Look What I Found!

Little man has always had a very keen interest in transport from around the age of two. His now 12 and is still studying the ins and outs of trains and buses, though he also now loves WWE wrestling just as much!

Sorting through some papers yesterday I came across a card little man had made me when he first started school (mainstream year 1). He was around 5 or 6 years old at the most! Here it is below…

He doesn’t really like to engage in art as he struggles with his fine motor skills so does almost everything on a computer. That’s why the above card is even more special to me. He has even coloured his picture, something he now refuses to do in fear of not being able to keep the colours within the lines of his drawing.

And look whats inside this cute train card….

A lovely message to mummy (that’s me) though I think looking at the handwriting, it wasn’t little man who wrote it! Plus there is a very cute picture of the little man himself in the school playground.

Here’s a close up…

I love unearthing these little hidden treasures. Children provide us with the most wonderful memories. This ones definitely going in the scrapbook!

Big fat Yawns

Yes, I’m tired… I look like poo and feel like it too. The past few weeks have been anything but leisurable.

I’m laid here on the bed blogging from my mobile, I can’t even be bothered to turn the Mac on as that would require me to sit up and right now that feels like an impossible mission.

So… An update! Little man went back to school last week having been off for an entire week with a sickness bug and a very sore cold sore (when you have Aspergers and a string of sensory sensitivities a cold sore is highly unpleasant) whats more his sleeping pattern became highly erratic which affected us all as a family.

Now I’m used to little man not sleeping to the early hours but something had to give. Little man wasn’t sleeping throughout the night at all and come the beginning of this week there was no signs of this getting any better. Having spent another entire night awake Little man started to settle down and become sleepy at around 6am. I, however had other ideas and decided I couldn’t take another day nor night of it and instead of crawling to my bed like I so wanted too, I instead used what little energy I had left in me, keeping the little man awake.

He wasn’t impressed and bad tempered was an understatement but in order to get him so tired that he’d have no option but to sleep that night I had him feed and dressed ready for school at 8.30am… Despite an entire sleepless night.

Some may say I’m evil and I guess in a way, yes I am! Yet it worked. Ok , he didn’t have the best day at school and my guess is he didn’t feel none to lively, neither, but he got home, ate dinner with half closed eyes and fell crashing into his bed at a somewhat alarmingly early 6 PM… Something I thought I’d surly never see!

Still, this hasn’t erased all his problems when it comes to sleep, he still struggles greatly…. Nonetheless, what it has done is remind him of the pure yucky feeling that comes with a day at school when you haven’t rested your eyes or mind for over 24hrs… And no one actually wants to feel that poo do they?

With this his been more eager to try to sleep at a reasonable hour. Its not been a 100% success story but when one wants to rest their mind it does become that much easier. With this there has been a slight decrease in the nightly antics! These include… Acting out his favourite WWE superstar entrance scene, talking non stop WWE to ones self and that of his constant note jotting on ideas for Mindcraft builds at crazy O’clock! I think maybe his trying to have a catch up, I just wished my body clock would now jolt so I could join him and do the same.

So… Now I’m yawning big fat yawns. Looking at the mess around me (seriously, there’s a fair amount) I think to myself… “Sod It” and instead I’ll bid you all a good night (or should I say good morning)?

What Children With Aspergers Really Want For Christmas

Now, I’m not about to go all soppy by stating “That all our children with aspergers really want for Christmas is an appropriate school place and less judgement”because that wouldn’t be true.

Like any child, children with autism and Aspergers have their own interest, hobbies and Christmas wish list.

Every single year in the lead up to Christmas I find that many new readers find my blog as a result of googling terms such as “What to buy the child with Aspergers for Christmas” or “Gift ideas for children with autism and sen”

Every year we do the ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ feature where the children showcase and review some toys. This year I’ve been a bit busier than other years so the feature has been on a much lower scale than previous. However, any review that little man does tends to get pretty high page views for the above reasons.

Over the years little mans Christmas list has been anything other than average… Its featured many a bizarre item, from padlocks to safes, batteries to working shop tills. One year we even got a request for a whole crate of fizzy drinks.

This year as he approaches his teen years the list seems somewhat more “normal” in terms of its contents. Well, that’s except for the request to hang out with Drew McIntyre his WWE idol and that of a life sized 4D simulator (needless to say both requests are somewhat out of my reach)! As you can see, Little man isn’t the type of child who scores the Argos catalog for ideas.

With this, I thought it would be interesting to pop over to my Facebook page “A boy with Aspergers” and ask some of the members there what their child with Aspergers has requested for Christmas whether this year or in past years.

Its important to remember that despite any diagnosis, all children with Aspergers have different likes and dislikes, yet unsurprising the results show lost of similarities.

Firstly – LEGO seems to be that of the biggest contender, especially when it comes to boys on the spectrum. Many will know that my little man started to discover the joys of LEGO a few years back and as a result it featured heavily on last years Christmas list and has subsequently made a return this year.

Many of the members over on the ‘A boy with Aspergers’ Facebook page state that their child has either asked for Lego StarWars, Lego Hero’s or just LEGO full stop.

One member told me “Anytime people ask my son what present he wants for any occasions they will get the answer in number form. Because my son’s world revolves around LEGO and its not a ‘Lego truck’ its the model number 4435 or whatever the number maybe”

Other answers highlight that younger children on the spectrum have developed obsessional interests in super heroes with Batman being one child’s special interest for the past 6 years. This child’s Christmas list consists off Batman Merchandise and again LEGO.

It’s also apparent from reading members replies that as their children have aged many of the their requests have changed and now focus on technology. Xbox and PS3 appears a number of times with one member mentioning the new Book of Spells which little man is currently reviewing and thinks is wonderful.

Some members stated how their child wanted to connect with others online to play games over that of the PS3 or Xbox networks. I can relate to this as since little man got his PS3 in October for his birthday, he has discovered the joy of connecting with friends (mainly our extended family) to play against them on FIFA or WWE.

Another big contender was of course the IPad. Is it any surprise? Even I’m wishing for the latest iPad.

Most of the members on the page that took part in the discussion, are parents to boys on the spectrum but a few parents to girls were also happy to share their daughters wish list. One of the page admins shared that her daughter has actually asked for a fridge for her bedroom where another member stated that her daughter wanted money so she could bank it. Yes, this little girl wants her own farm in the middle of nowhere and is already saving for it (and no, I’m not talking about a plastic toy farm but that of an actual farm). Another little girl has asked for a unicorn pillow, slippers and a Star Wars DVD box set (which seems to be popular with both the girls and the boys).

Another item that reappeared more than once was that of spy items such as spy pens and night vision goggles. Again, I can relate as Little man is in love with a spy watch that has a dictaphone and secretly video records (yes, it does actually tell the time too)!

In terms of the more bizarre items here’s some that made me giggle…

Magnets (boy)
A Custard Doughnut (boy 5)
Feather Duster (little girl)
Farm In the Middle of Nowhere ( girl 11)
Cell Phone & Pocket Knife (boy 5)
Electric Leaf Blower (boy 6)
Pyjamas With Feet (boy 9)
To Be Just Like Santa Himself (boy)
Lottery Ticket/Scratch card (boy 7)
Fridge in bedroom (girl 10)
A white keyboard without computer (boy)

Biggest Contenders

LEGO
MOBILE PHONES
IPADS
SPY TOYS
STAR WARS
WWE
TRAIN SETS
PS3
XBOX
LAPTOPS
LASERS
HOTWHEELS
HARRY POTTER
SUPER HEROS (Batman etc)
SONIC
JAMES BOND DVDS
SKYLANDERS

Ooo… I almost forgot one… Mindcraft seems to be on everyone’s most wanted list too!

Special Thank You – This post was put together with the help from members of the Facebook page ‘A Boy With Aspergers’ Thank you so much to those who took part in the discussion.
Claire- Louise. Xx

Little Man Has Turned Scottish

Have you ever heard about those with Aspergers being able to change their voice (the way in-which they talk)?

I have, you see, I’ve been living with a child who has suddenly gone from English to Scottish basically over night.

His obsession with WWE and TNA wrestling is the cause. His favourite wrestler is Drew Mclntyre and he happens to be from Scotland.

The Little man started out by just copying his entrance walk into the ring, he then started to paint his face the Scottish flag and now his mastered the accent.

Now, I have nothing against the Scottish people of the world, I have many Scottish friends. However, the little man is not Scottish and although the accent is mastered down to a T, he is actually driving me loony speaking this way.

Yes, of course in the beginning it was a little bit funny (after all he sounds just like him)! But you really can only tolerate so much of it. His even using the voice when it comes to him requesting things etc. I don’t think his doing it at school… Well, I can only hope he isn’t that is!

Over the years Little man has spoken in a number of tones and voices, ones that he hears and then copies. For many years he would switch from his everyday tone of voice to that of a monotone one, as if he was a talking computer. His also had a strong interest in transport and would recreate the train and bus announcements… He always got it spot on. Now with his ever evolving interest in wrestling I was convinced it was just going to be the mimicking of the entrance and the actual matches… But this, this is just bonkers!

However, this type of behaviour isn’t one that is completely unknown with those on the autism spectrum. I decided to look into this more and had a look on google to see what I could find. I actually came across a conversation trend on “Wrong Planet” that was started by a 16 year old British girl with High Functioning Autism. She states that she is a naturally quiet person but when she does speak she speaks with a strong Irish or Scottish accent despite her naturally having a British accent. She states she chooses to speak this way and people now know her to do so.

There is also a section in a book wrote by Tony Attwood on this very subject. I took this quote from the Tony Attwood website … “My mother tells me I was very good at capturing the essence and persona of people. At times I literally copied someone’s looks and their actions. I was uncanny in my ability to copy accents, vocal inflections, facial expressions, hand movements, gaits and tiny gestures. It was as if I became the person I was emulating (p.22).

Being Driven Crackers

Wow… Little man is driving me crackers. This evening his done nothing but talk about wrestling to the point I’m almost smacking my own head against the wall!

His overly obsessed now, I truly never thought anything could come as close as his transport obsession! Obviously I was wrong.

The worst part is how his interest in wrestling is keeping him awake at night again. His back using the melatonin but as usual its not providing much relief. Worse still school inform me that his acting very out of character. It’s been reported that his been saying pretty bizarre stuff like “He would be more popular if he went to prison” this was said as he was asked why he was misbehaving… Another one of his answers was “He gets more respect and makes more friends this way!”

School enquired if it was his medication that could be causing such behaviours… I didn’t think so, but now I’m sat writing this I’ve come to realise that he does actually have more unsettled school days following a night on melatonin.

Anyhow… Back to the obsession that is wresting.

Recently little man discovered a competition on the Internet that is centred around his interest in wrestling. The good think is that the competition doesn’t only relate to his interest but also in that of literacy… Something he is actually reluctant to engage in.

In order to win his dream prize of meeting his favourite wrestler and watching a live show, he will need to complete a number of literacy and wrestling related tasks.This is great as it will encourage him to do literacy but he refuses to let me share it with his teacher. Yet, his literally talked about this competition non stop and has been demanding that we get started right away.

Last night I was in bed sleeping when I was suddenly rudely awaken at the crazy hour of 3.55 am by the little man. His reason for this was to ask me a question, one that apparently couldn’t wait until a sensible hour! The question was “Mum, How many people do you think will enter the competition and how much percentage does this give me off winning?” I swear if looks could kill… I was livid, not that the little man could tell because he just keep asking… On and on and on…

Its not only the competition that’s kind of grating within my slowing brain, its also the non stop noise that comes with having a wrestling mad 12 year old son. Sometimes I could swear we’re experiencing an earthquake (regardless of the fact we live in the UK). The banging and crashing about is just unbearable. I find myself screaming at the top of my lungs for him to cut it out but 99.9% of the time he cannot hear me above his own noise pollution.

I have heard the same tune, the same cheers, and the same sodding intro that all accompany his favourite wrestler into the ring a million times. If its not blasting through the TV speakers its being played full whack on youtube and if its none of the above you can bet your life on it that his mimicking every word therefore commentating the whole intro from memory.

I can look little man dead in the eye and tell him “Sorry son but I couldn’t give a monkeys backside about whatever his name is” yet he will take no notice, continue feeding me with not so fascinating facts on his favourite wrestler! I try to show an interest, I really do but actually it scares me to try as once I’ve started I’m quickly wishing I hadn’t as hours later I’m still trying to break free.

I dunno… Maybe as he ages these obsessional interests will be more self controlled. I hate the thought of him being a young man who totally dominates an entire conversation based around his own interests. Its just not healthy… He could lose out on friendships and relationships.

Nonetheless, with his great ability to learn combined with his social skills training provided by school, I’m hopeful that all will come good in the end.

Check out Little Mans wrestler inspired face paint…

Our Dream Of A Sensory Room

When I saw the home makeover competition being run by Tots100 & ratedpeople.com I knew I had to enter it!

You see, the prize money of £2,500 to makeover a room in your house would enable us to do things that are currently far beyond our reach. My home is far from perfect, in fact its not in particularly good shape at all. I won’t even show you pictures of our half missing ceiling in the living room (yes its fell down twice almost killing us) and I’m still waiting for the second repair. However its not repairs for my living room that I have on my mind, nor is it the thought of a beautifully decorated home… No no! It’s actually the children’s rooms, especially that of the little mans.

It pains me to show you any pictures of my sons room. It’s horrid and its current state is not helping his sensory needs or that of his sleeping problems. But as I’m seriously struggling to pay for this room to be fixed up (on top of others) I feel I actually cannot afford to miss this opportunity and therefore must. Firstly let me explain some of our issues. We discovered his ceiling was actually made from Polystyrene which is a serious fire hazard so needed ripping down. Of course it was hiding something! His walls are also crumbling and the housing fixed the floor board by covering it up with rubbish hard board which has staples all over it.

Ok… I’m doing it I’m actually uploading the horror for the world to see…

Little man has Aspergers Syndrome with sensory processing difficulties within all areas of his senses. His also a very poor sleeper. For us this would be so much more than a nicely decorated 12 year old boys bedroom! It would be our sons sanctuary, a bedroom come sensory room! This is something that would make a significant difference In his life and that of ours, his family. I honestly believe it would improve his extremely poor sleeping pattern and therefore mend mine a little.

I have so many ideas when it comes to the creation of Little mans sensory room. It would be an environment that provides him with a very laid back, chilled out space. It would be filled with things to help relax him, therefore enhancing his moods, providing sensory stimulation and importantly a great nights sleep. We know sensory rooms are a key part of little mans school routine and we know such a space could change a lot of behaviours and difficulties. I’ve tried my best to make it as inviting as possible but in all honesty at the moment its a poorly used space that as you can see, isn’t fit for use… A few sensory lights are all he currently has to jazz. It up

Below are some of my ideas…

Colour: its very important for us to ensure little mans room is very visually inviting. Bright colours are something that form a big part of this vision.

Foam mats: Little man is really into WWE Wrestling at present and its a very intense (special) interest. This means that he is forever acting out the moves displayed by his favourite wrestler. He currently has no carpet and the noise is unbelievably loud. He throws himself around the room like crazy regardless of the hour (neighbours have actually felt the need to knock at 4 am). The mats would be perfect for his sensory room. He would be safer (less bumps and bruises) and our house may just stop vibrating giving us a pleasant relationship with the neighbours!

Teen style: Its important that regardless of little mans needs and that of his room having a sensory element to it, his room still has that stylish WOW factor about it. He is 12 years old and well on his way to becoming a teenage boy. He wants a room that don’t only provide sensory comfort but looks the part too! This is why I’ve chosen the super cool sliding door wardrobe, he would absolutely love this.

Mood Lighting: A massive part of any sensory room is its lighting.The lighting in the collage background above is LED night lighting which I know he would love. His a big fan of the lava lamp and the one above would fit perfectly. As you can see from both the above image and that of the one below, a variety of mood lighting is the key to the creation of a great sensory room.

Cool down area: With the addition off some cushions, bean bags and a little dim lighting you find you have created the perfect chill out space. What’s great about a sensory room is how you have the one room yet a number of different spaces within it. A sensory room is designed to be calming and inviting. But it can provide a space designed to stimulate the body and mind. The chill-out space in itself would be the ideal place to help little man shake of any stress or simply recover following a meltdown.

Hammock: The hammock would help little man with the difficulties he experiences due to his out of sync vestibular sense. This means that he often experiences poor body awareness (where his body is within space) A great way to describe this feeling would be to imagine what it feels when you go on a fairground ride that throws your body about in all directions, lifting your feet of the ground at speed or dropping you from a great hight. A hammock or swing would actually work as a therapeutic aid as well as a relaxing space.

The sensory curtain in the above picture is fantastic. Little man recently saw one like this at an expedition and instantly took to it! It’s a very tactile curtain and would be an ideal feature for his very own sensory room.

As for the bed, again i’ve taken into account his need for a stylish space as well as a sensory one. This bed is fantastic! It continues on the bight colour theme what with its striking green wood and very modern design. It’s also a great bed in terms of storage (something his room is currently lacking). I’ve also chose the funky tall unit with brightly coloured storage boxes to store all them wrestling figures and truck loads of Lego.

One of my favourite aspects of a sensory room is how tactile they can be. Little man is very tactile defensive and needs a lot of tactile input to help him adapt and improve his tactile sense. Given he loves Lego the idea of a Lego wall is a great one. It’s very tactile and will further enhance his imagination.

I’ve really enjoyed pulling my ideas together for this challenge. I’ve had them floating around in my head for the last few years and although certain elements have slightly changed (like chosen items and colours) the overall desire to create such a wonderful space remains very much the same.

As a self diagnosed pin head, pinterest is yet another place you can find more of my sensory and autism related boards! I’ve also created one especially for this competition. You can find it by clicking Here

So… There you have it… Our current dream of a sensory room and some very shabby existing interior.

Please note: If like myself you are wanting to create a sensory room, I recently discovered a post on a blog called PlayPennies on creating sensory rooms on a budget. Really worth a look.

Disclaimer: This post is my entry into the Tots100 and RatedPeople.com Home Decor Competition.

The stepping stones to independence

As my child takes another huge step in his life’s journey I feel my heart burst with pride.

Little man has come so far in such little time. If you asked me 2 years ago if I thought he would be at the place he is now, my answer would have been, “probably not” considering how bad things were once upon a time, this fact alone should be a comfort for any parent who are now stood in the shoes I once stood in.

We have some incredibly tiresome days, ones filled with rage and anger, others filled with anxiety and disappear.

Yet, one needs to understand that like anything in life, we take the rough with the smooth. Ok, at 4am when his well past that tired stage when his running around pretending to be a wrestler, crashing and banging as he repeatedly throws himself off the backs of the sofas, before gathering up speed and darting from one wall to another, roaring and shouting as he mimics those overgrown kids that consider themselves men on WWE, I do feel a rather sorry for myself, the siblings and even our poor neighbours.

Evenly the smooth part does come through, and although it normally last far shorter than that of the rough… It’s a delightful place to find yourself in.

Despite the issue we’ve been experiencing with Little mans reluctance to eat a packed lunch as opposed to something he can heat in the school microwave (this is no longer allowed) His still coping outstandingly well with all these major changes that have taken place.

I can slowly see the pieces coming together. His growing up and with it his learning the skills of independence needed to go with it. Yes, I worry he will have difficulties in adult life, but then again what mother doesn’t? Finally… I feel progress is being made and It’s this progress that fills me with hope for my little man’s future.

Here’s to another great week, next week…. I’m told positiveness is the key and I hope that this key opens many doors for little man.

When special interest turn deadly

I like blogging, you like reading!

I’m a bit obsessed with twitter, shopping and art! You really love football and Facebook!

Admittedly some of us over indulge our sense with our interest, we spend a little to much time tweeting or playing a computer game when we could actually be doing something much more practical. However, we are fully aware of this naughty bit of pleasure seeking and therefore find ourselves eventually applying some self discipline. A good example of this would be a person needing to go to work, they may want to stay home engaging in whatever it is they love doing but they understand that this won’t pay the bills (that is unless the work is their interest)!

As some may already know, little man has very intense interests and these are what one would refer to as a “Special Interest” when I write about little mans interest I struggle to find the right words, especially ones powerful enough to create a visual picture in the readers mine. For these reason I often worry that those who have such little understanding of Aspergers Syndrome and special interest, may only ever really compare this to that of the above.

Today I’m going to try and change this by telling the story of my sons special interest! The intensity and love he holds for such a subject. The high intellectual knowledge which he has gained from self educating himself on every aspect this subject has to offer. The smiles & laughter it has created as well as the comfort and sanctuary it has given him.

Yet as great as the above may seem like everything there is a downside, and like most things associated with Aspergers Syndrome there is no in between!

The Little man happily unrolled the toilet roll around the entire house, he was making tracks for his invisible bus to drive along. Little man was that invisible bus. He could visualise this as long as he had one or two props to create a front and back to his bus. He would use a spoon held in one hand for the front, and a pencil in the other hand to create the back! Let’s not forget the sunglasses he would use to recreate the motion of the doors a long with the continuous beeping sound he would make. He would walk around and around for hours, speaking in a monotone voice as he recreated the destination announcements heard on both trains and buses.

I would feel a degree of anger when people stated a child like mine lacked imagination skills. This needed expanding on so those who had no idea began to gain a better understanding. Yes, little man played the same game over and over again. He was mimicking something based on fact not fiction, yet his creativity was seen when he used imagination to think outside the box. Rather than play with a toy bus, he was the bus! How many children would think to use a spoon, sunglasses and pencil in such a way?

From the age of around 2 Little man started to show an interest in transport. This started with Thomas the tank engine, but having quickly discovered the fiction that surrounds Thomas he turned his attention to the real deal. As he grew he would try to suppress his interest within the school setting making them much more intense once home. His great love for the subject meant it was hard to engage him in anything else. There were many sleepless nights, it’s easy to turn of your child’s computer and demand they go to bed, but I was unable to demand little man switched of his mind. He would go to bed and just lay in the darkness randomly running through bus and train timetables and destinations, often beeping and recreating the motion of the doors with his hands.

Despite the late nights, constant transport chat I embraced little mans interest! When he wasn’t allowed on school trips we had our own at the London transport museum. We took random bus rides around the city and went to toy fairs in search of old rare models. But when things become very bad at mainstream school I noticed Little man becoming completely lost in his world of transport, the only place he felt safe! When excluded from school he would sit studying the various routes of trains, tubes and buses, he would not answer when called totally ignoring request whenever I made them.

Bus trips were no longer fun, he’ll police the bus, demanding passengers picked up any rubbish they dropped or removed their feet from the seat in front of them. On trains he would jump from his seat every time the train came to a stop, pressing the button to open the doors for those passengers getting off and on.

I also noticed that he would continuously slide open and shut his wardrobe door that featured a sliding door. The banging was hard to cope with especially come 3am when siblings were sleeping.

What worried me more, was the more emotionally stressed things became, especially within school, the more he would confine himself to the bedroom where the slamming would commence.

We eventually had an appointment with his paediatrician, we were currently in the middle of a discrimination battle with school. I had now removed Little man from the mainstream setting but was still looking for a special school willing to take him. The stress upon the family was apparent. It was during this appointment that little man discovered that the windows within the paediatricians office were of the sliding type. Of course he couldn’t resist to play with them and for this reason the paediatrician was able to see just how obsessive his interest had become. She wisely informed me that this was not only due to his very intense special interest but also a stress reliever, coping mechanism. We also elstablised that to a certain degree the repetitive sliding motion of doors or hand mimicking was a sensory seeking behaviour too.

It was only on this appointment did we discover how serious this was. A practice fire drill went off, little man is very bad with the high pitched noise one makes. He panics and becomes very unpredictable so when he didnt even look up, just carried on with the window I knew Little mans special interest was now deadly!

A plan was put together and I was given the hardest task of my life, to reduce and limit the amount of time little man spends on his interest. OK, I couldn’t switch of his brain but I would need to limit the other activities, especially the sliding of the doors. It was hard to be consistent! In many ways I felt half to blame. I had encouraged his interest but this is what I was always expected to do, it was always said to be a good thing! I don’t feel guilty anymore. I now understand that it’s important to support and encourage your child’s interest, what happen to little man was not my fault.

As the stress faded, once he found his perfect school, things did start to return to a more acceptable level. Now he likes Lego too and even stranger WWE wrestling has actually become his interest of choice. Yes he still likes transport but WWE is his special interest and in my opinion it’s a welcome change after 10 years.

Welcome to the world of little card people

It’s fantastic when you receive an email inviting you to try out an exciting new product and exciting is what I’d describe Carddies to be.

I had seen Carddies floating around on twitter so had popped over to their site to see what they were all about. The product itself is really simple but the idea a clever one that combines both creativity and play.

So what are Carddies?

Well, basically Carddies are a series of colouring kits that consist of card people who live in a box. Each box of carddies comes with its own theme and consists of hand drawn card people to colour, colouring pencils, hand drawn background scene to colour and little plastic stands so your carddies can stand upright and be played with.

Carddies are designed for children 3+ though the toddler who is 2, has also has been having lots of fun playing with his sisters finished set.

I love the idea behind Carrdies and feel they would be brilliant for creating social stories for a child on the autism spectrum while encouraging creativity and improvements in fine motor skills.

Carddies were kind enough to send both Alice-Sara and Little man (aka A boy with Apsergers) a pack each to try. Now Alice-Sara is very creative when its comes to arts and crafts where Little man has always had difficulties with his fine motor skills and therefore will normally give up very quickly on anything that requires any colouring.

The fact Little man was sent a football theme box of Carddies made all the difference and he had fun actually designing the kits for the players. It was a great way to unleash some inner creativity that he has and he remained on task for a little longer than usual.

What was great about the above kit was the fact this one even came with its own plastic little ball so once the players were fully customised and connected to each of their stands you could engage in some imaginative football play.

OK, Little man still hasn’t really got the who concept of imaginative play but he has recently developed a bit of an obsession in WWE and for the first time ever has asked for some play figures. We got him some and his play revolves largely around him pretending to be a WWE wrestler fighting his 10 inch figures (a little strange and creates quite a lot of noise)! Little man has asked me to tell the makers of Carddies to draw some WWE wrestlers and they will make a lot of money… Bless him!

Alice-Sara was sent a family 1 box of carddies. She had loads of fun colouring them in and giving each a name. The lovely people at Carddies even popped a few extra people and animals in with the delivery for Harley my 2-year-old toddler to play with and he loves them so much his also been happily playing with Alice-Sara’s finished family members.

As mentioned, each box comes with its own background scene to colour so it provides the children with lots to do. Little man hasn’t completed his scene yet though I’m sure he’ll find the motivation soon.

There are currently 10 sets of Carddies to choose from and many more on the way.

I love how Carddies is a family owned business. The brand is owned by two sisters, Raquel and Esther. Raquel started drawing and making little card people out of cereal boxes for her three daughters during rainy house bound holidays. Since then Raquel has drawn lots of little card people for hundreds of children.

Raquel joined forces with her sister Ester and made this lovely idea into a business that has now been nominated for many awards and loved by thousands.

Check out the Carddies site where children can join up to the special Carddies club which is packed full of exciting games and treats.

Disclaimer: This is a review post, all opinions are honest and those of my own. We were not paid to write this review but did get provided with a sample so we could share our opinions.