Celebrating World Autism Acceptance Week with our tonies® families

Happy World Autism Acceptance Week! We’re celebrating each and every unique person with autism and embracing neurodiversity. Lucky for us, we’ve got lots of families in our tonies® crew that help us to raise awareness and make the world more accepting.

Learning Toniebox Tonies Routine Music Activity Experts Bedtime Family

Published 03/04/24 by Amy Blanchard

Celebrating World Autism Acceptance Week with our tonies® families

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Did you know that around 700,000 people in the UK have autism? It’s a lifelong developmental condition that affects how people communicate and react to the world around them.

Just like all little ones, no two brains are the same, and there’s no ‘correct’ way for the brain to work. There are lots of ways that autistic people can respond to the world. For some, routines can be super important to make life seem less overwhelming, and others may easily experience sensory overload and need something they can rely on to help ground them again. We’ve heard over and over again from our lovely tonies® families that they’ve found the Toniebox to be immensely helpful with these two things in particular. So, we’ll hand it over to them to tell you more, because they really are the experts.

Meet Hettie

Hettie is 11 years old, autistic and nonspeaking. Her favourite Tonie is Peppa Pig.

@neurodivergent_girls

“Firstly, the Toniebox has helped with Hettie’s sleep. Before the Toniebox, transitioning her from the iPad at night was a bit of a battle, often resulting in meltdowns. So, not only has her screen time significantly reduced as a result of using tonies®, it has also diversified her interests in music, entertainment and learning.

Her Toniebox and Tonies also help her to feel regulated. As she’s able to control the box herself, fast forwarding to particular songs or tapping through to parts of the stories that make her feel safe and relaxed.

Hettie attends music therapy and her music therapist works with her Toniebox. They incorporate it alongside instruments. She used her George Pig Tonie to play the piano!

She’s always loved Peppa Pig (and always will as it’s her special interest), Ben and Holly and Frozen. But she’s using her own words to ask for her ‘Moana’ Tonie, and actively seeks out listening to other Tonies now too.

I actually have a video of her singing along to Frozen songs on her Toniebox. For a nonspeaking, severely autistic child - this is just incredible! I can’t imagine a time when Hettie will tire of wanting her Toniebox. It goes everywhere with her, from morning to night.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Meet Callie

Callie is 5 years old and autistic. Her favourite Tonie is Peppa Pig.

@bondedbybabies

“The Toniebox has helped Callie’s speech development hugely. She recites the words she hears on the Tonies (also known as echolalia). It has also helped to boost and hold her interests with the huge range of different characters. When Callie feels unregulated, overwhelmed or emotional, listening to the Toniebox has given her a safe space to have time out and relax whilst listening.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Meet Teddy

Teddy is 3 years old and autistic. His favourite Tonie is Yakka Dee.

@homewithrobyn_

“The Toniebox is one of the only things that he consistently comes back to. Just recently he sat and listened to a story start to finish which is huge! It’s helped him with his speech and understanding, I couldn’t recommend a Toniebox enough especially for SEN children.

We also use the Toniebox to regulate Teddy's emotions, we'll put on a calming Tonie such as Bedtime and Lullabies to help Teddy feel relaxed or he'll pick a favourite which at the moment is Mickey Mouse, Peter Rabbit or Yakka Dee.

Our Toniebox is very much part of our everyday routine. It's amazing to be able to offer a screen free alternative of his favourite characters. He loves to sit and listen to the stories and will repeat some of the words along the way!

Collecting all the different characters is so much fun, we love a new Tonies day."

We’ve been honoured to share these stories by parents who’ve found solace and support through the Toniebox. From calmer bedtime routines to speech development, it’s humbling to be the helping hand these families need. Here’s to embracing differences, spreading love and making every week, Autism Acceptance Week.

To article overview

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Amy’s favourite Tonie is Matilda. From a very young age, she was utterly obsessed with Matilda. She watched and read it so many times that she practically had the whole script memorised. As she grew older, she remained just like Matilda, a bookworm, a trickster, and a dreamer!