT would say, “Can I jump into your activity to practice cutting the quesadilla into triangles with my student?” And so we began to purposely create activities around both OT and SLP goals. We recently found out that the University of California – San Francisco has built therapy rooms for the explicit purpose of the collaboration between therapists. This is a wonderful step towards collaborative therapy.”

“Younger children have a much better chance to learn how to handle anger and do so easier. The formative years are really what we need to target. Giving young children simple but powerful words to express anger and hurt means many will have fewer problems with anger than older children… It’s also important for the young child to really get that ‘abusive behaviour is not OK’. Learning that 20 years later in a courtroom or through a painful break-up is so much harder on the person and society.”

“On the whole newly qualified social workers are not very confident in talking about diversity. It is an area that receives considerable attention during training, but there is often a sense that there is a ‘right answer’ and people are frightened of speaking for fear of getting it wrong. Most people do not want to offend anyone else, so become self-monitoring and wary of the subject. It is only in a spirit of learning – where we can all get things wrong on occasion, and need others to be able to point things out and explain why particular words, phrases or behaviours are not acceptable to them – that we are then able to modify our own behaviours.”

“Professional boundaries are vital in social care work because we are working on a deep level with vulnerable people. This means that we have a responsibility to them to do things to the best of our ability and to ensure that our help and support does not damage or disenfranchise them. Working with difficult issues can also be very stressful and draining work, and professional boundaries help us to manage ourselves and our emotions.”

“The formula (called the Dramatic Formula) in the book presents each step with a specific skill that the students need in order to succeed in the drama, while at the same time balancing the level of stimulation for the students so they can focus on each section. Structure and balance of stimulation are the two main factors which give this book success. These two elements allow the students to succeed in a safe and nurturing environment.”