Please note: All images have basic ALT text descriptions for visually impaired readers, but if anyone wants a more detailed breakdown of a photo (e.g the ones containing multiple books), please leave a comment and I will respond with a more thorough breakdown.

The book launch of “Being Autistic (and what that actually means)” is done and dusted, and happily etched in my memory.

My favourite part of the evening was when a little boy told me “I’m autistic and I’ve never met another autistic person before”, and now here he was in a room full of autistic people, and feeling part of something bigger, and not alone.

Another special moment for me was when I was reading the section in my book on autistic stimming (which is a type of repetitive movement or behaviour that autistic people can do to regulate themselves) and the children started putting their hands up to tell me about their own stims. In that moment, in that room, autism was normalised to those children, which was one my biggest goals when I decided to write this book.

How I made the launch Autism Friendly:

The launch took place in Dubray bookshop, Cork. Dubray were wonderful to work with, and together we did the following to make this an Autism Friendly book launch:

1. I made a Visual Plan/ social story that showed what to expect at the book launch, and when to expect it. This included photos of the venue, and most importantly, explanations about where to go if anyone needed a quiet place, including the quiet corner or downstairs in the bookshop. This was the social story:

2. There was a Quiet Space prepared at the opposite side of the room to where the launch was happening. This quiet space had armchairs, a bean bag, cushions, fidgets, ear defenders and colouring. It was not possible to have the Quiet space in a different room, which would be the ideal type of Quiet space, but it was separated from the main launch space by multiple bookshelves.

3. There was a variety of places to sit, including chairs, cushions, bean bags and blankets, which gave people a Sensory Choice of where they were most comfortable to sit (although a lot of adults had to stand as there was quite a big crowd!)

4.There were Fidgets and Ear Defenders available in abundance so anyone who wanted them could use them. Fidgets help a lot of neurodivergent kids to focus and listen (even if they look like they are distracted and not paying attention), and ear defenders allow noise sensitive kids to hear less background noise.

4. There were colouring sheets of illustrations from the book on clipboards (thank you to the illustrator Rebecca Burgess for making these for me!). The clipboards were to prevent the sheets tearing. This gave the children an Activity and Focus on arrival, so there was no pressure to communicate nor socialise if they did not want to.

5. I considered the Attention Span of the age group, and kept the reading and speeches short as some of the autistic kids present were quite young. A good friend of mine, Eve McDonnell, who is a children’s author, introduced me, and kept it short and fun.

6. People could choose from a Choice of sharpies or pens (including a choice of colour) for the book signing. I also made it clear that children did not need to get their book signed unless they wanted to. NB: While most of the kids loved the choice as it gave them a conversation topic when they reached me, some kids found the choice stressful. When I saw that a child was stressed by the choice, I chose for them by saying “How about I use my favourite one, that’s the blue pen…” which worked well. It was also really important not to rush the kids while making their choice, as autistic kids can take a bit longer to process language and choice.

7. There was a choice of drink flavours (cordial) and plain water to cater to different sensory tastes.

Extras: Displays of books with Neurodivergent Representation:

My children love when books have characters similar to themselves, as we probably all do. I asked Dubray could they do a display of kids books with autistic or neurodivergent characters, and books written by neurodivergent authors. Dubray did a brilliant display of books for children of all ages and interests, both fiction and non-fiction.

Not only did they do a kids book display but they did an adult one too.