mandyque

For anyone who is in or around Teesside, we have a local charity called Daisy Chain which supports children with ASDs and their families. They are building a respite and resource centre, but in the meantime they are building up new projects all the time. It is based on a farm and we have a number of animals for the children to come and meet, including pigs, cows, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, chickens, donkeys and The LINKS group is for parents and carers, we get together on a Thursday morning during term time from 10am-12pm and we do all kinds of things like guest speakers, trips out to places of interest in the area, as well as general support to each other. During school holidays we have regular activities, including swimming, soft play, activity sessions, cinema and, when the weather is nicer, play sessions on the farm with opportunities to see the animals. There are also pampering sessions for a nominal donation, you can have a facial, manicure or other beauty treatment at a local salon. These are on the second Wednesday of every month, 9.30am-12.30pm and the last Friday of every month 2-5pm, and a 30 min slot can be booked through daisy chain. On Tuesday afternoons we have a specialist trained counsellor who you can book for 6 x 1 hour sessions. You can talk to her about whatever you wish, whether ASD related or not and it is completely confidential. This service is free of charge. Finally, Daisy Chain are looking to set up a siblings group, hopefully in the near future, and need feedback from families, whether your non-ASD children would be interested in going to a group where they can mix with their peers and have some fun with other children who are in the same boat as them. This is a PDF file of upcoming LINKS events: Links group activities If you would like any more information please feel free to PM me or have a look at their website Daisy Chain

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For those of us who like a good rock tune, this is one of my current favourites: The Hives *jumps around*

I love seafood, king prawns especially, most of the takeaways I get are king prawn based, especially Chinese food, sweet and sour prawns or king prawn chow mein. *licks lips* Cheese is fab too, and pasta, I love my rare treat of going to our local Italian restaurant

grooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn

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Is there such a thing as snail bromide?

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Thanks Karen, I will see how things go with Parent Partnership, if I'm not getting any joy I will enlist the support of IPSEA. I have a couple of other options too

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Thanks Sally. The problem I have is that the local school is a special school (general as opposed to autism specific) and they are saying that they can take her, and can cope with her. That may be, but I am not convinced that it is in dd's best interests to go there, I don't believe they can provide as well as the out of area school. The other issues surround her future, the local school don't provide residential care, the out of area school does. It's not something I will be going in for straight away, but I certainly want her to go residential as she approaches adulthood. The post-19 facilities are excellent, whereas the local ones are non-existant and I feel it is in dd's best interests to be in the right system as early as possible so that changes are kept as minimal as possible.

I bought it yesterday, fantastic It has the honour of going straight into the car, not many CDs get that far I can tell you!

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I agree, that was one thing which I thought when I saw the clips. They are excellent, but 'invisible' disabilities are still very badly misunderstood. It's a shame that the NAS aren't putting their Think Differently ads on TV.

Right, I've been to visit the local school and I'm still not happy! If dd went there she would be in a class where there are about 11-12 older boys and only one other girl. The ratios are 3 staff to 10 students, whereas currently she is getting 1 to 1. At the school I want, she will be in a class of 7 students all within a year or two of her own age, with 4 staff. I need someone Official to say that 3/10 is not good enough, and a class with much older boys is unsuitable. Especially when I know that at least one of the boys makes me very uncomfortable, and so does his father! I also need to work on the fact that I want her in a place which can offer residential care when the time comes. This school has no residential facilities. The Parent Partnership officer who is working with me has warned me of all the pitfalls and problems we're going to have, the local school may be given funding for an extra member of staff, they might simply say no way, you must send her to this school, it is good enough. But I am collecting evidence, I have now seen what they offer and I am not happy with it. The school is HUGE compared to the specialist one and I just feel that she won't get the same level of care there at all. I'm hoping that the assessment at Prudhoe will echo my feelings and make recommendations for the specialist school now, fingers crossed!

Glad you survived it ok DD had to have a lot of teeth taken out a couple of months back because they were rotten, she simply won't brush her teeth and won't let anyone else do it either We tried all sorts but it was useless. She has lost one of her big front teeth and it looks awful

DD does it too. She has a cot bed sized quilt which she's had since she was about 3 years old and will carry it with her all the time at home, wrapping herself in it most of the time. I bought an identical one, miraculously I found one on the car boot sale, but she still goes for the old one which is getting quite tatty, thin and washed out, well it would after 8 years! She only wants that one to sleep with too, which is a problem in the winter. I sneak in her room and lay another blanket on but she wakes and dumps it on the floor

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Hurrah! You've helped me choose the next CD I'm buying, it's that UNKLE one Here's one of my favourites of theirs, along with the legend who is Ian Brown, originally singer with: