Jeni

can u do that? and if so how???

my sons youth group were planning to take them all on a day trip to White Scar Caves, they got in touch with the centre and told them that they would be bringing a group of children with aspergers. after they had paid the deposit the 'really nice manager' told them that unless the leaders actually went to see him and explain to him what aspergers was then he wasnt able to accomadate the group and even then there would be no guarantee. apparently he had had a problem with an autistic person causing 'a lot of racket' and had had to call the police to have him removed in the past. this place is about 2 hours drive from where we live. im not quite sure on exact details but i will be finding out exactly what happened and writing a letter of complaint because we are not happy about this in the slightest.

my son is now obsessed with the weather. he is terrified of thunder and lightning and during a storm will cover his ears and hide his face so that he cant hear or see anything. he now has to check the weather forecast daily and tell me all about it. he checks it on the computer and on the teletext and also checks the world weather as well. i dont know whether his obsession is helping him or hindering him. when it came to walking home from school in the summer i would get a phone call from the school to go and collect him because he was so afraid. i once got a call because he had read on teh bbc weather forecast that at 4pm it would thunder and as it was 3.40 he was worried about walking home. i felt mean but as i knew there was no chance of a storm and his school is only 5 minutes away i told him if he set off now he would be home before the storm was forecast at 4... btw my son is 13 and in yr8 of high school. i do remember him being afraid of the wind when he was about 3 tho. our house is open at the back, theres jsut fields and the wind used to blow into his bedroom through the airbrick o his bedroom wall. he used to scream with terror. we evenually put a radio in his bedroom and gradually turned the volume down on it. he only had the problem inside tho so dont have any advice to offer you for outside really.

speaking as a dinner lady myself, there is no way at all i would ever put a note into a childs lunch box saying anything along those lines. the only notes we r ever likely to put in is if a child has not liked their dinner or if there was a problem and that is only if we cant tell the class teacher about it 1st. with some of the things the children at school bring in for their dinners tho i would probably run out of paper if we did those notes lol

had the same problems with regards to detentions with ds1 when he was in yr7. all the teachers at the school made exceptions for him except for 1, she didnt like him using his alpha smart in class and wouldnt remind him to hand in his homework diary so she could write down any homework he had. this ended up with him not doing the homework and eventually he got a detention. it was only 10 minutes but he came home from school and was absolutely distraught, took me a good couple of hours to calm him down and finally get out of him what had gone on. i eventually had to explain that detentions were not all that bad, that i had got lots of them while i was in school for not doing homework and that he should not let them stress him out so much. its not what i wanted to tell him but it was the only way i could see to stop him being so worried about them. so far it has worked, he no longer has the same science teacher altho the 1 he has now also thinks he is lazy and quite capable of writing by hand in his excecise book - spose we will have to see what happens towards the end of term...

my son goes to a club twice a month, its for both girls and boys and is a charity thing. they have different activities and the kids can choose what they want to do, be it consoles, watching dvd/video, painting etc. he absolutely loves it and its given him something different to do away from his younger brother. they do trips during school holidays and other sorts of activities as well.

i got my son 1 last year from ebuyer, they have them now for �49.99 inc vat, not sure how much delivery is tho http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=63920

my son started the statementing process before he started school, statement arrived when he was in recp. his nursery identified a problem with him and he was assessed etc. we didnt get a diagnosis until he was in yr2 and then it was asd, probably mild aspergers.

dont forget to take a photocopy of ur form before u send it in and keep it for next time u need to apply, it helps u remember some of the things u do that r a part of ur normal routine. its so easy to forget these sorts of things. (i should really follow my own advice....)

i live near manchester airport, they have a viewing area that costs u to go into and theres also a pub nearby, its not part of the airport but the back fence of it almost backs onto the airport runway. have a look see if theres anything like that there, u can start off gradually by looking out of windows, then venturing outside etc

also, my son didnt like noise and i thought the aircraft noise would upset him. we took him to view planes a couple of times at manchester airport to get him used to the noise a little, that way we only had the hands over ears and not the crying/screaming etc. maybe a good idea is to get in touch with airports and see if they do any tours of planes or anything?

have to agree with lorryw, virgin are great. i took my son to florida when he was 7. we had special passes that rushed us through check in so we didnt have to queue, they gave us special meals on the flight for the kids and with the virgin planes having the tv screen in the back of the seats they really enjoyed it. i was surprised at how well he managed it. they also took their gameboys and 1 game to go over with (pokemon) and funnily enough, brough a few more games back home lol. gameboy games are multi country unlike all the other consoles. phone the airline u r travelling with and explain what help u r likely to need, that u all want to be sat together etc and they will do their best to help u i am sure.

my son takes packed lunches, always has done. if you want to give the school meals a try tho then do so. the lunchtime staff will be made aware of your child if they r not so already, this includes the kitchen staff and lunchtime supervisors. you can ask for a daily report of what he is eating. they will give you this without any problems. the staff wont force him to eat if he doesnt want to. i found sandwiches the best way to go as i remembered what school meals were like from when i was at school and knew that my son wouldnt eat them. i would definitely say to make sure every1 is aware tho, in the school i work in the children sit down in sittings and these are rotated every day so that all the children get maximum choice. if your child is on the last sitting there may not be much left for him that he will eat but if u make sure the kitchen staff and lunchtime supervisors are aware then they will keep something back that he will eat. regarding the hot meals and winter coming up, i really dont think it makes that much difference. when it is really cold in our school the younger children dnt spend that much time outdoors. it may just be the way we work so u would have to make sure on this. as an alternative what about sending a flask of hot chocolate, soup or something like that as well as his sandwiches?

its nice to see that im not the only mum whose child has these problems with food, altho ur children seem to be more fussy than mine. thing is, he is overweight so ive started to cut down on the amount of food he eats (1 sandwich instead of 2 n stuff). he doesnt really go outside which makes the weight thnig worse. i think if i had the chance again i would do things differently but hindsight is such a wonderful thing lol

my son is a very fussy eater but if a food he likes is there he wil eat it until its all gone, whether or not he is full. he has made himself sick in the past through eating too much and now i have to tell him when hes had enough and remind him what happens.