Wicklow mum writes book representing non-verbal daughter as turtle finding her way

"I just sat down and started writing and the story just flowed."

Candice spoke to the Irish Independent about her self-published book series, which came about after her daughter Taylor was diagnosed with autism aged 18 months.

Taylor, now aged 5, is non-verbal, but “communicates in her own special way and has so much to teach the world”.

Following her daughter's diagnosis, Candice, who lives in Cabinteely, realised that there were not many resources for families who were looking to support their child's needs.

Thus came about her first book - Out of my Shell: Taylor’s Tale of Friendship.

The illustrated tale follows a turtle, with a host of characters around her inspired by those in the family's life who have supported their journey.

“I started with Taylor and she’ll be a turtle, because she’s introverted and she’s scared of the world," Candice told the outlet.

"But then she’ll come out of her shell as each of the characters, inspired by cousins, teach Taylor how to be caring, or not to worry about the future and not to worry too much about what’s happened in the past.”

As the story goes on, readers see how Taylor develops and learns how to embrace her differences.

Candice explained that she was able to take the opportunity to write the book after the company she worked for made redundancies.

“I just sat down one night and I thought, actually, I’ll do it as a children’s book so that we can reach families and explain autism. I just sat down and started writing and the story just flowed," she said.

She added that many of her friends had asked how to explain to their own children that Taylor is non-verbal.

“When they see her and they greet her and she just looks at them, they don’t understand what that means, or that her brain works in a different way.

"So I wanted to introduce the topic and just explain – this is the character of a turtle. She’s really nervous. She’s afraid of the world."

Candice also found that there wasn't many children's books for Taylor to relate to.

"A lot of the children’s books we were reading were children talking to one another, or singing, or it was all about communication. Taylor doesn’t have that, so I just thought it would be nice for her to have something that we could read to her that was a little bit more like her.”

The mum has two more books planned, one about sensory exploration, and another about staring a new school in autism class.

"It just really brings to life what they do in an autism class versus a mainstream class, having things like special needs assistants and tailoring the activities and the work that they do, being different to what a child would learn in a mainstream setting."

Opening up about their own experience of Taylor's education, Candice said that securing her daughter a place in a special needs school felt like a “lottery system”.

However, she says she fears for being able to access the same level of support in the future.

“My worry for the future is what happens after sixth class. What are the secondary schools going to look like by then? Will there be enough support, or will there be so many children and just not enough classes for them?

"I would love a new state-of-the-art autism secondary school and the dream that you are guaranteed a place. Because that’s the other thing, even if such a school exists by then, there’ll be such demand for it you just don’t know.”

You can order a copy of Candice's book, Out of my Shell: Taylor’s Tale of Friendship, via Taylorstales.ie.