chris54

Yes we are luck, this time last year we were realy worrying about how thing would be. Hoping that we had done the right thing. Just hoping that in 6 years time I'm still saying the same thing.

I hope it all goes well. It is not something I can do, at my dads funeral it was left to my nephew, (Oldest son of oldest son) as non of the rest of us were up to it.

I think it is English, Maths and Science. I seem to think that Geography and History are in there somewhere, and maybe Languages.

If all the mainstream school were as good as the one my son goes to there would be a lot more children who could cope. The only reason there aren't more school like that is the management of the school, and the funding. Both of which could be address if there was the will. I just get fed up repeatedly hearing from government, (and others) that we all have this massive pool of schools (All types of schools) to choose from and that will somehow drive standers up. And if we are not happy with the school our child is at we just move them to the school down the road and everything will be Hunky Dorry. As for moving house, well you could say I was luck in as much as I own my own house, but round here it is currently taking 18 months plus to sell houses. What would I do in the mean time. We were, a year+ ago contemplating a school place that was be about 45 minuets drive away. But even if we had gone for that school there was the distinct possibility that we would not have got a place as the school is something like 3 times oversubscribed, so in effect the school chose who would go there. I'm not saying people should not consider moving to be nearer a school that child child has been given a place at. I'm saying that it should very much be the exception, that what is needed is better school provision for all of us, Local, so we don't need to make them sort of chooses. I don't want anyone feeling guilty, that maybe if they had made more sacrifice them selves that maybe there child's life would have not turned out so bad. For some people who live in very remote areas of the country, it is normal for their children to board out with local families (Local to the school) because there are just to remote from the school to make daily travel possible. When my mother was a child she had a 7 mile walk to school each day, 5 miles in the summer when they could cut across the fields. And if they were lucky there might be a farm wagon going part of their way. How many of us would these days find it acceptable for their 5 year old to walk them sort of distances each day, with only there 8 year old brother for company. I walked best part of 2 miles to school often on my own from 5. 50 years ago no one thought any thing of it. I don't think we realy want, or are likely to ever return to them days. Now just to counter the argument for provision Locally, my council is in the very process of doing just that. One of the driving forces behind it is the cost of school transport. But many see it as a backward step, as it is seen to diluting the expertise that currently exists. And many wonder how the children will manage with the new arrangements. Well Iv rambled on a bit here, sorry about that.

So you've moved 150 miles, living in private rented that is a load of Cr--, other kids not happy as they have had to leave all there friends, change school (Missed 6 weeks while waiting for school places to be arranged), looking for work, cant afford the rent, had to sell the car and then the school placement breaks down, what next. Well this never happened, but if we start traveling the country chasing school places it could. I do/did know someone who moved to be nearer the special school for his boy, but he was unemployed, and live in housing association house who agree to move them to one of there other properties. And he did not have any other school age children.

I don't know the relationship you have with the senco, but for us, we have always been on the same side, trying together to get as much out of the council as possible, so to speak.

Just dug out the spare keyboard only to realise it got the wrong plug on it so got to get hold of a keyboard, or an adapter. And the monitor I was planing to use has the wrong connection on it. Could plug it into the main telly but been told that not happening. So for the time being it will be the old telly connecting it to the video out socket and not the HDMI socket. For anyone who want one and hasn't registered an interest its likely to be the autumn before Pi's become readily available.

No, it from Fernell.

Just had a email saying my Raspberry Pi will be delivered by the end of June. Just got to get all the other bits together that are needed and the down load sorted.

Joe in the class room. Watch it carefully, you will see that when the buzzer went and he had to change activities, they were expecting a negative reaction. His teacher was already adopting a defensive posture and other staff were there ready to step in. First, as I have already said I don't agree with the way physical intervention is being used. The second point, if they know that these sudden changes to set him off, why have them, why not have a run down time at the end of an activity. It almost seems to me, and there is a reference to this, that as Autistic children find change difficult, we will make the changes as abrupt as possible. In doing this they are provoking a reaction and then it gives us "something to do". Almost as if by confronting the negatives they will defeat them. The boy twin, his father said something like "I only have to say NO and it sets him off", Well don't say NO, I don't mean give in, I mean don't use the word NO. We at work do a lot of work identifying triggers and avoiding them, that is basically how we work, and by recognising when someone is becoming agitated and (Trying not to use any technical jargon) defuse it before it happens. We have one resident who is a sweet as pie, unless you invade her space, then all hell lets lose. For instance, you only go into her room if you are invited, with her it is a very subtle wave of the hand, she is a selective mute, I always double check that I have the right interpretation of what is meant. And keep a dialog going, not easy when the person you are talking to doesn't talk back, its all done with facial expressions and body language. Twin boy in the car, well what did his mum expect, Not only do we have all these strange people in the car, we are not doing what we normally do. How much preparation for the change there was we don't know so cant judge that. When he hit himself in the face. The expression on his face, two possible interpretations, one of surprise that it hurt, another, who's watching me and how did that affect them, provoke a reaction. We get this behavior at work, one particular resident will inflict injury on themselves in order to get a reaction from staff. It is hard to stand there and watch someone banging their head on the wall and not try and stop them, but experience has shown that this only escalates the problem. If it is ignored it soon stops and in the long term the frequency of these incidents has dramatically declined. Its all about knowing your resident, we have one who will raise their hand as if to hit you, if your attempt to stop them then it sets off. Me, I give a "look" and a "Word" and they back down, (Usually) Just looking in without background it is very hard to judge. I would say that, in my organisation at least, the approach is very much one of doing every thing we possibly can to avoid any conflict. In the documentary, It just seemed that some of what we saw was too confrontational for me to be at ease.

bed32, You cant possibly know that there would be no problem getting full time one to one. There is always the possibility that if the amount of support being given is looked at again, it could be cut not increased. I don't know in this case, but many of us, we only realy have the chose of one school. the next nearest school to me would involve best part of an hours travel each way. This would have to be balanced up with the benefits. Fortunately for us for us our local school is working out fine so it is not something I have had to consider.

This documentary was set in America were the approach to Autism is different to ours. There is a general belief there that Autism can be cured and it is the fault of the parent (and carers) if a child is not cured. So there is a lot of pressure on parents to go along with what the professionals say. Also you have to remember that the American approach to all things medical is the more interventions there is the better. If you have ever seen what they routinely do to new born babies you would not believe it. I would be surprised if the sort of physical intervention used in this program was condoned by any organisation in this country, as I said before, any practitioner using such methods would be leaving themselves open to prosecution for assault.

Don't realy see what you mean, The island is the bit in the middle of the roundabout, you also get island in other parts of the road.(At crossings) Not all roundabout have a island in the middle, so large vehicles can just go over the top of them. (mini roundabouts). And some roundabout are so big its hard to recognise them as such, The sort you sometimes get at motorway interchanges. Of course if a roundabout has traffic lights then it not a roundabout, its a gyratory system. Not sure what the ones with part time traffic light are.

Some would argue and they would be correct that the system used by me sons school does not fulfill the terms of his statement. But if the school are meeting his needs what is most important. Just to add it is a mainstream academy secondary school split over 2 sites with a total of about 2000 children, there's about 400 at our site. Our site is getting a completely new school building which they will be moving into in the summer. It was one of the last schools to be funded under the school building program of the last government. In the new building there will be much more space with the classrooms opening onto a central space, no more crush on small landings, and less upping and downing stairs.

The problem with quantifying the amount of support a child needs in terms of hours is that a child may not need constant 1 to 1, but input of varying degrees throughout the school day, as well as specialist input at specific times. Me son has a statement stating 10 hour a week. sound fine only in reality it meant that for 2 hours a day he had one to one and they tried to get as much of his learning done in that time, when he was with out one to one he achieved little. There was other support throughout the day provided out of delegate funding. But there were still large parts of the day that were lost. Despite our and his schools best efforts, he still only has 10 hours on his statement. He is now at secondary school. There they have a different and I would say controversial approach, but it works well for us. They have what they refer to as pooled support. He no longer gets 10 hours of one to one support, What he gets is the support that he needs throughout the day, manly by being in a class of just 12 with a teacher and a TA.(For most subjects). For for others, maths, science, PE, he is in a normal sized class, About 22 at his school, but there is a TA (There wouldn't normally be one) in the class who is there to assist him when required. He also does small group work and some one to one with specialist teachers.(Hand writing). There is also a lunchtime club. This way of working relays on having a good SENCO and for the school to be adequately funded. Fortunately, we have both.

Thanks. I have scoured the council/government web site for information. I do claim all the benefits, (Cash) that we can. There are lots of activities put on and were I don't want to take away from any of them, few of them would be of any interest to my son. We do access a couple of short break activities, (There not free) we have to stay with son so not a break for us. As far as funding (Direct payment) we don't even come near to getting that. We cant get any thing more than an assessment over the phone, which as yet has lead to nothing. It seems that you have to be at crises point before you get any help. I am hoping we wont ever get to that point. We have, much to my surprise, been given a one of grant from the short breaks fund. This is to fund days out in the summer. But I have to pay a carer to take my son out, (Not me). I'm hoping that this new carer I have found will also be able to do that. This grant money was little known about, it was using up the surplus of last years budget, It was first come first served. I actually got more than I asked for, that's how desperate they were to use it up. Its one of them things, if they don't use one years budget, they have to return it and then get less the next year.

Well I could, only SS don't think our need is sufficient to get any. We are told you can ask for all sorts of things, getting them is something else altogether.

Click on you user name at top of page, go to my settings, click on email and password, you can change your password there.

After a few false starts, it looks like I have finally found someone to provide some respite care. I was given someones name and number, went to see her today. She had considerable experience of children with Autism. My son will spend some time on his own with her and some time there with others boys. And possibly, see how it goes, go out places with carer, her teenage daughter and a young man who is disabled, in a wheelchair, which will be something new. It will be one day a fortnight, but very flexible to fit in with what every one is doing. Only negative is cost, a bit more than I had hoped, But I'm hoping to be able to get some childcare tax credit to cover some of the cost.

When my son was 8 he had 2 nights away with the school, the first time he had spent a night away from family. I had all sorts of worries, I told his teacher them all. The school were very keen on him going and were very helpful. As it happened our worries were groundless, and he was fine. I would discus your worries with the school, better they be prepared.

3 point turn is the term that is commonly used, but for purposes of the test it is not as it implies the number of times you go forward and backward in order to turn the vehicle. You may need to do a 5 point or even a 7 point turn dependant on the road and the vehicle you are driving. Both of which may be acceptable to the examiner. You would be unlikely to need to use more than a 3 point turn if you are taking your test in a stander car and the examiner has selected a suitable road.

Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. It was once thought that these were two different conditions but it is now generally accepted there is no real difference other than than the diagnostic history. Asperger's is being dropped as an official diagnoses, but I imagine the name will continue to be used.

What about children, or adults for that mater, that do not have the mental capacity to understand the concept of having a goal or ambition. How do you measure there success.

Our cats have only ever brought back the remains, like half a rabbit.

I would put as they can be just as successful in reaching their full potential as any other child. For some children, no matter what, they will never achieve "Success" when measured against the "norm". In order to measure success you first need to define what success is for that individual..