My name is Angel, and this is my autism confession. By Angel Nikki Mann I loved being quarantined. Now before you get upset, please understand that I’m not saying I like Covid. When I first started hearing about “coronavirus,” I, like many people, was alarmed. I had just started working at a child …

5th in the ‘Happy Sawyer’ series By Nikki Mann In the 6-week break before Sawyer was due to start reception class, I was anxious about how he would cope and whether he would be able to fit in with his peers. Uniform and books started to arrive, along with the stark realisation that I was about to r…

4th in the Happy Sawyer series By Nikki Mann  I suppose I don’t think of Sawyer as autistic any more frequently than I consciously acknowledge that he has blue eyes, or that his 3 year old sister whinges for most of the livelong day. So when I put his school bags on the same cushion of th…

3rd in the new series on the Art of Autism titled ‘Happy Sawyer’ By Nikki Mann It’s like this: The build up to diagnosis feels a bit like climbing a really steep hill, without knowing what you will find at the top. The whole way up, you know which direction you’re aiming for, but you have no idea w…

2nd in the new monthly series of ‘Happy Sawyer’ By Nikki Mann I don’t think I’d realised how much Sawyer’s first 2 or 3 years had affected me emotionally until I started writing it all down, and I don’t think I’d realised until now how much my life has been changed by them. I have so many stories to…

1st in the new monthly Art of Autism series of ‘Happy Sawyer’ By Nikki Mann My son is sitting next to me as I type this. He is wearing a Thomas the Tank Engine top, holding his favourite Thomas the Tank Engine toy, whilst watching Thomas the Tank Engine tutorials on YouTube. For those of you unfami…