The Loose Women talk about Autism

Well done to Loose Women this week for providing the first Autism Hour on a TV Show. Last Saturday I spoke about Autism Hour taking place in many shops this week and the team at Loose Women also made similar changes to their programme and to the actual set so that autistic people and families who were invited could enjoy the experience.

So what did they do to make it all autism friendly? Well.....

• The sound was lowered through microphones
• Lights dimmed 
• Volume of music was lowered
• Ticker scrolls across the screen were made to be less intrusive
• Information was sent to audience members which included a visual timetable to explain what would happened and the layout of the studio.
• The set background was more subdued too

The show included Christine McGuiness, wife of Paddy who have three children with autism. She explained more about how life was like trying to juggle shopping trips and general daily life with their children. Robert White, runner up from Britain's Got Talent explained how it was to be an autistic adult and talked about his diagnosis. Linda Robson went on a shopping trip with mum Fay Hough and her son Bowie which gave people an insight into what is involved with going out, the decisions that have to be made and how we as parents deal with comments made by other members of the public who don't always necessarily understand about autism. 

It seemed to work so well and people who did go along gave positive feedback which is brilliant.. I don't always watch Loose Women to be honest but I enjoyed this and it was nice that autism was featured so much. I cried a little as I can just feel all those emotions that other parents are feeling and can identify with what they go through, gets me every time.

So well done ITV for being the first to do something like this, it helps to get information out there to hopefully help people to understand a little more about autism.

You can catch the programme on ITV Hub, it was aired on Wednesday 10th October and will be available for 7 days from then so catch up if you didn't see it.

Thank you for reading today, join me tomorrow for some more tv chat on Pass the Remote Sunday but for now........

Take care.