The Final Straw

By Cross and Ginger Sometimes when we are so embroiled in something, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.  The journey through suspicion, diagnosis, school, EHCP and attempting to remove the barriers to learning have all taken their toll.  Some days I’ve felt a bit like when I had newborns at home - …

Who knows my child best?

By Rosie and Jo's mum I think many of us have been in the position where another adult believes that they know our own child better than we do.  Often this is a member of our extended family or school staff. So why should I be recognised as the expert in my own child? I …

A School With a Helpful Approach

By Rosie and Jo’s mum This is a description of a meeting I recently attended at Jo's school. For an hour and a half, I set round a table with a group of people, care, education and therapy staff, who worked on three basic principles: A child will make progress if you remove the barriers …

SEN Support in Schools – We’re Missing the Point

Every school-age child with a special educational need (SEN) should have a written plan of support.  Every single one.  That is my interpretation of the SEND Code of Practice (SEND COP) and I will explain why.  Published in June 2014, Chapter 6 of the SEND COP describes the provision of SEN Support in Schools.  It …

We can’t tell education what to do

By Rosie and Jo’s mum I have been working with health and education professionals to get my children’s educational needs met for over ten years now. As time has gone on and their needs have increased, the opinions and recommendations from health professionals have been hard and harder to obtain in writing or at least …

Engaging with Professionals when you are a Parent with Asperger’s

Yesterday's guest post highlighted difficulties that many have found shocking.   There is one element, however, that she has reflected on more here: that of being a parent when you are "on the spectrum" yourself. Further to the “Surprise Child Protection Meeting” incident where I went to a meeting expecting ‘help’ and after arriving found …

The ‘Surprise’ Child Protection Meeting

It was snowing, I felt empty as he packed his last bag into the car, this was my new life as a single mum to three. They would see their Dad, and there was a glimmer of hope that social care would finally provide the help we had been begging for to prevent this break …

Alien In The Playground

Welcome to Jon's Mum who has written a Guest Blog 🙂 I looked up at the kitchen clock, it was almost that time again.  It was the same every weekday at 3pm and I’d have that awful lurch in my stomach.  Not that I was wasn’t looking forward to picking Jon up from school, but …

It Must Be Mum – Part 7

So Peter has been in hospital for some time.  The acute side to his condition has settled somewhat but in order for his progress to be maintained and continued Peter needs a therapeutic residential ASD placement.  Everyone has agreed this.  Making it happen on the other hand is another issue altogether.  The impact on his …

The emotional impact on a parent

By Rosie and Jo’s mum I remember the first question I asked on a forum for parents of children with autism. It was “How do you find a way to switch off from the stress and worry?” We were in the early days of our journey, very soon after Rosie’s ASD diagnosis, school were being …