Donna Williams

An eye-opening and enlightening collection of stories from people living with Selective Mutism (SM), this book provides a much-needed platform for people with SM to share experiences of the condition in their own words.Exploring all aspects of SM, from symptoms and diagnostic criteria, to triggers and the consequences of being psychologically unable to speak, the stories in this book dispel the myths around this often misunderstood condition. Far from refusing to talk, or choosing not to, the contributors offer genuine insights into why they simply cannot speak in certain situations or in front of certain people. Children, teens and adults from the UK and US share experiences of feeling isolated, struggling at school, and finding ways to communicate. Letting people with SM know that they are not alone with the condition, the book will also help family, friends and professionals to understand what it is like to live with SM.

This book is a resource for anyone wanting to be freed from their past and its hold on their life so they can pursue with passion all the God has for them.

Granny squares have been a beloved tradition with crocheters for more than 100 years, but these graphic granny afghans from Donna Williams make a dramatic break from tradition Follow her patterns to crochet five exciting looks, or create your own mosaic art using her technique of arranging solid-color squares and two-color triangle squares. Donna' s designs include Painted Eggs, Puzzled, Belt Buckles, Greys on Pink, and Five C's. All are for Easy skill level, using medium weight yarn and hook size G (4 mm). Charted variations of the designs are called Echoes, English Garden, Barrel of Monkeys, Flower Power, Southwest, and Zigzag. A blank grid is included for charting additional variations.

Chris and Andrew are very good friends, but sometimes Chris does things that Andrew doesn't understand. Chris can hear a fly buzzing when it's a mile away! But he doesn't like bright flashing lights like the ones on Andrew's favourite arcade game. Chris and Andrew have lots of fun together, but at times they laugh at completely different things - it doesn't matter though, because everyone is different, and being different can be rather cool!Chris and Andrew are here to help people understand the experiences of a child with autism, and how others can help by understanding how they are different, and recognising their many unique talents.This fully-illustrated book is targeted at boys and girls aged 5+, and also serves as an excellent starting point for family and classroom discussions.

His book captures the nostalgic romanticism of the Australian bush in the 1960s but also the height of deep ignorance and the culture of `see no evil' in which almost all who could and should have changed things, looked the other way... Caiseal's book is as beautiful and magical as it is shocking.'- From the Foreword by Donna WilliamsGrowing up in Australia in the 1970s, Caiseal Mór was labelled 'retarded' and 'an idiot', and his parents were led to believe that physical punishment could cure his autism.In this courageous and captivating autobiography, Mór vividly captures his early experiences of dissociation from his true existence - a common reaction by children suffering from repeated abuse - and the various personas through which he lived through in his teens and early adulthood - the Mahjee, Charles P. Puddlejumper, Marco Polo and Chameleon Feeble. The rocky path towards discovering his true identity and finally accepting himself takes him on a spiritual pilgrimage via several different countries, once nearly getting caught unwittingly carrying drugs over the Moroccan border; forming relationships with people he meets but very often misjudges; to the revelation - the awakening - of love and acceptance.

Jeanette Purkis spent her early life reacting violently against her feelings of embarrassment, anger and confusion about her 'difference' from other people. She was unaware until well into adulthood that everything she found difficult, including her lack of success in forming relationships, could be a result of having Asperger Syndrome.Used to being a misfit from a very young age, Jeanette found that being a member of a group in which she had a label - Jeanette the Communist; Jeanette, Enemy of the State; Jeanette the convict; Jeanette the drug addict - gave her a sense of order she could depend on, particularly in prison, where each day had a set routine and the inmates accepted her because of her rebel attitude. Finally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 20, the author only began to accept her diagnosis some years later when she felt for the first time that she might learn to cope with being herself.Jeanette's remarkable life and her journey towards finding a different kind of normal is compelling and inspiring reading for people with autism spectrum disorders, and those living or working with them.

The Jumbled Jigsaw exposes autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) not as single entities but as a combination of a whole range of often untreated, sometimes easily treatable, underlying conditions. Exploring everything from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders to information processing and sensory perceptual difficulties, including dependency issues, identity problems and much more, Donna demonstrates how a number of such conditions can combine to form a 'cluster condition' and underpin the label 'autism spectrum disorder'. Donna Williams encourages and empowers families to look at what they can do to change their child's environment to address anxiety, overload and other issues. She also gives carers the necessary information to navigate the booming autism marketplace and demand the right tools for the job. The author also challenges professionals to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to identifying and treating the cluster conditions that make up an autism spectrum diagnosis, and to improve service delivery to those in need. The Jumbled Jigsaw is a call to modern society to take responsibility and accept diversity. It is written in a very human and user-friendly way for parents and for Auties and Aspies themselves, but it is also aimed at carers, professionals, policy-makers and service providers.

For anyone who reads original poetry, this is an excellent read. Donna Williams has a unique talent for creative writing and this collection of poetry takes the reader on a journey of powerful emotions. The poetry is good, unusual and full of personal feelings experienced by the author. The poems are sometimes tear-jerking and at other times so full of humour that you want to laugh out loud. This book leaves a deep and lasting impression, helping to break down the barriers we all feel safer using when thinking of people who are 'different'. The author shows us that she is an individual and competently takes us into her confidence until we see clearly how she sees, making the reader question their own view of life. The poetry is original in its own use of language, the author making us see the world from a different angle in poems like `Peace' in which she describes her addiction to fear and `Terrorist' in which she explains some of her anger and frustration.'- Good Autism PracticeNot Just Anything is a mosaic of logic, passion and philosophical musings by Donna Williams, sometimes jolting, sometimes moving, often illuminating. In it Donna takes you on a poetic adventure into places past, present and beyond. Often intertwined with the world of autistic experience, her writings divulge with immediacy, a person in the grip of overload and shutdowns, of extreme sensory and emotional highs and passions, of alienation from self, from body and fear of the intensity of emotion, of the struggle to know self, to communicate, to comprehend. At other times, her writing somehow transcends the often assumed limitations of autism, and she dissects so many of the concepts we take for granted, bringing us face to face with our own social constructions of `reality' and so called 'normality' in a way only Donna can.

Everyday Heaven is the much-awaited fourth installment in Donna Williams' series of best-selling autobiographies about her life with autism. A humorous, riveting, roller-coaster of a book, Everyday Heaven covers the monumental nine years from the time Ian left their accidental, 'autistic marriage', to Donna's candid, funny, often bumbling explorations of sexuality and orientation, the challenge of coming to terms with the sudden deaths of those closest to her and finally knowing what life was like without the invisible cage of her 'Exposure Anxiety'. Described as enthralling, deeply moving and gripping, this book will strike a lasting chord not only with autistic readers and professionals seeking to better understand those on the autism spectrum but all of us who simply dream of daring to love deeply, to adventure and to deal triumphantly with the losses along the way.

Need to book a hotel with high-speed access? Want to impress your client with the best restaurant in town? Wish you had known that the train was faster and cheaper than a cab? The Business Travel Almanac puts the answers to these questions and more at the fingertips of the busy business traveler. Whether you're in the office or already on the road, this is the all-in-one source that you'll reference time and again. With a combination of travel advice, reference material, directory information, and city guides, this book is a unique tool for the traveling professional. The first section is packed full of information about travel in general, including airline comparisons, hotel details, and rental car options. It is presented in a directory format for quick reference, and peppered with invaluable tips that make life easier on the go. Section 2 focuses on 15 major U.S. cities that are common destinations for business travelers. Each city segment includes airport and city maps, restaurant reviews, stores that provide business services, convention center information, and much more! Cities include: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Dallas, Washington DC, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Phoenix, and Las Vegas

Exposure anxiety is a crippling condition affecting many people on the autism spectrum. This text describes the condition and its underlying physiological causes, and presents a range of approaches and strategies that can be used to combat it.

This music CD from is now available through Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It features poems written or co-written by Donna Williams set to music which she has composed. The poems provide a personal insight, revealing to the non-autistic how the world appears to the autistic person. They are also a celebration of the creative talents of Donna Williams, whose autobiography, Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl also available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers) reached the bestseller lists when published as a trade paperback.

In this fresh and positive book, Stella Waterhouse investigates how people with autism perceive the world, and discusses the symptoms, behaviours and possible causes of this condition. In addition to examining the relation of autism to hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Tourette Syndrome, she also considers the impact of anxiety and the pros and cons of some of the current treatments including secretin, diet, tinted lenses and Auditory Integration Training. Her approach emphasises the importance of taking into account the views of people with autism and their families. This is a practical and sympathetic book, which will be of interest to professionals and non-professionals alike.

Donna Williams was a child with more labels than a jam-jar: deaf, wild disturbed, stupid insane... She lived within herself, her own world her foreground, ours a background she only visited. Isolated from her self and from the outside world, Donna was, in her words, a Nobody Nowhere. She swung violently between these two worlds, battling to join our world and, simultaneously, to keep it out. Abandoned from all connection to the self within her, she lived as a ghost with a body, a patchwork of the images which bombarded her. Intact but detached from the seemingly incomprehensible world around her, she lived in what she called 'a world under glass`.After twenty-five years of being misunderstood, and unable to understand herself, Donna stumbled upon the word 'autism': a label, but one which held up a mirror and made sense of her life and struggles, and gave her a chance to finally forgive both herself and those around her.Nobody Nowhere is disturbing, eloquent and ticklishly funny: it is an account of the soul of someone who lived the word 'autism' and survived in an unsympathetic environment despite intense inner chaos and incomprehension. It describes how, against the odds, Donna came to live independently, achieve a place at university, and write this remarkable autobiography. It is now an international bestseller, sold in over 14 languages throughout the world. This is a book that will stay with you as one of the most exceptional works you will ever read.

In Like Colour to the Blind, Donna Williams enters the most exposing and fragile realm of human interaction: her relationship and eventual marriage with someone with whom she can 'simply be', a relationship she terms a 'specialship'. But loving involves exposure, and to love she must expose the very things which protected her all her life - the masks she has hidden behind, the patchwork creations which stood in place of self.In Donna's relationship with Ian, a man with difficulties related to her own, we watch the two of them break through their rock-solid emotional barriers and dare to defy all the rules imposed by the autistic condition of 'exposure anxiety'. Their struggle is told with Donna's characteristic humour, insight and sense of fragility.Like Colour to the Blind is also the story of Alex, who was misdiagnosed as 'retarded' as well as autistic, and so gripped by 'exposure anxiety' that he has been virtually non-communicative all his life. Alex's fear of being left behind by Donna and Ian inspires him to push fiercely beyond the boundaries of his limitations and, in his own words, `to fly'.

The sequel to the powerful international bestseller Nobody Nowhere, Somebody Somewhere takes us deeper into Donna Williams' Journey into the world. Her war against it is finally over, but the pieces of her life lie scattered around her.Donna recounts the often funny, sometimes harrowing awakenings arising from sessions with a cognitive psychologist, who helps her understand what she has been through and make sense of her sensory problems, information overload and 'shutdowns'. We travel with her in her breakthroughs in working with autistic children and other adults like herself, as she finally finds a way of belonging and 'simply being' among others, without selling out who she really is.Somebody Somewhere continues Donna's story in her uniquely poignant yet humorous voice.

Donna Williams' challenging book, written by an autistic person for people with autism and related disorders, carers, and the professionals who work with them, is a practical handbook to understanding, living with and working with autism. Exploring autism from the inside, it shows clearly how the behaviours associated with autism can have a range of different causes, and in many cases reflect the autistic person's attempt to gain control over their internal world. The sensory and perceptual problems that challenge a person with autism are described in depth, together with strategies for tackling them so as to enable that person to take more control of their lives. Donna Williams comments on the various approaches to autism, drawing out those strategies that are of real use, and explaining why some approaches may prove counterproductive, leaving the autistic person feeling even more isolated and misunderstood.Taking the view that understanding autism is the key to managing the condition, Donna Williams' book will bring illumination to all those who have felt baffled and frustrated by the outside appearance of autism. It contains a wealth of helpful suggestions, insights and new ideas, exploding old myths and promoting a view that all those involved with autism will find empowering and creative.