Caitlin Wray www.welcome-to-normal.com Odds are at some point in your role as your child’s advocate, you will need to write a letter to the powers that be. A masterfully crafted letter can be an incredibly powerful weapon in an advocate’s arsenal, but it’s often not an intuitive process; there are unwritten rules and unspoken expectations that need to be addressed, if you’re to achieve maximum effectiveness. I’ve spent much of my professional — and personal — life drafting letters that are designed to effect meaningful changes; it’s one of my favourite things to do (yes, I’m geeky that way). To help you find effective ways to word your own letters, here are some suggestions, along with examples from letters I’ve written as my son’s advocate: First make sure you are writing to the most useful and appropriate person. Do your research before deciding to whom you will address the letter,…
Tag: Caitlin Wray
Caitlin Wray www.welcome-to-normal.com “We fear it. We fear passion, and laugh at too much love and those who love too much. And still we long to feel.” – Jeanette Winterson We long to feel. This is the irony of a child like mine who feels too much, in a world that is losing its ability to feel at all. Have you noticed that most children have an inborn passion? Even if they cannot understand or express it outwardly in typical ways. They are grounded not in thoughts or assumptions or judgments, but in feelings. And when they have those feelings, that passion, they let it fill them up completely. Because they haven’t learned Control. Control has come to represent the zenith of success in our post-modern society. Control your weight, control your behaviour, control your finances, control your future, control your children, control your self. And yet … we still…
Caitlin Wray www.welcome-to-normal.com I have a neighbour who can’t say “autism.” Both of us having two young kids, we had a casual chat on the lawn the other day as neighbours often do, about the usual stuff. Except of course, the “usual stuff” for parents like us will strike others as highly unusual. It’s hard to make small talk about our kids without autism finding its way into the conversation. It used to make me uncomfortable; it can be awkward to find succinct ways to weave such a complex situation into an informal chat. But I no longer let society’s discomfort with autism deter me from talking about “it,” because “it” is part of who my son is, and indeed has become part of who I am. If my neighbour gets to talk about her daughter’s ballet class, then damn it all, I get to talk about my son’s karate…