FEATURE
UNDERSTANDING OSCAR Story by Debbie Kemp
I
am thrilled to write this story about an exceptional book titled Understanding Oscar, and the incredible Mum and Author behind it. Understanding Oscar is a wonderfully entertaining and educational story for children. It offers a range of perspectives of living with autism and is a story that can help all children and adults to be more understanding and compassionate towards our differences. Understanding Oscar is about 3 young brothers, Banjo, Oscar and George. Oscar is autistic and the book tells the story of his older brother’s frustrations around some
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interactions between them and the differing expectations of his parents. It also shares the conversations that Banjo’s Mum and Dad have with their eldest son to help him understand why Oscar has different rules, needs and expectations. In the end Banjo’s new understanding and compassion leads to the boys having lots of fun together. My own children are lucky enough to be friends with Banjo, Oscar and George, and they so enjoyed this story about them. They already knew that Oscar communicates in different ways, such as a high five instead of speaking the word hello, but this book really helped them to understand more about autism and some of the behaviours
autistic people possess. It also explains that autism is different for different people, by introducing an autistic friend who displays different behaviours and traits to that of Oscar. My own family was gifted a wonderful discussion about differences, acceptance and inclusion, after reading this book together, and I imagine this happened for many other families too. According to the World Health Organisation, about one in 160 children are on the Autism Spectrum. Autism Awareness Australia says that people on the Autism Spectrum experience
