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An Interview with Lynda Farrington Wilson, Author of Squirmy Wormy

I was given the opportunity to ask some questions of Lynda Farrington Wilson, the author of Squirmy Wormy, a book I reviewed last week.

I hope you find her answers as enlightening as I did.


1. While it's obvious that your sons were a major influence, what motivated you to write a "children's" book on autism and spd?

When my son Tyler was diagnosed with autism, my world spun into a research journey. I was on a quest to understand and gain insights into the way he approached the world. I would ask every professional I would encounter questions like,

  • Why does he spin the wheels on his toys cars and watch the ceiling fan spin?
  • Why does he stare at the rolling credits on the television?
  • Why does he run back and forth for hours?
The answer was always the same, because he has autism. I continued to seek and provide therapies for my son, still frustrated by what I called the autism black hole. However, as we implemented sensory strategies to help in his sensory processing disorder, the behaviors began to subside. As we gained control of the autism we were able to focus on teaching, growing and healing. The black hole was not as mysterious as it was purported, and was replaced by hope. I wrote the book so Tyler and other families, teachers and therapists could have that same hope.


2. Your book is quite unique in the way that it is directed at both adult carers and children simultaneously. Was this your original intention or did it come about when you started revising your material?

Once I realized that sensory issues were such a big part of autism, I wanted to help my son learn to self regulate, or at least have the opportunity to point to a picture to help me to understand what he needed. I created the book as a resource to help my son and to share what I had learned with the parents, teachers and therapists that were not aware of the huge benefits of a sensory diet. It is the book I wish I had when I was trying to make sense of our sensory world.


3. You offer a great deal of useful advice for dealing with difficult behavior in your book. Was it difficult to restrict yourself to just a few?

I didn’t really see it as addressing difficult behaviors, although it does do that, but rather find the cause and effect of behaviors that I was told by many that were ā€œjust autismā€. I tried to give play to many different sensory strategies, in addition to replacing the more socially unacceptable behaviors, like watching the ceiling fan spin, to spinning on a merry-go-round at the park. One behavior makes him ā€œlookā€ like he has autism, and one is just playing on the playground with his peers, addressing the same vestibular needs. A simple paradigm shift makes all the difference.


4. How does your son Tyler feel about the book? Is he excited to be in a story of his own?

Tyler is comfortable with the book as it was created as a social story for him, grandiose, yes, but in its truest form, a social story. We’ve been using the illustrations and text right off my drawing board for many years now. I don’t know that he sees the ā€œexcitementā€ factor as creating illustrations and stories to help him through his challenges is a part of our everyday lives, but we do refer to it as ā€œour bookā€, and I call him ā€œmy Squirmy Wormyā€. I would imagine that he doesn’t really understand that having your name and picture in a book isn’t commonplace for every little boy—and that’s what I love about him!


5. You really seem to have gotten into Tyler's character and seen the world the way he sees it. It's difficult for me, as a dad with limited home-time, to get that deep into my children's characters. What sorts of things did you do to get that unique perspective.

My most defining moment with this book was when I was illustrating the page where Tyler is saying, ā€œSometimes I feel like things are running around in my head so fast that they don’t make senseā€¦ā€ He looked at the picture, and at a time when he had very little language, pointed to the picture and said, ā€œThat’s Tylerā€. I asked, ā€œIs that how you feel when your head is mixed up?ā€, (that’s our term for sensory overload) and he said, ā€œYesā€. I knew then that for the first time, I had crossed into his world, and continue to observe, embrace and celebrate his uniqueness.

For me, it’s a privilege to be ā€œlet inā€ to see the awesomeness and complexity of his mind. I find that sometimes that unique perspective is there for the taking by continuing to ask him questions about himself, and on the days I was meant to experience a small miracle, he will respond with an insightful answer.



More of Lynda Farrington Wilson's work can be seen at http://lyndafarringtonwilson.com/ and the book Squirmy Wormy can be purchased from Amazon.

Comments

Caitlin Wray said…
This reads like a narrative of the journey we took with Simon just a short month ago. Days filled with questions I wasn't even sure I understood, and nights filled with sleepless searches for answers that, as described in the interview, were often inadequate.

Simon frequently describes his brain as "all mixed up" - and we are on a mission to help reduce whatever triggers we can find that cause those mix-ups. I too find that getting glimpses into Simon's truly fascinating way of experiencing the world are like my everyday miracles. Gifts abound in autism. Really looking forward to getting this book and having my son share it with me. Thanks Gavin for this interview!
Virginia Revoir said…
Hello! It's nice to meet you. I also have an Asperger blog. :D

http://meetchaz.blogspot.com
Anonymous said…
"Squirmy Wormy" is a great book to use with children. Instead of feeling isolated from everyone else, they can relate to a child just like themselves.

Lindsey Petersen
m said…
the more perspectives out there like this, the better. thanks for posting the interview and the review. she sounds great.
Miguel Palacio said…
hahahaha even as adults we get sensory overload and our minds get "all mixed up".

It happened to me in front of my boss when he asked me several disparate questions in rapid succession. My head just started to explode and my arms were actually flailing.

He'd never seen me like that before and I usually keep myself pretty much "under wraps" so he thought it was rather odd and wondered if something was "wrong" with me. I was not prepared to share my condition with him as I generally don't trust the workplace with such info as I've generally noticed that, rather than attempting to be accommodating, instead, they use it against you. Only two very trusted people knew and at least one other might have suspected, but she was cool, so I didn't mind.

Interactions with that boss were odd after that until I was reassigned, probably because of that.

I can cope a lot better now, so such instances are much less frequent.

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