madme

My daughter (Dx Aspergers) has issues about others eating and if she thinks someone has "touched her food". eg If her brother for example used his fork to steal a chip from her plate she would then say that the whole plate was contaminiated and throw it all away. If someone is a messy eater she will stop eating. When she was younger (3-4) she had dfifficulties with food- and would restrict what she ate. She often vomited from a young age and will still do this - though thankfully not as frequently. At onme point she was under a dietician. She has lots of other sensory issues about clothes and her hair and is now also diagnosed as having sensory integration disorder.

Yes its shocking isnt it. I was talking to someone within an LEA who deals with statements. I won't name and shame said LEA but would love to do so. When we talked about statements she informed me that said authority no longer issued statements. I was bemused and pointed out that parents are entitled to fight for one- her response was well we only give them very rarely if the parents fight really hard! Children dont need them!

As a mum I have perhaps a more emotional reaction to this- as a lawyer I urge caution. A specialist solicitor or barrister (by way of direct access) is vital.

As a lawyer myself and being married to a barrister I suppose I have a vested interest. I should add that neither of us practise in this area. When instructing a barrister it is vital to only instruct one who is experienced in that area. It is easy enough to find out who is. I agree that it can be counter productive to have barristers present. At our SENDIST the Lea used a barrister but he had clearly not read the bundle. Something that people often dont know but quite a lot of barristers take instructions direct which means that you don't have to employ a solicitor and this can be a huge costs saving. The main point is to know what you are saying about each point and to be able to point to the relevant evidence. Good luck

We have been a few times. On the last occasion we stayed at the Ranch just outside Disneyland and drove there. It was a nice site. Indoor pool on site but to be honest in the three days we just went to the park. We went in February and it snowed. It was great. We always go self catering as it is so much easier. Try and stay around for the evening parades. There are supermarkets not that far away.

warrenpalver I raised this with my son who would not accept it. I will have to do my own research but is there any research about what you say? My son also is dx as ADHD , in fact Hyperkinectic disorder and I wonder if dopamine is playing a part. Her is on Concerat 36 mg and 1x 10 g ritalin.

My son didnt have this as the Aspergers was a later dx by a specialist team. As they are from a well know hospital I have no doubt about the dx. My Dd was different and she did have the ADos and was dx as Aspergers although she didnt fulfill all the criteria but they did have input from er paed and previous school. What was important in each case was the experience of the dx doctr. With my son he is an expert , we had read enough around the field, so we accepted it. With my DD she was dx last year at age 7 of aspergers. I'm sure that without her brothers dx they would not have dx her now. I know that she is ASd and increasingly this is now a problem. The school however will not look at this and just see her academic abilities. Her Ot report delivered at the start of term has just been filed away. As she is out of borough this is normal apprently.

This sounds all very positive. Its nice to know that some schools do want to work with parents. With my son who is now a teenager when he was 7-9 he was very like this and when we got him into an appropriate caring setting the school had a positive chart which was broken down into lessons and playtimes. A teacher who he got on well with would spend a few minutes a few times a day going through the chart and he would draw a smiley or sad or angry face to show how he was feeling. It did help as we could then try and work out what was causing these feelings. He felt it easier to do this than face lots of questions. Good luck

I have no idea how many a day. The nurses think only a couple a day but he claims that he feels a craving. I'm unsure how long this has been going on as he won't talk to me or anyone in the family. As far cannabis the link is that the smokers and those in the past who smoke cannabis all go into the woods around the school which is part of the school land and although banned to the kids and patrolled is a large area. My fear is that if peer pressure has been at work and others try cannabis then he might be tempted. Canopus the head sounds rather unusual. At least at my son's school they know that there is a problem and even the staff are not allowed to smoke anywhere but there own private homes ie not in the grounds or in front of the kids. Thanks all. I just hope ihe sees sense.

Agree with what Chris has said. Also as a parent who was in a similar situation with my son when at his first primary school please please move your child if at all possible before it is too late. If the school isnt working with you it is very unlikely that they ever will. We persisted for several years- causing us and our son unnecessary stress. I have met others whose SEN children went to that particular primary and who also had to change schools- some schools just wont learn.

Canopus I'm shocked to hear that. Do you have any idea why?

Hi, I have been in this position and ended up walking away from a very good job which had taken me years to get to. I took some time out. I think I did actually have a breakdown but it was never actually dx. My Gp was relieved that I had seen sense and stopped for a while. Financially it has been awful but I am glad that I did it as otherwise I would now be locked up or probably not be here. I now only do temp work but enjoy it. I work the hours that I want and cope much better. I can take time out when I want to. I may go back to a permanent job but not for a while. I have to say that it has been an ego boost as I had lost all my confidence but I am now much more aware of my own skills when I see how useless some colleagues are. The first step is to admit that you need a break. You are also important and so you must make time for yourself. I understand that CBt can be helpful for this and possibly CBT hypnotherapy. Good luck.

My son. 13 (Year 9) (AS) is having difficulty with spanish at school. The teacher tells me that he has a very good ability but doesnt apply himself. He tells me that he is bored and that they make such little progress which I feel is right as he seems to know very little. He has asked to drop the spanish but as yet nothing has happened. It is strange as I was very good at languages and french in particular doing my Olevel on my own early. I went on to study is at Uni with law. I can remember being quite obsessed about learning all the verbs, vocab and spent a lot of time with my head in a french-english dictionary. (BTW I think I am an un-dx AS) I also studied german and while quite good at it never really liked it. If it is stressful then your child won't be learning. You could however get him some study books and tapes to see if on his own he copes better. Looking back I self taught myself in the main.

If anyone has any personal experience of this with their kids please share it. I feel such a useless mum at the moment. The medical staff have a stop smoking clinic at the school and he attends that now and is getting 1-1 counselling. When she mentioned that they may try patches or an inhaler I felt sick. My biggest worry is if he tries cannabis which I am aware there have been problems with in some older kids in the past. Some were kicked out.

My son was caught smoking at his boarding school. He has admitted to me that he has been smoking for a while. I'm shocked as he has always been really anti-smoking -particularly with his grandparents who smoke heavily. I havent smelled it on him ever. I am supposed to be speaking to the medical staff at school today. He has promised to stop. He didnt have any on him this weekend and he has no money as I have refused to give it to him! He has asthma. He wouldnt discuss it at the weekend and stormed off every time I tried. Unfortunately he is full on teens.

DD (Aspergers) is blue eyed. DS (Aspergers) is brown eyed. Considering their parentage I don't think that they look too bad. DD has from a very young age been told by strangers that he looks like Harry Potter ( everywhere we went particularly when he was about 7-8). Even once a while back when we were in Madame Tussauds ( by then being a cool teenager this had lost its appeal). I have to say he recently played a girl in a play at school play and he did come up lovely with make-up.

My daughter 7 uses this and has done for a year. We have found it really good as she is very obsessive and will re-do tests until she gets them right. In that way it has taken away some of the pressure from us.For our son who now is secondray we found it of no use

<'> >< <'> >< <'> Wonderful news.

We bought it last Xmas. We spent two weeks in a small chalet on a french mountainside playing it most days for a while and loved it. Bowling is great. It is very good for play skills ie turn taking. Can be played alone or in a group.

Just a thought but could you get your local support group involved if they are not already or the local diagnositic service as they will be able to advertise it for you. Good luck and well done.

The guy from the LEA is refusing to attend the review if it is left at the current date. Where do we stand legally?

Have just tried to read the new rules and regulations which I found on a website. It seems (please correct me if I am wrong) that the time for appeal in SEN cases has been maintained at two months. While there is a power to order a joint report it is not mandatory. I would be very surprised if they would routinely order such joint reports. I will keep reading. If anyone comes across any useful websites please can they PM me. Thanks

Just checked it seems that the House of Lords approved it so the new system is in place from November 3.

Is there any news about this? I had heard that it was being considered yesterday- what was the outcome?

Our school brought this forward by just over a month so that if we have to go to tribunal we can get through the process before he gets into Year 10. The Lea took 5 months to produce the amended statement which still needs amending after the last annual review and they have indicated that they will be considering removing his extra salt ot and other extra lessons after the next review so it is inevitable that we will have to go back to Tribunal. The guy dealing with at the LEA has said that it must be moved back to the original month( about 5 weeks later). Im waiting to hear from the school. He says unless there is a risk of exclusion the Review cannot be brought forward. Hes not happy as the review will be in effect only 5 months after the amended statement( but thats hardly our or the schools fault) They only produced the amended statement once we threatened to go to the Ombudsman. Any advice? He is just being his usual bully boy. ( He is the person who deals with all SENDISt cases).