When your world turns upside down after your child's autism diagnosis, where do you turn?
Uzma's compelling journey as a certified autism specialist and parent unfolds in our latest podcast episode, where she candidly shares the heartaches and triumphs of raising a child on the spectrum.
Her story is a beacon for parents wading through the complexities of early signs, diagnosis, and the maze of professional support—or the lack thereof.
Uzma's insistence on clear, jargon-free communication provides comfort and direction, offering a lifeline to those feeling adrift in a sea of uncertainty.
Embracing neurodiversity isn't just a concept; it's a transformative movement, and Uzma is at the forefront, coaching families and advising corporations on the value each unique mind brings to the table.
One success story that stands out is of a 27-year-old who learned the dance of two-way communication, a testament to the potential within everyone waiting to be unlocked. The conversation also illuminates the gender disparities in autism diagnosis, challenging us to redefine our perceptions and support mechanisms.
For those seeking guidance or yearning to contribute to the mission of understanding autism, Uzma opens the channels of connection through Instagram (@CoachingwithUzma) and LinkedIn.
This episode is not just about sharing knowledge; it's an invitation to join a community where isolation dissipates and acceptance grows.
To our listeners and anyone grappling with similar experiences, reach out, share your story, and help us cultivate a world that celebrates neurodiversity in all its forms.
https://tonymantor.com
https://Facebook.com/tonymantor
https://instagram.com/tonymantor
https://twitter.com/tonymantor
https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic
intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild
Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
When your world turns upside down after your child's autism diagnosis, where do you turn?
Uzma's compelling journey as a certified autism specialist and parent unfolds in our latest podcast episode, where she candidly shares the heartaches and triumphs of raising a child on the spectrum.
Her story is a beacon for parents wading through the complexities of early signs, diagnosis, and the maze of professional support—or the lack thereof.
Uzma's insistence on clear, jargon-free communication provides comfort and direction, offering a lifeline to those feeling adrift in a sea of uncertainty.
Embracing neurodiversity isn't just a concept; it's a transformative movement, and Uzma is at the forefront, coaching families and advising corporations on the value each unique mind brings to the table.
One success story that stands out is of a 27-year-old who learned the dance of two-way communication, a testament to the potential within everyone waiting to be unlocked. The conversation also illuminates the gender disparities in autism diagnosis, challenging us to redefine our perceptions and support mechanisms.
For those seeking guidance or yearning to contribute to the mission of understanding autism, Uzma opens the channels of connection through Instagram (@CoachingwithUzma) and LinkedIn.
This episode is not just about sharing knowledge; it's an invitation to join a community where isolation dissipates and acceptance grows.
To our listeners and anyone grappling with similar experiences, reach out, share your story, and help us cultivate a world that celebrates neurodiversity in all its forms.
https://tonymantor.com
https://Facebook.com/tonymantor
https://instagram.com/tonymantor
https://twitter.com/tonymantor
https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic
intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild
Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Welcome to why Not Me the World? Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, usa, nashville, tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. Show life people who will inspire, and show that you are not alone in this world. Hopefully, you gain more awareness, acceptance and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to why Not Me the World. Today's guest is a certified autism specialist. She has extensive experience in coaching, mentoring and advocating for individuals on the autism spectrum. She has a background in law professional coaching certifications and she has a holistic approach to autism coaching. She has a business called Coaching with Uzma and I am just so honored to have Usma with us today. So thanks for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Tony.
Speaker 1:Oh, the pleasure is all mine. Before we started this, we were talking about how confusing it is for parents who just find out that their son or daughter is autistic. Can you expand on that a little bit, on how it affected you with your son?
Speaker 2:My son. He just turned 14. And in the beginning, like you said, I was a parent who was confused, looking for a solution, looking for a quick fix, but I didn't know where to go and who to go to. And then, when I did go and turn to professionals, back then I was in the UAE. We just recently moved to the UK. I've been away for 14 years from the UK and just returned.
Speaker 2:And when we got back sorry, when I was there and I was looking for this answer I couldn't find a professional who could actually nail it down and say this is what it is, because there were so many challenges on a daily basis with my. He's my elder, so I couldn't compare him to his siblings because he didn't have any siblings at the time. And then, yeah, and I just I really was wondering what to do and I would often you know, I would often try to seek help through those days at Facebook. I think WhatsApp wasn't even around then. Yeah Well, whatsapp was just probably just started, but there's no community like that we have now and I was lost.
Speaker 2:And if I did go to somebody and they would mention all these fancy terms you know fancy terms and I wouldn't get it. I just wanted someone to talk to me in my you know my language, which is simple language, and not use all this medical terminology that I didn't understand Right, because it was. It would confuse me even further. So now you know, having like a newly diagnosed you know child and a parent come to me or because now I do, obviously I coach and I mentor and train parents and education settings and corporates, but I try to keep my language really simple because parents are overwhelmed anyway. They don't need everything being put onto them. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Sure, that makes sense. So how old was your son and what led you to believe that he needed some help in some sort of way?
Speaker 2:So okay, so we had just moved from Doha to Abu Dhabi and we were just settling into a new apartment and he was doing some like certain things that were like for me, felt strange and not kind of normal. So there's a lot of repetition in. So we had moved in, it was an empty apartment and he was sitting by the bedroom window it wasn't really a window, it was a patio door and he was just moving the blinds back and not the blinds we know, the one, the mesh that you have for the mosquitoes not to come in Right. So he was just pulling and pushing, swaying that around, like he did it well, over a hundred times. He just sat there doing the same thing, and every time you do something it would be a repetition of it. So he would just constantly do the same thing over and over again. And then when I started taking him out to play groups, he would not transition very well.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:He wouldn't point, he wouldn't give me eye contact. There were the typical traits that they say at the signs of autism he had. So I picked up very early he's about 11 months when I thought something is not quite right. Right, and that's when I started looking for professional help. Fast forward five years he's almost six I still hadn't found an answer. And in that process of six years I put him into nurseries various nurseries with different curriculums. We tried school and nothing worked. It was just a constant challenge between the teachers coming to me saying he's not behaving very well, he's doing this and he's doing that. And then I just decided look, I need to figure out what's going on. I'm not getting the answers I need. In between those six years I was doing a lot of my own research to figure out what was going on. I mean, we did have a choice of coming back to the UK, but I didn't come back.
Speaker 1:Was there a reason for not coming back to the UK?
Speaker 2:I didn't come back to the UK because I didn't want to separate the family, so I decided to stay. And then, when I did stay there, I had to figure out myself what to do with him. Sure, and then I just started reading books, speaking to people in the community to find out what was going on, and then later found out that there's something called autism. And then obviously going and then finding a right professional. I approached the right professional and then, yeah, he was assessed and then diagnosed.
Speaker 1:So, once he was diagnosed, what were some of the things that you found that really worked well? And then what were some of the things that you hoped that worked well but didn't work quite as well as you thought they might.
Speaker 2:Good question, I mean. So when he was diagnosed, it was firstly a sense of relief for me. But you know, he, I have an answer now because during the process of having a diagnosis or finding out what was going on, I was very confused as a parent. You know, when it came to his behavior, or social, not just not just his behavior in the sense of his social behavior, but also his academic, his academic skills, his Communication skills, right, I was always very confused what to do, and then certain things that he would do in it but did come to his behavior that were not socially appropriate, and I would just find a lot of parents commenting on me being being a bad mom and not telling him off or not disciplining him enough, and questioning my discipline actually, and asking me how I discipline my child and if I do. And and then when I did you know, go into, you know, figuring out what to do with my son? I did, you know, put him into school, thinking that would be the solution. But I get the right support, um, but unfortunately, no, it wasn't. You know I would.
Speaker 2:I would often just get complaints from teachers saying he's, he's not listening, he's misbehaving, he's not doing his work. You know he's he's agitated all the time, but it was actually he had needs. Right, there were certain challenges that he was experiencing that needed to be addressed, but they weren't being addressed. One of them, as an example I'd like to share, is where he you know he can't sit for too long. So it typical lesson in a classroom is 40 minutes. Right, he was only six, he wasn't able to sit that long and I requested in his meetings so one of the meetings I had for his IEP, I requested a break. I just said, you know, in between his one lesson, could he take a break every 20 minutes? So that's one break in a lesson. And the school refused. I said no, we can't do that.
Speaker 2:Wow we can't allow a break because if we allow him to have a break that will disturb the children in the class and we can't do that. But he needed that, he needed to, he needed to process what he's learning and if he wasn't going to take a break he would just end up trying to seek attention. Other ways, which obviously were ways were not, which were not appropriate for For the class right so, yeah, he wasn't.
Speaker 2:He wasn't allowed a break, and that was one of my main reasons for pulling him, pulling him out of school Right and then homeschooling him.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was actually my next question. So you wound up homeschooling him rather than putting him into any type of classroom situation?
Speaker 2:I mean this I did try multiple schools. It's not like I didn't try so I did try multiple schools and the schools just didn't work. I mean another example I can share okay you know, a lot of autistic individuals are not linear learners right. So they kind of everywhere when it comes to subjects and the example I can show with my own son.
Speaker 2:I mean he can talk about tech like he's, you know, giving a tech talk, a Ted talk right and Literally, he can talk about tech like he like a graduate right from university and he's only 14, but he's been doing that for years. But when it comes to basic maths, he's he stumbles right.
Speaker 2:So he's not. He's on a map of learning. He's all over the place. And in his maths class at school, you know, I did explain to them. Look, he's good at his language. You know English language, english literature, his sciences you know other subjects he was enjoying, but maths he was really struggling. I asked them to differentiate in his learning but they weren't able to said no, we, we want to keep the curriculum the same for every child. We want to keep, you know, I started, teaching is the same and I said well, he's getting overwhelmed in the classroom environment. Is it okay, kind of give him a break and take him to a room where he could work alone, one to one with the teacher? Well, they begin in the classroom environment, because now he's comparing himself to two other children and that's knocking his confidence down right. But they know they didn't allow that. And now that was again one another reason for me to pull him out.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then when I kept him home, I think he was just so overwhelmed with everything that he had experienced. When I first introduced the concept of homeschooling to him, you know I was really excited that he's going to get the opportunity to learn around me In a safe environment where there's no judgment, no comparison. And I created this beautiful homeschooling room in the house and he just walked in the first day. He just started crying. He said I don't want to learn now, where are you originally from?
Speaker 1:Okay, after that you moved to another country, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we moved to Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 1:Okay, so after you moved, did you notice any differences from one country to another in how they handled or respected Autistic people within their communities?
Speaker 2:I couldn't honestly compare because when I went to the UAE he was 11 months old.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I had left from Doha, so I had been in the Gulf region for some time. So I couldn't compare the autism world here in the UK to versus the UAE, because I hadn't lived here. Right and experienced it. I would just hear things about, you know, a certain friends experience or a family members experience, but I hadn't had that experience myself first hand.
Speaker 1:Okay, because that's one thing. When I talk with people from different countries, they will give me different experiences of how they were either treated, or how their kids were treated, or just the overall atmosphere in how some of these countries either Acknowledged autism or didn't give it as much attention that it deserved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely no, you're right, but I yeah, I wasn't in a position to to compare, but I can't say that, being in the UAE, it was a new. It was a new thing for me, anyway, and the UAE is a very young country, so they were just working on it, they had just started looking into, you know, autism and really trying to figure out. Crazy that I went. So we were kind of we were new and they knew the system there was new. So it was very, I guess, challenging the journey, but then we just as parents, I guess you just roll up your sleeves and never get yourself right.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what I did right because I wasn't, you know, able to seek the answers I was looking for there and I didn't want to move back home to the UK and at the time and I decided, okay, I have to do the work. So I decided not to go back to work, kind of have that career break. That went on for 10 years and then I just, yeah, I decided to study everything about autism and figure out how I can support my son with it when it comes to, you know, emotional development, academic, social development. I pretty much took that responsibility. And number one it was a homeschooling. And then, within the homeschooling remit, I've done a lot of different areas.
Speaker 1:Now, since then, you've become a huge advocate for autism, correct, correct? Yeah, you mentioned earlier that you train and talk to different people, so what have you developed there that helps others?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, firstly, I mean during COVID it's a good question that you're asking here, tony, because during COVID I was at the point where I had given, you know, just over 10 years to my family, you know, homeschooling, being a stay-at-home mom, just giving everything I had to them.
Speaker 2:And during COVID it made me realize that I wanted to do something for myself. And a lot of people are saying to me well, my background is legal, I'm a human rights lawyer, and a lot of people were saying to me, well, going back to law would just mean long hours, and it did, because I had some interviews, and a lot of job interviews entailed long hours of work, which I wasn't ready to do. I wasn't ready to be at home and then leave the children for, you know, a full day. So a lot of my friends suggest why don't you, you know, become a teacher? Because with teaching you get the same vacation as your children, you know, you work around them, you've got the typical hours of school where you can drop them and pick them and, you know, then you've got free time with your family.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, I homeschooled my children, but I didn't want to become a teacher and educate lots of other children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So that was a big no no for me. And then I started looking at coaching and mentoring. That was something pretty new to me then, and I went out and started researching and spoke to a couple of coaches and they mentioned yeah, you could definitely get into coaching and your niche could be, you know, autism, neurodiversity, because that's where your background, you know background, is and where your passion really is.
Speaker 1:That seemed like good, solid advice.
Speaker 2:So I decided to start studying and then I started my ICF coaching. I got my coaching credentials and qualifications through the ICF, which is International Coaching Federation, and then I started doing some courses around autism and neurodiversity and then I set up my own business four years ago now.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, I just I started with coaching and mentoring and giving a lot of family support when it comes to homeschooling and then, as the business kind of grew and developed more organically, we now what we do now is prepare content neurodiversity courses for educators or corporate organizations. I do courses of parents to, and all my courses that I'm preparing now through the company, through my business, are all CPD approved, so anyone who does take the course will get professional development hours and through that I'm doing advocacy work and speaking at conferences and working with neurodivergent individuals themselves on on life skills, executive functioning skills and really trying to make a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's, that's great. So do you, do you work with the corporate world as well, because I know the corporate world sometimes thinks about should they hire or should they work with, with, people that are autistic? Have you worked with the corporate world to where you can show them that just because someone's labeled autistic doesn't mean that they can't go in there and function and do work and help their corporation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really appreciate your question, tony. And yeah, absolutely I have. I have worked in and deliver training to the corporate. So it's interesting because there is, and I think, the barrier. I guess the barrier starts not just in the corporate setting. It starts very early, even before a child goes to school, it can start in a home environment. So imagine you have these barriers from your, from your home, to then school and then when you enter the workplace. So, yes, good question that you've asked there, because I have done some training with corporate organizations where we really talked about inclusivity and how to make the work place inclusive for every single person.
Speaker 2:We're bringing in so much talent. Neurodiverse individuals bring in so much talent and it's often overlooked because of certain things that were body language through an interview process or the lack of eye contact through an interview process, just then the door shuts for them. But if we look beyond that, we're actually hiring somebody who's got so much talent. We're bringing in so many different skills to our organization, for example. That's really what matters and to do that it's really tweaking and placing accommodations and modifications for that individual to work in a safe place.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And feel comfortable, not just for them but also for the employers or the other departments or the colleagues, to understand how this individual works and how their brains function differently, but how to appreciate them and not be so judgmental and carry these biases that we often do.
Speaker 1:Okay. So when I get interviewed, I always get asked is there one episode that stands out from others? And because I've got so many, it's hard to really differentiate, because every episode and every person has their unique story. Do you have one or two over the last few years that just really stand out? You might have looked at as, oh, this is really going to be a challenge, but then, after things got going, it turned into a huge success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lots of different stories, but one, as you asked me, the question that really came to my mind was I had a neurodivergent individual. His mom had approached me for some coaching and mentoring for his son, and now he was a young gentleman, 27. And when she talked a little bit about his background and what support she needed, I was inclined to say no, because he was 27. And I felt like, oh, he's 27. The requirements, the requirements that you have or the challenges that you're facing, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to support you, but let me try. So anyway, you know a young gentleman who had been in a special needs centre all his life. From the get go, right From the get go, he'd been in special needs centre and then he had a one on one carer tutor around him, a supportive people around him in the home environment too, and he had come to me at the point where he's verbal, but he had he didn't have the social pragmatic language, so there was nothing really in a conversation there and she really wanted me to work with him and introduce the concept of social communication. And when we first started and again mentioning his age 27, I wasn't sure how to plan this and how to really get the outcome that I was looking for, that his mom was looking for.
Speaker 2:So when, yeah, when we started working, there was lots of different approaches I took with him to the point where, at the end, he was able to recognise that this world is not only about him. And when he does meet people, there's a two way conversation that takes place and he was now in a place where he could say Hi, you know, how are you have that receptive conversation and really talk? I mean, I'm not saying he had a lengthy conversation, but he was able to recognise that when he meets somebody, that there's certain way of behaving, certain way of talking, and he was able to do that by the end, and that was something I'm really proud of doing. Actually, right, yeah, I really value the parents input firstly, and then obviously, just him working with me and really understanding why he had to do this. So I'm yeah, that was my yeah, one of my proud moments, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now the diagnosis seems to be more boys than girls. Because of society, I think, do you find yourself working with more of one gender than the other and then, when it comes to females, they're the ones that are least diagnosed, because they want to fit in, they want to be social, they want to live that neurotypical life. When they hit their teens and get into puberty and get into hormonal changes and everything, that's when things really change for them. How do you address that? Because as much as boys need help, females that are masking need even more help, so that they can kind of blend in and get to know themselves. How do you handle that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm nodding as you say this. Yeah, absolutely, you're correct. It's so important because the females are absolutely masking and that's very challenging on a daily basis. But before I answer that question, yeah, I do work predominantly with them, with families that have boys, that they're worried about younger boys, and then if I'm working with adults, it's mainly absolutely the male. Yeah, and I'm going to say unfortunately, because I guess I'm not sure if I could say lack of awareness I've not noticed. That's the right answer.
Speaker 2:A lot of the females are masking, carrying this heavy burden day in and day out, where they just get on with it and they think that they can do this and be okay and not seek help. But actually by the end it gets so tiring and it's so heavy on their part that it could lead to other things like anxiety and depression, which we want to avoid. So to seek that help is important and, just like how I talked about working with young gentlemen or boys, it's giving them accommodations, it's making things easy for them to manage the day to day, and that's exactly what we would do with the ladies, the young ladies or the females. But they just, yeah, they don't often come forward and say look, we need help.
Speaker 1:Right. I've spoken with I don't know three or four different females that have got diagnosed later in life and the challenges they went through that they told me about was pretty astounding. A couple of them got diagnosed in their thirties and one is late as 45. And she said that once she got diagnosed and realized what was going on and she acclimated herself to the new environment that she was going to have to do, she said her fifties was just tremendous. Now she's just getting ready to turn 60. So it seems to be a real challenge for females to get out there and cross that line of saying you know, I need some help, you know. That's something I think we need to definitely be more aware of and make more people aware of, so that hopefully the parents will notice something different that could lead them to say you know, maybe I need to get my daughter some help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, great, absolutely. And I think it's the stigma around it as well that sometimes we could become quite challenging, and I think females in January are so smart in masking things that parents just don't see it. They overlook a lot of different things, right, whereas boys, I think they can, just in the young, in the early years. It's a behavior and they often, looking at the behavior and seek that's seeking a lot of attention, that they then see there's something in between there and that there's something that they need to get help with.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, right, exactly. What would you tell people that either just newly diagnosed or thinking about getting their kids diagnosed? What's something that you would tell them right up front to kind of take that pressure off of them that? Yeah, okay, you may think that something's wrong, but this is something that people have to deal with on a daily basis. How do you address that so that you can kind of put them at ease even though they're going through some turmoil?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think when it comes to diagnosis, the personal choice of having a child diagnosed is different reasons why parents have their child diagnosed or some don't have their child diagnosed. On a personal level and you asked me I would say having a child diagnosed for me, in my personal opinion, would be the best thing because you know where to go. After that, you know what to do, how to navigate that journey you're on. When I hadn't had my son diagnosed, I was all over the place. Sometimes I would say, oh, I think it's his autism behavior or I think, to see him playing up. But then the minute I had him diagnosed, I knew exactly what it was and what I had to do. So I kind of created that roadmap of working with him and setting certain goals, hitting those goals, moving to other goals and just giving him that support that he needed. Without a diagnosis, I think we would all be very lost because there would be an answers. As he's getting older he would have been seeking answers for himself and not knowing where he is in society, where he stands.
Speaker 2:And when it comes to parents, tony, I would say my honest advice would be try not to live this journey alone.
Speaker 2:I did for many, many years. It was just myself and my husband trying to figure out what to do and we thought that we were the only parents on this entire planet going through this and there's nobody else who's experiencing it. And it was very, very isolating and sometimes very ugly because it would mean we were down, we had anxiety and I mean really hitting the road of depression because we just felt so isolated. So I would say to parents who would like to have their child diagnosed or who are thinking about it just seek out, seek help, look around for a community, talk to other people. Yes, professionals know what they're doing, but professionals are not living the life that you're living and talk to other families. They have that lived experience and it makes a huge difference when you're sharing that burden and just experience what you're experiencing on a daily basis. It really helps connecting with other people and I think that's a really that's a first and foremost thing to do.
Speaker 1:Okay, now you brought it up earlier, which I think we need to address this. The average person that lives in the world that doesn't have any problems. They see kids having meltdowns. They don't understand the difference between a meltdown and just a kid having a tantrum. How do you explain the difference to people that don't know, or newly diagnosed parents that have found their kids that their kids might have meltdowns but there's a difference between a meltdown and a tantrum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a very good point. I think we need to remember when a child is having a meltdown or there's any form of behavior that's not appropriate. It's a form of communication. They actually try to communicate with us through their behavior. We need to look in between the lines. We need to see what it actually is going on, any kind of meltdown that's taking place. There's something there. There's a reason why it's happening. So the first thing is parents, we need to address it and we need to understand, firstly, why it's happening and what are the reasons behind it. So looking at the triggers is important, seeing how it started. So going back to any kind of situation that's maybe changed or that's different, addressing that and understanding what's going on and then working on how to support the child, that's really important. I think ignoring a meltdown is not healthy in any way. Once you understand what's going on and you understand why they're having this meltdown, it's then trying to figure out how to provide the right support for them.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that we haven't touched upon that you think is important, that you'd kind of like to put out there?
Speaker 2:I mean really just a message Don't see your child as anyone less than the neurotypical child. If we as parents or even as individuals in society, understand that a child who's neurodivergent, their brain is wired differently, that's it. If we can just understand that, then we will be placing our children in a much safer and accessible world, because the minute we kind of create these barriers for our child, we're not giving them the opportunities that they deserve. If you can just understand that they're different, but not less, the world would be a much safer place for them to grow in and to thrive, because there's so much that they can bring. I mean, from my first-hand experience as my own child, there's so much he can bring and bring into the society. If I just think about that one child and the wonderful things that he's doing, there's many children like him. So if we just change our mindset, we can make a huge difference and really provide the opportunity for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's great, because it just comes down to understanding. My slogan is Autism, awareness, acceptance and Understanding. The word understanding I think that's probably the most important word that we can find so that people can understand the differences between kids that aren't autistic and kids that are, so that they can realize that just because they're different doesn't mean that they can't succeed in life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I always say and I love the fact that you've put understanding, because we can have so much of an awareness, right, the awareness can go on for years and years, and years, and years and years, but then we can have the acceptance, but how do we accept? We can't accept until we understand.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:We can't accept someone who we see different and then say, okay, we accept you, but without any understanding. So we need to understand. And my thing, Tony, would be you for the understanding, Mine would be the educating, Because we could be shouting and we could be screaming and saying please accept our children, understand, they're different. But unless we don't educate them, we're not going to get anywhere. Which is why my business came along Because when I used to go into schools and I was so emotionally attached to my son, I wasn't advocating actually for him. I was shouting and getting upset and the teachers didn't want to know me, they didn't want to listen to me because I was coming across this mad mother who's a helicopter mum and doesn't know what she's doing with her son. But the minute I realized actually, no, I need to advocate for my son. That's important. They're going to listen to me when I do that and they did.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:That's when things changed. So I realized okay, rather than just awareness and acceptance, we need to do the education part as well.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Hence my training. So now all my trainings, and I was doing the trainings and I realized, okay, how can I validate my trainings? And that's when I thought, okay, they can be CPD approved because they have that validation, that stamp, the certification. And that's what I do. I want to make a difference through education.
Speaker 1:That's really awesome. I understand that you're writing a book. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:I've actually written a book. It's with illustrators now, but it's about so, my son. The reason why I started to mention this in the podcast, the reason I noticed everything, was because he was fixated with vacuum cleaners. Yeah, and he would play with vacuum cleaners all the time. He wouldn't just play the typical way, like with a toy vacuum cleaner, but he would actually open it up and start looking at the functionality of the vacuum cleaner and then he would put the parts back together again. So he'd break it and put it back together again without worrying if there's a toy that's broken. Kids often cry when the toy is broken. Anything that would break. You say they'll have fixed it. So he would literally go and fix it. So he had this very engineering kind of mind and, yeah, so that's when I noticed because he was so fixated with certain things, and vacuum cleaner being one of them. The book is about his passion about vacuum cleaners and love about vacuum cleaners and superpower.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the book is for school children and it's to raise awareness in an educational setting about the love that he has for vacuum cleaners and how he saves a day because he's so knowledgeable about it.
Speaker 1:That's just so awesome. Yeah, if someone wants to get a hold of you and you might need help or whatever, what's the best way for a contact?
Speaker 2:So yeah. So the social media would be Instagram Coaching with Uzma, or LinkedIn, again Coaching with Uzma. And just yeah, personally message me on both platforms would be fine, and I can also share my email address.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, that's great. I really do appreciate you taking the time to come onto my podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Tony. It's been my pleasure.
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