HELLO everyone, hope you’re all surviving the first week of school and work and you’ve settled into your 7am starts and eating on command again.

The last few weeks of my summer holidays were spent very well, I was with the Friends4Ever Club and had a brilliant time as always – just devastated to be back to reality now!

Well this week I want to talk about misconceptions and how people can judge others too quickly.

Too many times have I witnessed people of all ages gazing upon various difficult situations and jumping to conclusions without ever actually considering what is occurring and why it is happening at that time.

I completely understand that sometimes what we can see may look odd or even a bit upsetting.

However what so many people fail to acknowledge is that there can sometimes be very logical explanations for what may be happening.

For example, how many times have you been in the supermarket and witnessed a screaming child throwing a huge tantrum because they want an expensive toy but have been told they aren’t allowed it?

I can almost guarantee that 80 per cent of people would just assume that the child is spoiled or make the typical remark of, ‘Oh that mother doesn’t know what she’s doing.’ But the problem is that what many don’t realise is that while sometimes children are just throwing a tantrum, other times there can be a reason for the ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.

What I mean is that many disabilities such as autism, Asperger’s and Tourette’s are all invisible to the onlooker, but what needs to be realised is that despite these disabilities not being visible it does not make them any less legitimate.

The reason I am so upset about this matter is due to recent first hand experience as I too was out with a child with a disability that isn’t as visually obvious and was subjected to ignorance and a lack of interest in actually understanding the circumstances.

I was truly upset by the attitude of a lady in particular who was on the bus while there was a young girl with additional needs present.

She got so annoyed by her singing she actually departed early.

If the lady had taken the time to think her actions through, she would have realised that how she behaved was completely unfair.

It really goes without saying that the old saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is still as relevant in today’s world.