The world is an anxiety-inducing place at the moment, with the ongoing uncertainty around the COVID-19 crisis proving particularly difficult for children to cope with. With schools shut and the prospect of longer-than-usual summer holidays not filling anyone with much joy, parents are looking for resources online to help them manage.

This anxiety is particularly acute in children with autism who are experiencing extreme challenges in reaction to the lockdown, as the charity Ambitious about Autism recently revealed.

So, the charity partnered with Red Brick Road to create a free children’s book, The World Has Turned Upside Down, written by Kes Gray with illustrations from renowned illustrator Chloë Batchelor, while the charity’s ambassador, Jon Snow has released his own recording of the story.

The book shows how completely different the world is for children with autism and has been created to help raise funds for the charity’s Coronavirus Crisis Appeal, aiming to raise funds and provide support for autistic children and their families. The charity is encouraging people to donate £3 when they read the book by texting STORY to 70331.

One in 100 people in the UK are autistic with autism affecting the way a person communicates and how they experience the world around them. The book acknowledges and celebrates the value of a different perspective of the world, recognising that the rhetoric used to talk about the lockdown often doesn’t suit neurodiverse individuals.

A book such as this offers both entertainment and education, both for people living with children with autism and those who aren’t. It is an important recognition of the unique experience and challenges that lockdown presents to neurodiverse children and their parents and carers.