Teresa Hedley
Bio
Greetings from the beach... where you'll find me exploring, reading, writing, hiking and kayaking with our local seals. I'm excited to share my stories with you via What's Not Allowed? A Family Journey With Autism. Now on Amazon + Chapters
Stories (17)
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ASD Snapshot: Erik-Vision
What Erik Saw and What I Missed I love the hammock. To me, its soft droopy form represents all that I cherish about the cottage: Time out. Lazy time. Relax, recharge, recalibrate, slow down and often, surrender. I read a bit, but mostly, I sleep away a sunny afternoon. It seems okay to do that in the hammock. In fact, I think you're supposed to. Permission to be. Form? Your choice. Gotta love the hammock.
By Teresa Hedley4 years ago in Humans
On the Road Again: Planning a Smooth Move for Children with Diverse Needs
On the Road. Again. We’re posted. That’s armed-forces-speak for transferred and Willie-Nelson-esque for “on the road again.” When you’re a military family, change is a constant. With each move, you learn to reinvent yourself, and then you do it all over again. But what’s that like when you have young children? And how about when one or more of those children has diverse needs? What then?
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Families
ASD Snapshot: An Arresting Speech
When Autism Speaks, We Listen The spring of 2016 sees Erik on Parliament Hill. He speaks to a crowd gathered to hear voices united for autism. He speaks for parents of children with autism when he says that their belief is like the Centennial Flame that burns on the Hill. It never goes out, just as our hope and our belief for our children burn brightly within each of us. Politicians, autism leaders, scientists, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas and siblings wipe a tear as Erik speaks of his poppa’s belief and of the four words that have become his guiding light. When autism speaks, we listen.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Families
Marketing a Book: Keep Firing the Pucks
Expectation vs. Reality In the beginning. . . I thought, simple: I write; the publisher promotes. Well, partially, but not quite so black and white. Turns out, getting the word out is a lot more difficult than getting the words down.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Journal
ASD Snapshot: Continue is the Power
I flew to Tokyo one week before Christmas and three months after I turned twenty-five. I had not lived in Japan long when I learned something new about myself: I was Christmas cake. I wore new words. I was learning about myself through foreign eyes.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Humans
ASD Snapshot: Can I Go?
In Transition We are still learning to drive. Months after passing the Ontario written test (six swings at the bat), we move to British Columbia: another province, another test. No biggie, I tell myself. Erik can write the BC learner's test during the last week of August, the week before college orientation begins.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Families
ASD Snapshot: Eight Crane Toilets
I am in the women's change room at the local pool. Stepping into my bathing suit, I enjoy the familiarity of the half-lockers, pocked and dented; the tiled floor, two-toned—aqua and blue—and the wooden bench where I rest my tote bag. It's odd to be back, twelve years later, to where our children learned to swim.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Families
ASD Snapshot: Two Dogs
I am at Erik’s college and I cross paths with Marla, the free-spirited fortune teller. We immediately break into big smiles and hug. Marla isn’t really a fortune teller, but if you didn’t know, you would think she was. Her own son playfully calls her a cartoon character; and if she were one, she would be drawn in animated strokes, round, vibrant, small but large in presence.
By Teresa Hedley5 years ago in Families
