Emum

No set rule of thumb, but there are things you can do which will help. Your SLT should be able to advise. There is a strict hierarchy using PECs and you really need someone who has done the training to guide you through the process. We found it after about 18 months that our independent SLT, who was charging us �80 a week for the privilege wasn't in fact trained and had used some incorrect techniques which had confused rather than advanced DD! Back to the point though. It will help if you start off with requesting highly motivating things (usually food). Only give a small amount, so he has to request again very quickly (eg about an eighth of a choc button). You'll need a partner to assist you for several months probably to make sure this gets reinforced. As soon as he can do food, widen it out to other things so he knows it can be used for a range of things. You need to phase physical prompts as quickly as you can. Don't let your child be rushed into starting a new phase before he has fully mastered the one he is at, otherwise it will take longer in the long run. He needs to have fully mastered handing over one card, with no prompts at all before you even think about asking him to travel with the card, or choose between more than one card. You may need to experiment with what works best for your child - photos or drawings of the object, and stick with that until the process is mastered at which point you can think about getting him to generalise the skill. Be aware if it is an NHS SLT they will probably have to rush the process if they are seeing your child in blocks of sessions, to ensure that it is all taught to him, but this is not the best thing for your child at the end of the day. My DD started to be taught PECS when she was 2, and is now nearly 6. For the first year, she needed lots of prompting to hand over a card to request something. Her SLT rushed her on to teach her discrimination and travelling skills, and even using the sentence strip, and she never really got the hang of any of it. She started school at 3, and with lots of practice she learned to exchange a card and to discriminate in a formal setting (eg at snack time round the table). She still needs lots of prompting to use it, and it is very unlikely that she would go and get her book and bring me a symbol if she wanted something, but on the plus side she is starting to attempt to ask for things orally, and she has learned a lot of the vocab from her PECs book, so the whole process has not been wasted.

This is true to an extent - an employer can get rid of any employee he doesn't want to keep on at any time, but if he has no legal grounds to do so, or he does not want to follow the correct legal procedure, then he must pay an appropriate amount to do so! If your husband ends up being unfairly dismissed, and his employer does not offer him an acceptable severance package, then he can bring proceedings to an Employment Tribunal for compensation. The downside is that the awards which are given are not huge, but will amount to a few months salary (the exact amount will depend on how long your husband was employed). It is better to try to negotiate a "redundancy deal" if you can though as this payment will be largely tax free. This is an area where it really pays to take good and qualified legal advice. It doesn't sound like the union rep really knows what he is talking about so ask around until you find someone you feel confident in. If necessary instruct a solicitor to act on your husband's behalf - if he is unfairly dismissed and wins his claim against his employers (or reaches a settlement with them) they will have to pay most of the costs of this. You can set a cap on how much you are prepared to pay for your legal advice, and once the lawyer reaches that cap, he can come off the record and you can continue to represent yourself, with the benefit of the initial advice received from the lawyer about the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and the amount of compensation you should be looking for. In your circumstances I would consider money spent in this way, a good investment. Good luck for Tuesday!

E is low functioning and non-verbal (mainly) though she can occasionally say the odd word or sentence. She is 5 now and at a special school. It is difficult sometimes, particularly when you see friends' children aged 2 who can speak and communicate better than she can, but then you get the moments when she does manage to communicate in some way, and it's a great feeling when that happens, unlike with my NT son, who sometimes drives me potty with his constant stream of chatter!

Could it be the reaction he gets that is reinforcing the behaviour? There was a child at my DD's school who was obsessed by bottoms, and would "goose" any ladies whom he caught unawares. As lots of our mums were devout Islaamic ladies in burkhas, this caused much consternation! A decision was taken not to react when he did this, and all the parents were told not to make any reaction whatsoever if this happened to them, and within less than a month the behaviour stopped and has not so far as I know recurred.

I look at my NT son sometimes and wonder whether he is a little on the spectrum too. Nothing major, just things like he can recite whole chapters of books word perfect after one reading, and large bits of dialogue from movies, and has encyclopaediac knowledge of some fairly obscure topics. However he is doing well at school and seems to be coping fine socially, so at the moment I don't see any need to pursue it, as he doesn't seem to need any extra support, and I can't see what good it would do to put a label on him, and maybe some harm. Be quided by your instincts. If you feel your son needs extra help mention it, if not keep things under review. After all, you can always bring it up at a later time if you need to, and in the meantime you can use any AS appropriate strategies you think would be helpful for him whether or not he has a formal diagnosis. As you are doing these for your older son anyway, your younger one probably won't even think this is strange.

I read the same piece of research in the Sunday Times last night and thought it was a load of rubbish too. E has never been the slightest bit interested in TV until about 6 months ago (she is now 5), and there is not the slightest reason I can see why TV in and of itself would cause autism. I think what the researchers are trying to do is to reheat the old "refrigerator mother" argument and say autism is caused by parents neglecting their children's emotional needs. How many times does this theory need to be debunked though for people to stop spouting it?

It sounds like she has a phobia about sucking. It may be something you could get help to address from an OT, but on the other hand if she has got to 13 with it not being a problem, maybe she can just continue to adapt her life around this, and use alternative remedies for sore throats. I can't think of any other activities suitable for discussion here which would absolutely entail the need to have this skill, so maybe she can get by without it.

Has she really never sucked anything? Not an ice lolly, ice in her drink, or a drink through a straw? If she has had any of these things, could you not explain to her that the physical action is the same, and suggest that she holds on to the lozenge with her fingers while she sucks until she feels confident enough to let it go. If she really hasn't sucked anything ever, and is scared about accidentally swallowing, let her learn the action on a boiled sweet-type lollipop on a sweet, so she can see there is no chance of swallowing it until she has learnt the action. In the meantime to soothe her cough she could use a cough linctus, and to soothe the pain in her throat some liquid paracetomal or ibuprofen (pharmacist will tell you which is better for throats, and if using paracetomal whether you can take it at the same time as the linctus). Alternatively you can get antiseptic sprays for sore throats, though I suspect if she is anxious about new forms of medication this would totally freak her out. Finally, if its been going on for a long time (more than 2 weeks) it would be worth having it checked by GP in case it is a bacterial rather than a viral infection and needs anti-biotics.

I understand that some children do have problems eating a healthy diet and there are some cases where anything is better than nothing, but isn't it fair enough for a teacher to report back on the effect of a meal on a child? Otherwise you would never know. In this case, it isn't as I understand it that Kai will eat nothing but sausages and chips for breakfast, just that his mum decided to give him this as a one-off for a treat (and for the record I don't see anything wrong with this as a one off). I think there are lots of parents, on this forum included, who would be very grateful if a teacher took them aside and told them for example that their child was always hyperactive for an hour after drinking coke, lethargic after eating gluten. Not seeing the child during the school day, it might otherwise take the parent quite some time to spot this kind of pattern. I personally would not have taken offence at this note. It was brief and informative and it gave some advice about what the teacher thought would help the child perform better at school, and what the child was eating at school. It didn't contain any overt criticism of the parent. OK maybe she could have spend half an hour agonising over exactly how to phrase it to make sure there was no chance of it causing any offence, but I'd rather she spent that half an hour teaching the class and thinking of ways to help my child. If you ask teachers, or anyone else working with your child, to impose this level of self-censorship to make sure you don't feel a bit miffed now and again, I think you will soon see that the amount and quality of information coming to you about your child rapidly falls off.

Do you mean in terms of quality or frequency of sessions? I can't comment on the situation more than 6 years ago, but DS1 who is not on the spectrum was picked up at around 18 months as having a language delay, was assessed within a few months by a SALT and offered one block of group therapy about 5 months later. He was never called for a second block but we weren't concerned because by that stage his language was developing and we could see he was just a slow starter and there was no cause for concern. DD1 who is on the spectrum is only just one year younger. She was picked up at the same stage as DS1 and saw a SLT about 6 weeks later, who immediately said she needed more specialised input (pre-diagnosis). She was referred on to a specialist SLT and also to the Child Development Team. Was seen within a matter of weeks, diagnosed very quickly and then got specialist SLT from an ASD trained SLT immediately. She got it fairly consistently on a weekly basis for about 3 years until she started school, with a few (but only a few) blocks of about 8 weeks off, due to workload or SLT leaving and needing to be replaced. She now gets it at school, term time only approx fortnightly. It's all been focused and ASD specific. I suspect it varies from area to area, but our experience has been that it was worthwhile. I would say it is at least worth considering again even if you have had bad experiences in your area in the past

I'm sorry you had such a frustrating time Badonkadonk. I suspect that the sonographer was nervous about the Aspergers, and worried that you might get very upset by an internal scan, so didn't want to say anything which might later be construed as pressurising you into having it. That wasn't however very helpful to you at the time! My understanding is that an ultrasound scan in and of itself cannot diagnose PCOS, but it can be used to confirm the diagnosis if the blood test suggest that this might be the problem. That is certainly what I was told when I went for a scan for another gynaelogical problem last week, and asked while they were doing it whether there were still signs that the PCOS was active. It may be therefore that your consultant will not need to order another scan because the blood tests, combined with the symptoms you have are enough, or that the less good scan will still give him enough information to make a diagnosis. I would hope that if the first scan was totally useless that the sonographer would have said this much at least. If he does send you back for the internal scan, you are right it is more intrusive and potentially more embarrassing, but it should not be painful and will be over quickly. You could think of what would make you feel more comfortable about the whole procedure and write this down in advance and give them to the sonographer. Things to think about might be: - do you want her to explain what she is doing step by step, or stay silent while she is doing it - do you want to be able to see the screen - do you want to be able to keep some clothes on down below (they should still be able to do the procedure if you are wearing a long loose skirt, provided you can move your legs easily - if eye contact would trouble you in this situation you could consider wearing dark glasses - do you want a companion in the room with you? Do you want to bring your own, or for them to provide an extra chaperone? Try and have something nice lined up for immediately after the procedure so that you have something pleasant and relaxing to take your mind off things, even if it is just a cup of coffee and a bun in a nice coffee shop. Hope it goes OK.

Don't panic - its a newsletter not a live video performance! Good idea to ask for the questions in advance and to prepare for them. Make sure they set aside enough time for the interview and ask to see a draft of the article before it is published in the newsletter. That way if there is anything which you wish you hadn't said or had said better, or anything which the interviewer has just completely messed up, you can pick it up and have it corrected before it gets published. The big celebs do this all the time with newspaper articles - its called copy approval - and it sounds like the company is keen to do right by you so there is absolutely no reason why they wouldn't agree to this. If they don't want to though, feel free to PM me and I will give you half a dozen legal reasons why they must! I know you feel this isn't your forte, but you will be fine really - if you could handle the appraisal meeting with your HoD, an interview with the personnel person lumbered with writing the newsletter will be child's play. Good luck!

I agree you should see a GP and sooner rather than later. These symptoms do not sound at all like stress to me, and a nurse is not a qualified diagnostician, particularly just over the phone without seeing you. At my surgery if you phone and ask for a same day appointment, one of the doctors will phone you back and discuss your symptoms with you to decide how urgently you need to be seen. I would phone tomorrow first thing, and see if this can be done at your surgery. I would also explain that you are a carer, and that you need to be in good health to look after your disabled child as this may make a difference to how quickly you are seen. In the meantime, you could try giving NHS Direct a call, as they may be able to provide some reassurance and advice in the short term.

Fear not, you didn't offend me, and I too apologise if I came across a bit holier than thou. It just seemed to me on reading your post that there was more than one way to read the situation you described, and I'd rather the police were over rather than under vigilant. I know what you mean about prolonging the situation though. I grew up in Northern Ireland during the troubles, and even on foot as a young schoolgirl it was quite common to be stopped by police or British Army and questioned. The whole thing did tend to go on much longer than was strictly necessary, particularly I would have to say when I reached my mid to late teens by the young english soldiers, and you always knew that the whole thing had not been completely above board when the last question was what you were doing on Friday night, or for your phone number (mind you this was in the days before mobiles and if an english soldier had phoned my home when I was still at school, my dad would have had his guts for garters...) and I still ended up marrying an englishman!

Reading between the lines, the police were behind your son, probably innocently, and then noticed him doing something which looked to them to be suspicious (ie shifting to move his wallet). They probably thought that he had seen them in his mirror and become nervous, and was trying to get rid of some contraband before being pulled over. Whilst in this case your son was obviously completely innocent of any wrongdoing, his outward behaviour couldn't have been distinguished from someone who was breaking the law. Stopping a few innocent people in this way is the price that we pay for police being able to catch those who sell drugs to our young people. Provided they treated your son courteously while they briefly detained him, I don't see why this is a situation where you would want to "take the police on". I may be biassed as my BIL is a policeman, but I feel that the police do a difficult and at times dangerous job, for very little appreciation by the public, and I for one would not mind at all being questioned or even having my property searched if the police suspected I had committed a crime, provided as I say it was done courteously, and the policeman acknowledged I was in the clear when he sent me off. The alternative is that no one is stopped and searched, however suspiciously they are behaving, and drug dealing and terrorism become rife. If your son genuinely feels that the police treated him discourteously, he could make a complaint about this to the local police station, but nothing in your original post screams out that he was treated badly.

You've probably looked into this already but would the school give him a grant or bursary so he could stay until you were back on your feet? My kids are educated in the state system, but I had understood that private schools had to provide for a certain number of children in this way to maintain their charitable status. As I say I have no direct experience of this, but it might be worth just looking into.

I have PCOS. The symptoms do include weight gain, excess hair, poor skin and irregular, or in my case none at all, periods. All of these things can be dealt with however. To lose weight if this is difficult, you need to follow one of these trendy new GI diets (google if you haven't heard of these) because the reason why you are more prone to gain weight with PCOS is because your body doesn't deal with insulin very well. Excess hair on the body can be waxed or treated by electrolysis, or there are drug treatments as well for this (but I prefer to avoid these). Spots can be treated with over the counter stuff. Irregular periods can be dealt with by either the contraceptive pill if you don't want to get pregnant or by certain fertility drugs eg clomid if you do, though it has to be said that even with these drugs you may find it more difficult to conceive. It's not impossible though and I have two to my name now both post diagnosis. Undiagnosed and untreated, PCOS is a pain, but my experience is that once you know what you are dealing with it is easily manageable. Hope your experience will be the same.

Definitely let her out if she still wants to go out. We adopted an old and poorly cat a few years ago and because we lived in a top floor flat she was a house cat. She was always grumpy, aggressive and very poorly (cost us a fortune in vets bills) After about 18 months we moved to a house, which had a small enclosed patio, which meant the cat could go out. She was transformed! Became so much happier and healthier she was lovely to have around. It was clear to us with hindsight that she had been very depressed at being confined to barracks, and this had made her ill. If you adopt a cat from Battersea now they make you promise that you will fit a cat flap and let the cat come and go at will, so I think the whole professional thinking at the moment is that it is cruel to keep them in if they want to go out.

I would like a way of knowing what a thread is about without having to open it, particularly if people don't fill in the subtitle giving a reasonable description. On some forums when you hover over a thread, the first post will be displayed for a short time which is just long enough to preview it. This is a huge help if you are in a hurry, or if your computer takes a long time to load pages, either because you are on dial-up or because your broadband is a bit clunky (like mine!) I don't agree with tess that the board as a whole is depressing, and quite often people will post a scenario which sounds like it is grim, only to find that a lot of other people have come through similar situations, or have very helpful advice to offer. If the thread was tagged as a depressing one, then people like tess could miss out on very useful information because they have been deterred by the original marking. Surely it is easy enough to judge whether you want to keep reading about something by the first few sentences of the first post?

I would do the letter too but make sure I got the tone right. Something along the lines of that the meeting was really useful and you are really pleased that they are going to do x, y and z because you think this will make a big difference, and that you really appreciate their help and support.

Thanks KarenA that is really helpful. I get some respite care for my ASD child, and like aro the carer will take her out for the afternoon without me so I was surprised that my friend could not leave her child alone with the carer, but I suspect that you are right it is the training that is the sticking point - even though my friend herself has had no formal training and would just call an ambulance if anything went wrong. Still its not much respite if you have to stay in the house at all times...

A friend has two children aged 4 and 9 with a medical condition (not learning difficulties or ASD). Dad also has some serious health issues and is in and out of hospital. She gets support from carers from an agency paid for by SS. From time to time one or other of the two children needs to go into hospital for a few days and up until now mum has had the carer either stay at the hospital with the child who is in hospital, or stay at home with the other one, while she keeps child in hospital company. Recently however SS have said that she cannot do this as the carer is not allowed to go into hospital with the child, and must not be left alone in the home with the other child in case there is a medical emergency. Friend has said she will sign a consent form to say in those circumstances carer can call an ambulance, but SS will not budge from their policy. They have said that in future she must leave the children, even the 4 year old, alone in hospital for however long it takes. They have also said that she must never leave either child in the house with only the carer, even just to drop the other one off at school which is a 5 min walk away. All this seems mad to me, and not much good as respite care if you have to always be there at the same time as the carer. I wondered if anyone with more knowledge of the wider SEN field had come across anything similar before, or could offer any advice about how to negotiate with SS to achieve a more sensible outcome. The children's condition is chronic not acute, and not life-threatening.

I'm afraid I can't help with NHS guidelines, but wondered whether if he is not so bad during the day incontinence pads might be enough, and less obtrusive than either pull ups or nappies? My real reason for posting though was to give you this link http://www.snugnights.co.uk/productcart/pc...sp?idproduct=35 we have these on all our beds (including ours) as never know where E will get to when the need to wee takes her, and they are great. They don't rustle and are very unobtrusive. The only downside is that they do make the duvet a bit warmer, so in the summer you will probably need to buy a low tog one for him if he hasn't got one already, as otherwise they will be unbearable.

In the end I googled it and came up with quite a few hits, and then mentioned it to consultant when I saw him. He was fairly neutral about whether this was likely or not, but given that he hasn't got a clue what could be causing the problem, he agreed to run some tests on her to see whether this might be it, at the same time as doing a skin biopsy. I'll report back if anything comes of this.

There was an article in the last issue of Looking Ahead about some recent research which has been done linking autism with an increased likelihood of problems with the immune system. Did anyone happen to read this article, or anything similar, and if so could you point me in the direction of the research please. Stupidly I read the article then threw away the magazine without remembering to cut it out. E has had a terrible skin condition since Easter, which doctors have been unable to diagnose, and it occurred to me that it may be some kind of auto-immune reaction, so I would like to be able to take some info about this research along with me when she sees the consultant again next week. Thanks in advance for any help.