wendywoo

To anyone within easy reach of Wokingham (Berkshire). We (Wokingham Austistic Spectrum Parents Group) have arranged for Ian Jordan of visual dyslexia.com to give a demonstration of their work this coming Saturday (8th July) at 2pm in the council chamber, and we have a FEW tickets left! Ian's work is becoming very well known and involves using coloured spectacle lenses to help people on the autistic spectrum, dyslexics, dyspraxics and facial blindness! Full details can be found by visiting the following website, www.wokingham.gov.uk/autism. You can apply for tickets via our email address ONLY, wasparents@btinternet.com Maybe we'll see some of you there? Wendywoo

Thanks, I didn't know about that book so I'm going to look for it. Really must try and not get sucked down, cause it affects every thing else then. Should be able to get POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE in tablet form! Determined to do better today. Wendywoo.

Thanks, that sounds as though it may be helpful in the future. What you said about self esteem certainly rings true. This time of year, after a whol year of school I guess G is always very low and difficult. Thanks guys Wenywoo.

CBT is cognitive behavioural therapy. It's supposed to train people not to have spiralling negative thoughts or behavioures. We're going to CAMHS again next week so I plan to ask again. Wish me luck!

It's taken me ages to come up with a way of describing how dealing with my son( 10 asd) makes me feel, but finally I've managed it! He gets so negative it's like he sucks all my (attempted) positive mental attitude out of me. If you've read the description of dementors in Harry Potter you'll have some idea of what I mean. G just gets these frames of mind that are so defeatist I have no idea how to handle it. His theme this morning was that he is wasting his life, because he now has no out of school activities, all stopped as too stressful. I've tried jollying him, seems to make him worse. Tried ignoring the comments, causes a meltdown. Reasoned replies to his statements are just shot down in flames. Just leaves me with a massive lump in my throat and a feeling of utter hopelessness. Does anyone else identify with this or am I going mad? I have asked CAMHS about CBT but they don't think he could handle it. Any suggestions?

Thanks everyone, this is exactly the sort of stuff I wanted. I'm going to make myself a checklist of questions to take with me when I look at schools. I'll let you know how I get on. Wendywoo.XXXX

I have a son in year 5 (unstatemented) and I am about to start looking at secondary schools for him. With a pile of prospectuses sitting in my house, I've realised that they all paint a good picture in their glossy brochures. What I'm wondering is how to get through all the PR and actually choose the right one! Has anyone done this recently and got any tips as to what questions I should be asking? Also he thinks he might like to try for grammar school (stress!!) and I was wondering if anyone has an ASD child at a selective school and is it any good?! (for the child I mean) Wendywoo.