How did Helpful little pictures start?

 

 

Initially my plan was just to create resources for my son Harrison to support his development and our family life, any visuals I could find were made with tiny images and mostly clip art, which just didn't work for us. But having seen how my designs have improved our home life and watching Harrisons progress I realised that there were probably other families going through similar struggles to us, so that’s when Helpful little pictures came to life! 

I'm going to jump into a bit of a back story on us that will help show how we've got to this point.

Since Harrison was very young there were a lot of little things that made me take a mental note to keep an eye on differences in behaviour to his peers, his reactions to sensory inputs, his pretty much constant activity and need for movement. I never viewed any of these as "wrong" or that I needed to fix them just to keep myself aware that there may be something behind them. I very much had the mindset of he's still a baby, let him be a baby and we can just monitor and do what we think best when the time comes. 

Fast forward to January 2022, and it was time to take things further. We had just come through the pandemic and moved house the previous August. Harrison had been potty trained and attending playgroup since November. A lot of big changes in a very short span of time. As you can imagine everything was upside down, I spoke to my husband about seeking advice from our health visitor just before christmas with my concerns of ADHD and Autism. We decided to wait until the new year, unsure if we were just being overprotective first time parents!, during this time Harrisons teacher approached me with concerns. I shared my suspicions and she agreed with them. I contacted our health visitor. 

It wasn't surprising, looking back now I can see that Harrison was completely overwhelmed and unregulated in his surroundings. Every day I would go to pick him up an anxious mess as every day there had been another incident involving his behaviour. Many times I wanted to pull him out and keep him at home but he himself would always be so excited and happy to go despite it ending in disaster every day. So we stuck it out, some help was put in place like earlier pick ups and receiving extra support from one of the adults through the day. But one massive problem we couldn't solve was the toileting. Harrison was fully potty trained for starting playgroup in November but within the first few weeks he developed a complete fear of the toilets.(but that's a story for another day)

From January that year everytime Harrison was in playgroup I would spend hours everyday on google looking for answers, phoning any charity or advice centre I could to get a better understanding of what I was dealing with and how I could parent in a way that supported his needs. This was the loneliest and most heartbreaking time I have ever experienced in my life. I would cry my eyes out thinking of what Harrion was already going through and what would come in the future. He was so young and already facing so many struggles that I didn't know how to make better. I was so scared he would be judged by others and be left out, I never wanted my baby to feel like he was wrong or not enough. I was constantly phoning our health visitor and GP for help as things had started to get really tough, this led to Harrison being put on an urgent referral list for a paediatrician appointment. 

While we waited on our appointment we started to introduce different supports and routines at home to help Harrison. We started to figure out what didn't work for him and what did. We accepted that raising Harrison wasn't going to look like what we imagined and we tried to adjust our family life to support him. Days out were adjusted, we got to know how to spot his limits and when he would get close to being overwhelmed and dysregulated and put different practices into place to help him. We figured out what helped him regulate and provided him with those opportunities. 

At our first appointment with the paediatrician it was decided to put Harrison on a referral for Autism assessment, ADHD had to take a back seat for the time being as he is under six. 

After the appointment we were able to access support and training from Autism Ni and different Autism parenting programmes. This was a massive help in understanding Harrison better and what we could do to support and advocate for him. 

We had a home visit from an Autism professional and were provided with different strategies for supporting his development. However during this visit we hit another wall in our journey. The professional had shared concerns that we might struggle to get an Autism diagnosis, they didn't see very clear signs of Autism in Harrison, he's very social and friendly and this didn't fit well with the characteristics of Autism. This was hard, I know my son, I could see where he needed help,I knew where we as parents needed help and it scared me that Harrison was in that limbo between 'autistic enough to have struggles but not autistic enough to get help'. I want to make clear that this professional was very supportive and only expressed these thoughts as a heads up that we might have a bit of a battle ahead but to keep pushing for our son. 

This is when I realised that it was up to us as parents to provide solutions for our son. Even with a diagnosis there isn't a team of people waiting to help afterwards. You need to be the one to do something. So I did. Every training course I could find, I did, I kept notes on any struggles he was having and researched the best ways to support them. I read every reliable source of info I could find, which was difficult with all the misinformation plastered online. I made myself so intune with Harison that I could predict what scenarios would cause upset, pants on before socks? nope not unless you want a meltdown. Another child gets too close at the playground, he's gonna hit out in self defence, guide him to a distance. You're going to cough? pre-warn him so he can cover his ears. You end up using the same plate for lunch two days in a row? That's a routine now, it will always be that plate at lunch. You constantly have to be "on'' guessing what's coming next before it happens. It is exhausting. It gets easier though. Modelling the words he needs to increase communication, now he can tell me what he's not okay with. (most of the time)

Then we discovered visuals. Such a simple idea that could provide so much help. We tried so many! He seemed to like the idea but the styles and layouts just didn't translate to him. We could see how the images were confusing him and knew we weren't getting the full benefit out of them. I started to hand draw on scraps of paper or a white board, this helped, it was clearer for him, he understood the images, but this was stressful as I was under pressure trying to quickly draw the steps needed while he was getting agitated waiting. 

And so Helpful little pictures was created! Honestly seeing the difference they have had on him has been amazing! He's taking charge of his day, his understanding has improved, we are all able to communicate more clearly, and having a visual to support us has taken away the stress and need for verbal repetition of tasks. Visual aids have been the biggest success out of any resources we have tried in our home and I'm so glad that I made myself try to create something better for him. No matter how hard it was. 

Once I saw the positive impact they were having I realised that we couldn’t be the only family in need of these resources.

So I took a chance and began setting up my business. 

I spent months picking apart what worked and what didn’t. Tried so many designs and made adjustments. Worked every hour Harrison was in school and back to it again when he was in bed. Until I managed to get every little detail figured out, every colour, layout, size, drawing was tweaked and redone to get it just right for kids and grown ups. I had to relearn all the design software, having not used it since Uni and I didn’t even have a computer to use at the start! Enrolled on programmes to learn about setting up and running a business. Worked with my local enterprise centre to get guidance and support, got involved with Women in Business and found a great network of supportive women all on their own mission.

I love creating visuals and seeing how much they help! I’m working on more designs and topics and can’t wait to provide more options for you and your family! If you have any specific areas where you need support send me a wee email or message on our socials and I’d be happy to help! 

Supporting young minds, one helpful little picture at a time!

Kerri x