Writer's picture book about children with autism inspired daughter's experiences

SINGAPORE - In 2017, when her then 13-year-old daughter, Kate, who has autism, "ruined" her younger sister's colouring book by scribbling all over it, Ms Jill Lim was inspired to do more to spread awareness and understanding about children with special needs.

She came up with a children's picture book titled My Colouring Book Is Ruined!, which was inspired by Kate and her two younger sisters, who were then eight and 11.

Published in 2019, the book about Kate's daily life helps young readers better understand people with autism and their talents, which may often go unnoticed.

"The things that the character Kate does in the book - galloping around, swimming, organising things, repeating herself - are all things that the real-life Kate does or did at the time," said the writer, a book editor with Straits Times Press.

Many of the visual aids and posters shown in the book are from actual posters and flash cards that Ms Lim had made for her daughter.

The book, which was illustrated by Ms Chloe Chang, also includes activity and fact sheets for young readers to complete.

"A sample of Kate's actual maths worksheet, which I had sent to Chloe, is the basis of the maths sheet shown in the book," Ms Lim added.

To aid her writing process, she looked up other picture books about children with autism or special needs, partly to see what has been covered and how certain aspects of autism are depicted.

"As I wanted to highlight the abilities of people with autism, I also looked into some persons with autism who are quite high-functioning," said the writer.

The fact sheet at the back of her book mentions two of them - Mr Stephen Wiltshire, a British artist known for drawing detailed cityscapes from memory, and Mr Seetoh Sheng Jie, who made the news in 2016 when Ms Ho Ching, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's wife, carried a dinosaur pouch designed by him during a visit to the White House in the United States.

Through the book, Ms Lim hopes that children will learn about people with autism and how talented they can be, such as in art.

But she said she also wants to clarify that, like Kate, there are also autistic people who may not have obvious special skills.

The real Kate, who is 18, is in her last year of school.

"Her life is going to change a lot from next year, and my husband and I are in the midst of exploring her post-18 options: Work? Where? Doing what? Maybe I will have a story to tell about her and work in a few years' time," said Ms Lim.

Ms Lim spoke about writing about children with special needs at the 2022 Asian Festival of Children's Content, which was held from May 26 to 29.