All Things Autism – Karen Nunn

Here we are at women's radio station. It's Anna Kennedy talking all things autism. And my guest today is Karen Nunn. Hello, Karen. Hello, Anna. And you've come all the way from the Isle of Sheppey? I have this morning, yes. I've come from a manufacturer, but I'm going back to Bucks this evening. So. Okay. So we met about three years ago at the Expo, the Brunel University Expo. We did. And can you tell a little everybody a little bit about yourself and what you do and why we've got this link? Really? Yeah, sure. Well, fundamentally, I'm in marketing. I have a couple of brands of my own and several years ago I was approached by Gary Wyatt, who owned Green Ball Games at the time. Okay. He was wanting somebody to look at the marketing strategy and development and to see where the business could go long term. And fundamentally, he was looking to set it up potentially to sell at that time. Okay. And. And he asked me to get involved and cutting a very, very long story short, I did 10 years ago and then gradually got a little bit more involved. Okay. Then three years ago, we were looking at different opportunities and things that we could support, and all the time we were looking for brain links because one of the biggest green ball game sellers is Brainbox. Okay. So we were looking at all different brain link opportunities. And through surfing and speaking to people, we looked at your fabulous charity. Thank you. And decided that we'd like to try and support and get involved. And that's when we first did our initial sponsorship of Autism Expo and came to see Autism's Got Talent. It seems to have flown by three years already. Where's that time gone? I know. I cannot believe it. And then in between times, the business did sell. Gary still remains a board shareholder. Okay. And. And he's still inventing games for the business, so there's still a fundamental link with him. However, he's slightly more distant now. A little bit more golf, I think, goes on in his life. So for families who've got children with Autumn might be interested in Brainbox games, can you sort of share a little bit of information about. So we were advised by several SEN and Applied Behaviour Analysis teachers that they were using our product. As it happens, we haven't constructed any of our games or products specifically for the autism sector. However, it so happens that they're so visual and beautifully colored and can be adapted. All of the gameplay can be adapted. So in answer to your question, in terms of which games, Pretty much all of them. Okay. Could be adapted to mixed ability Mixed age play. Okay. And so what we found with several families who might have an autistic child as well as children who aren't on the spectrum, that the child can still play the same game as his siblings or her siblings and not feel excluded. Okay. So Gary's whole process of thought initially was his vision was to have a whole family aging from 2 to 92 around a table for lunch and being able to play a great old family ball game with everybody included. So the premise of the games is very much for inclusivity. Okay. So has it got an age range, would you say? Well, we've got some preschool products, so anything really, I would say from 2 to 92 and beyond. So it really honestly, from having played them through all the time with my children of all age groups and my parents and my friends children and so on, I can absolutely, hand on heart say that we can adapt it for any age or ability child. That's great. So now a mom of a young lad on the spectrum. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and how he was first diagnosed and how you're coping as well as a mom working like myself. Working. Juggling many hats. Yes, absolutely. So my. I was employed and before actually knowing that my child had Asperger's, I did get that sense of feeling that he was going to need a little bit more time than my daughters had in some respects. So I looked at starting up my own business, which I did, which was more a consultancy business, particularly in marketing and development, as I mentioned earlier, which is how I did get involved with Green Board. Okay. But with him, I noticed certain little behaviors. And because I have a nephew who is also a little bit more severe Asperger's. Okay. Some of the traits were quite obvious to me. Okay. We decided and have still decided because of his progress that we aren't going to statement and haven't statemented. We do have an educational psychologist who's been absolutely amazing. Okay. He is a high achiever. So he doesn't find the academic side too difficult. Okay. And therefore it has been the social, emotional side that he's needed the most support with. Okay. And again, that's why I'm very pleased that I decided to take and set up my take off and set up my own business because it does give me that flexibility. And in terms of your question regarding the. How do you juggle everything? Yeah. What I try to do is the things that physically cannot be done during the evening, I make sure I do in the day. So, for example, coming here to meet you. Yeah. Other meetings and so on. But if it's administrative or anything else, then what I tend to do is do my admin in the evening. Okay. Yeah. My house is set up in such a way that I can work. I can still look after Angelo. Patrick wants to talk to me. So I just think mums adapt, really, don't we? Yes. I mean, my father, actually, he was a headmaster and he specialized in the development of naught to fives. Okay. And he would always say that a woman has a brain, in his opinion, like an open room. Okay. And men tend to be compartmentalized, and that is a bit of a general. Yeah. Phrase I would say. But I think that coming from a man. Yeah. I think that's kind of a quite a fair perspective. Be quite interested because there's a lot of talk at the moment still in the media about diagnosis. Did it take a long time for your son to be diagnosed, to get an assessment? Because I'm a patron of a charity in the Northeast called Daisy Chain and I was chatting to the CEO and he said that. That now people are waiting four years just to get an assessment, so they're having to go privately. So, out of interest, did it take a long time for your son to be diagnosed? The answer to that backs up what you've just said, because. No, because we went privately. Okay. Yeah. It's quite sad that we have to feel that we've got to do that. But then when you're reading about autism, it always talks about early intervention. I feel so sorry for these parents that cannot afford and be in the situation that you were in to pay for an assessment, because they're quite expensive. I know parents that have actually either maxed out their credit cards or they've taken out a second mortgage out on their home so they can pay for reports. So it could be something like speech and language therapy report costs £1,000, up to £1,000. Then you need an occupational therapy report, again, up to a thousand pounds. An ED psych report can cost up to £2,500. And then if you take in the local authority to tribunal, again, that's all extra cost, extra stress, the impact on the family, on the siblings, and also within the school because the teachers are not knowing what they're dealing with. They're not knowing that this child's got an autism spectrum condition. So, yeah, there's still a lot of media articles that I've been reading about that still. Parents are really, really struggling and it's very much a postcode lottery of where you live. Yeah. So I can understand that. And I think that's probably true across the board. Not even just in this area. I think with health in general, that's probably the case in terms of the postcode. So what I always say to parents, and I was terrible. I never used to have time out for myself. So for like 10 years, I felt I had to focus on both my boys because of the process that we were going through, because we set up a school and I was just so focused on everything I was doing. I was forgetting about me, I was forgetting about doing things for me and it obviously was taking a bit of a toll on me. So what do you do to relax and try and take time out? Because I have this. We started a couple of years ago, it was like a project, Take five. So it's. What do you do to Take Five? I generally go and visit one of my friends because I do get little time with the kids. I've got three children, so I do have little time. And so when I want to actually just offload and relax and go and listen to somebody else's great, great stories or even if they've got issues, it's quite nice, actually, to just go and listen to somebody else. So I actually quite like listening. Okay. Yeah. For me, I. I like Zumba or I like tap dancing. I like anything to do with dance because that's like a great de stress for me. And people think I'm mad because I sleep three to four hours a night, or however little sleep I get, but I feel that I have to do it. I didn't do it for 10 years and I felt like my arm had been chopped off because I always danced as a child. When I was five years old, I did tap dance and I always did something quite active. But then at the time, obviously, with having both my boys, I felt I had to focus on them. And then I saw an article in the newspaper that said tap for fun. And I thought that's what I need to do. And when I first went along afterwards, I just felt like a big release had been lifted off my shoulders. So when I go every Thursday, I call it my Autism Free zone. And it's where I can just do my Zumba or my tap densing or whatever it is that I'm doing. And I just find that it almost recharges me for the whole week. So, yeah, I just think that everyone needs to take five. So we completely agree. Yeah. So we're here at women's radio station talking all things autism and I'm with Karen Nunn. Hi, I'm Sarah Austin and I'm the founder of the really Helpful Club, an online and offline community that helps support and connects thousands of women in our personal and business lives. We are buzzing. Join us to share and discover your best ideas. Come to our events to meet other members and learn something new. Book now for our London workshop on 10 May helping you prepare for and manage the menopause. Membership is free. 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Women's Radio Station can give a voice to your brand. With a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, including individual programs, we can tailor your experience to you. For more information on how you can sponsor a show, go to womensradiostation.com Here we are at women's radio station and it's Anna Kennedy talking all things autism and Karen Nunn, my guest today. So, Karen, we were talking about Fidget toys just recently and we were talking about. Angelo loves them, so does my son Patrick. We've got them all over the school. Great stress relief. I understand Gary has got a few Fidget toys on the go at the moment. So do you want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, certainly. We just recently brought a few in. So we've got some balls that are different levels of texture and softness and so we've got those which are going down really well. We've got some not actual fidget spinners but sort of twizzly little toys. And Jacob's ladder, which is a great one for my son, who absolutely adores it. And we're looking at how we develop that area. Particularly, you know, we now have over 560 games. Wow. In our roster across the board, including Snap cards. And you know, we mentioned Brainbox, which we've sold nearly over 6,000. Sorry, 6 million copies of now in 61 countries in 32 languages. That's amazing. So it's a, you know, the grow we're ever looking at, what we can link with next and what might be good for children of all abilities. And as you quite rightly say, it's not just the autism kids that find it difficult to sit still or not to fidget. So, you know, from biting pencils to leaning back on chairs, the fidget toys certainly do help in the classroom. Yeah. When I was sitting on the tube on the way here, there was a young lady that stepped on the train and sat down straight away. She had a bangle that was like a. Some sort of fidget thing. And she took it off straight away and she started fidgeting with it. And it just made me think of Angelo, made me think of Patrick. And people have sort of certain things that they do every day just to get them through the day. And it might not be noticeable to people, but I noticed little things like that. So she just, you know, you could say she just was quite insular and she was like fidgety. Where she could have been on the spectrum, who knows? Well, it goes back to, I mean, even, you see, many of the, the Turkish and the Greeks have the worry beads, don't they? Yeah, they do. And realistically, you know, we don't know where that came from, but may well have stemmed from something like that where someone felt that they needed to fiddle. It was even like the Rubik's Cube. Do you remember those? And like. And they're back out again now. You see many people sort of fiddling around. I remember I got Angelo a Rubik's Cube. He pulled every single sticker of the Rubik's Cube and then was fiddling around with it. And I just thought, well, that was strange. Yeah, but you see, it would been right all the time, wouldn't it? Yeah, probably. It didn't have the stickers on. Okay, so what would you tell a younger Karen today? I always ask people this, what. So, because obviously you've gone through life now and if you were talking to young, younger self, what advice would you give to Your younger self. I think it's interesting because it kind of follows on from your question about what do I do for my downtime. Yeah. And I think it would probably be to have given myself a little bit more downtime. Yeah. It's a difficult one because there's part of me that always feels as you will completely understand, that the more the people that do more tend to be able to do more. Yeah. And I think that's the rhythm that you get into. And I have noticed that whenever I've stepped off from the rhythm. Yeah. Or any longer than those short little periods like you've said for your Zumba class or whatever. Yeah. It can knock you out of. Out of kilter. Slightly more difficult to then get back out, back on. So I think that there were. There would be elements of time that I would have taken and I think that I would have probably said to myself not to worry. Yeah. I'm a bit of a worry as well. I was worrying. But there's no point really in worry. If you think about it. It's wasted energy. It is, it is, it's wasted energy. And I do know when I stop, say for example at Christmas or if there's a week off because the boys are off school, I tend to pick up a virus or something and it's because I've stopped. And I think I thrive from being on the go all the time. I prefer it. But as soon as I stop, it's almost. It's weird. I'll pick up some virus that really knocks me for six. So I think I just need to keep going really. I think I've got better at preempting it now. Oh, have you? So I can almost feel myself getting to that brow of the hill, if you like, where I know that if I go any further I might go down the other side and fall sick with something. So even the last weekend my son was actually away with the school skiing. And so my. My one daughter's at university and the other one was she's doing her A level so she's quite self sufficient. And I decided that the Monday was just going to be an absolute wipeout. I wasn't going to do anything but watch movies. Yeah. Which I did. And I think it. Absolutely. Yeah. Sometimes it's good to watch a movie just to sort of lose yourself. I never used to really like walking much but like the last sort of six, seven years I've walked miles with Angelo. It's a good stress buster. So we go to do different parks. I've done a 10 mile walk with Clasp Charity this year. I'm doing a five mile walk with the Walk of Peace. So going along for that. And we do Zumbathons. We've got one coming up. So there's about 30 or 40 mums that are going to get together and we're going to just do two hours of Zumba and raise some money for the charity and have fun. It's about having fun. And that's what I realized that when I did strictly, I forgot what it was like to have fun. I just like. Because I'm so focused on what I do that I just forgot about what it was like to have fun. And it's. It's something that you really need to have. Well, I think that when you mix the two, when you mix your passion with having fun, the extra energy you gain from having the two things, the two running parallel together really gives it that extra oomph. And people feel that. Yeah, people can feel you resonate with the, the joy that you have in doing what you do. And I think that it shows absolutely 100% from my perspective. So Karen, what can you see yourself doing in 10 years time? Anything different or what you're doing now? Well, interestingly, I have set up a charity of my own which is about the environment, I remember you telling me. Yeah. And it's called the Emerald City Organization. And what I'm really keen on doing is getting tomorrow's adults, particularly the 7 to 11 year olds, to think about what world they want to live in tomorrow. Yep. And so what I've done is I've taken the Emerald City from the wizard of Oz and developed this plan where the Emerald City is the utopia of where we'd like to get to. And to get there, you have to follow the yellow brick road using your heart, your head and your courage. Okay. And then I've taken each of the characters to stand for an eco project. Part of the project, okay. So that Dorothy stands for clothing and textiles. The Scarecrow is for farm and food waste. The Tin man is for metal and technology. And the lion is for wildlife and nature. Sounds exciting. And they all report to the wizard of Ozone. And we have Ruby slipper and red Converse moments where which are quick wins. Okay. Things that anybody can do in their family today. Okay. To make a difference. All right. So you know, from plastic recycling to not using plastic at all to the type of paper that's used and so on and so forth. So yeah, that's what I would really like to see that have flourished in the next 10 years, if somebody wants to have a look at your website and look a little bit more into depth in that. What, what's the www.emeraldcityorg.com? okay, that's great. And if anyone's interested in the charity or they want some advice on autism, it's www.anna Kennedy online. And I wanted to say thanks very much for supporting our charity. You know, we're a small charity of volunteers but we work our socks off. I just wanted to say thank you for supporting some of the events that we're trying to raise further awareness with and we're excited because Autumn's Got Talent is coming up and obviously we've got the roadshows. So we're going to Merseyside, which is exciting and then we're also going to St Ives in July. So that's another exciting project. So I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of everyone in the charity and for supporting us and we hope to that you can support a few more of our projects. It'll be great. It's a pleasure and we really enjoy in supporting you as well. Thank you very much. So we're at women's radio station. We've been talking all things autism and it's Anna Kennedy with her guest Karen Nunn. Hollywood Babes is a unique ladies wear boutique situated in Thorpe Broadway in South End on Sea. We carefully select all our lines and offer you only the very best in women's clothes clothing. 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