Mookamoo

Hi - Hope this might be of interest to some. Suffolk Family Carers are offering a Free Wellbeing and Resilience Session for Parent Carers of children or young people with ASD There are a few places left on this free session for parent carers. It is being run by Sue Ryder as part of a joint project with Suffolk Family Carers and is aimed at increasing the emotional resilience of parent carers, focussing on their own wellbeing. Wednesday 6 July, 10 am - 12 noon Garden Room at Red Gables, Ipswich Road, Stowmarket, IP14 1BE Booking is essential as places are limited. Please contact Suffolk Family Carers Link Worker, Rachel Crooks on 07342 080022 for further information or to book a place, as soon as possible

For us it was when Ethan was a about 3 years old. The normal toddler tantrums were a lot more extreme and unreasonable that our other children and his peers. It was then we started looking at what was different about him. There is ASD in the family, so it didn't take long to read up on the behavioural aspects, most of which fitted him - especially the need for routine and the issues we had when the routine was broken. He eventually got a diagnosis of Aspergers aged 5. After a fair few bumps at Primary school with a less than understanding headmistress , we are fortunate that is now at a very good school and in mainstream education - and thriving. He is almost 11 now and we know we have adolescence to get through but he is amazing to be around.

My Wife was diagnosed with Irlen. 2 children in our family - one with a diagnosis of AS and one without were also diagnosed. We did it through our 'normal' optician, (http://www.patrickandmenzies.co.uk/visualstress/index.html) not an Irlen centre so it was cheaper, plus they gave us some money off the frames. The main cost seems to be that they have to send the lenses off to be tinted. Another problem is that they mentioned you could need a new set of lenses whenever your hormones take a change, such as puberty, illness, menopause etc. It has made a big difference - my wife can now read without getting over tired and one of the kids now now sit through a whole TV programme without having to bounce around.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/...00609131637.htm If nothing else it seems to continue to disprove the vaccines theory

Can't help you with the socks but we had a similar thing with pants. We swapped to boxers for a bit and found it helped as the main problem was his trousers touching his skin.

Hi The West Suffolk Branch of the NAS are doing their annual stint at the International Kite Festival at Rougham. There will be a rainbow 'comet drop' to raise money and then all the members (and visitors!) are all doing a display at about 2pm on the Saturday and Sunday. Its good fun and you get to meet other ASD children and teens and the parents get to meet up. More details and directions are here: http://wsnas.blogspot.com/2010/05/kite-festival-details.html

Hi The West Suffolk NAS are having a get together at the The International Kite Festival Rougham Airfield in Suffolk. Anybody interested in meeting other famililies or others with a diagnosis, come alone. They will have a big tent and kites. http://wsnas.blogspot.com/2010/04/come-and...-our-first.html

Hi Anyone in Suffolk who would like to come to the cinema, the West Suffolk branch of the NAS are having an Autism firendly screening of Nanny McPhee 2 All are welcome, including siblings and friends. The volume is turned down, the lights are turned up, you are allowed to bring in your own snacks and best of all the place is full of autism aware families who don't tut when people get up and wander around or vocalise what is going on. http://wsnas.blogspot.com/2010/04/wsnas-au...-screening.html

Good luck Michelle. Its short notice - but you do have the right to bring someone else with you. A grand parent or friend who might help?

We go to the run run by the West Suffolk NAS http://wsnas.blogspot.com/ Not sure when the next one is. The best thing is that no one stops an tuts when DS gets up to walk around or verbalises what is happening on screen. We love them.

Just thought I would share a recent experience. DS has been doing very well at our local school and is now in year 4. However this year his Headteacher and class teacher both left (they also shared the SENCO role). The new head has come in and has been a challenge to say the least. She removed most of his established procedures, for example, when he felt like a meltdown was coming he was able to go into the head's office and count the Tesco vouchers. The new head deemed this not acceptable as she might be having a meeting (that didn't worry the last head). After many months of grief (and with the help of some out reach services) he now has a 'dark den' he can go to. Anyway... I had a call from school to say DS was to excluded for 'Assault of a Teacher'. What transpired, and this is the official version of events, not just my take on it, is that he had some Lego in his hand and felt like another child was laughing at him so threw it at her. He missed and hit the teacher. He was excluded for 3 days. Now this was his first exclusion and we felt is was too harsh and took advice. We sought the opinions of the County Exclusion Officer (part of the local government) and the Head of the Governors. Our point being, there was no intent, no pre meditated action (the Lego was already in his hand) and it happened at a point of acute anxiety (they were due to go on a school trip the next day and no one at the school had done any preparatory work with him). I also spoke to friends who are SENCOs and learning support teachers. All said if it was an exclusion (which was debatable) it certainly should not be for 3 days. I also found the guidelines on this excellent website : http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/ It states the exclusion should be for the 'minimum time possible' for up to 1-3 days. The reason the head gave for the 3 days was 'it is always 3 days' and 'it will give him time to come to terms with his actions'. Both reasons are nonsense. The fixed period is not 'always' 3 days and a child with ASD will not be able to 'come to terms' with his actions. He had forgotten all about it an hour later. 3 days also allows for no escalation (if the first offense carries 3 days - what if he does it again?) We challenged the exclusion period through the Governors and have got the period reduced to 1 day and the head has added a explanatory note on his record admitting the lack of intent to 'Assault a Teacher'. This we thought a good outcome as we are going through the statement process at the moment and the exclusion, although not ideal on his record' will help him get provision in the future. I share this in the hope that others out there who think they are being given a rough ride can look for help. Contact your local County Exclusion Officer. Heads are scared of them. Contact the Governors, heads have to answer to them.

Hi Anyone thinking of home learning this might be of interest. http://www.icanyouknow.co.uk/

Hi It looks like you are doing all you can to help him do his homework by researching and spending time with him, but perhaps there needs to be a shift from homework being a negative experience to a positive one. Getting the school to punish him on your behalf will get you nowhere in the future and is just passing the buck. We have developed an sort of quasi-reward system that works for us. All our children have morning jobs and DS's job is to empty the dishwasher. This is something he doesn't enjoy but he knows he gets pocket money by way of a reward at the end of the week for 'helping' and 'trying hard' etc. If he has extra homework or spellings to do, we will trade his dishwasher job for spelling practice in the morning before school. He is also allowed 30 mins 'screen time' on school nights, ie internet games/PSP/Wii. If there is a bit of homework that needs doing and he does it without complaint, and does his best, he can gain extra screen time. He will often want to homework in order to generate screen time. The boundaries are also quite clear. No 'screen time' at all until the homework is completed - or at least attempted (there are some evenings his head is not in the right place and it becomes obvious that pushing him will just cause distress, so it is left for another day - which he and us agree to.)

There should be a school governor responsible for special needs - speak to them if you are unhappy with the Head Teacher.

Sounds a bit wrong, but we have a number of dog toys we use. (we don't have a dog...) No worries if they get chewed.