Bard

He had a fantastic day, great weather and he's remembered a lot from the last course so he's confident. There are 6 girls there, and none of them are over 10. Three of them are tiny and so he's playing big brother and towing them out of the reeds when they can't paddle straight and holding their kayaks so they can climb back in. Not a hormone in sight!

Just a thought purplehaze, but my boy loves maps and has become a very good navigator. I don't know where you are going, but a book of maps and a fluorescent pencil could help both of you track where you are going. I've done separate holidays with my two for years, they both have very different tastes and that way I get two holidays. OH hates going anywhere overnight, so he's happy that I'm not making him do stuff. This year I've been to York with B and Bristol with G. Next year it will be Paris with B, and we'll do all the museums, art galleries and churches that I couldn't do with G. G wanted bateau mouche and open-topped bus rides with no stops. She was happiest when she found a computer gaming place on the Champs Elysee. Yes, she's the supposedly NT one, but ah hae ma doots!

He's capsizing in the lake a lot, followed by a shower every day. I think it's the thick black hair, the hazel eyes and the intense expression that they go for. They just seem keen on provoking a response and doing all the girly fussing that they think is cute and makes him angry.

I'm a bit puzzled now, is the AS diagnosis on the web? I've just been through the Saturday Guardian, the Times , The Observer and the Sunday Times. No mention of AS. They said: Cognitive impairment IQ of 75 epilepsy panic attacks complex psychological illness fantasist mental health issues personality disorder So what sources are you reading that say Aspergers? I'm not doubting, just looking. I looked a bit further. He is telling people he is Aspergers, including the News of The World. So what needs to be established is whether he has an official ASD dx, or if he's decided it for himself, as he already has complex mental health issues then self-diagnosis may not be very accurate.

Well, after last week working my tail off to complete all the preparations in school so that I'm ready for next year... tomorrow B is beginning another kayaking course. He's really looking forward to it, but I need you to send positive thoughts and cross your fingers. Because the last thing he and I need is for there to be any flirty teen females in his group. He can't cope with girls yet, and they like what they see too much to get the message. So I want any girls there to be focused on their paddling and not on B. Or things could go very wrong very quickly. Fortunately the instructors know this.

The Times has had several articles on autism and Aspergers over the last year, and most of them have been on the perceptive and well-informed side of journalism. I agree that some of the stories in the Tabloids have been actively hostile when writing about Aspergers, especially when linking it to anti-social behaviour and unpredictable violence.

<'> Yes, some parents are not happy with their children's results until they know where in the ranking of the class they came. The ones who are trying to give me a mouthful about a child in my class they dislike, and when I mention something the child is fantastic at, they look like they've eaten tinfoil. I've often had a slightly different problem. I've had people p*ssed off when B has done very well academically. Because he shouldn't be able to if he's got special needs. They want the 'Ah bless' factor. They want someone to patronise, and a teacher they can feel sorry for, so they can be smug about their own child. So they see B's work, a poem, a drawing or a piece of geography homework at a higher level than their own child and the bile chokes them. They start trying to dig for flaws and faults and suggest that he's had 'help' They're not worth spitting on Flora, people who can only feel they have status if they are standing on someone else's hopes. I wonder what her son is like? More thoughtful and aware than her? It's often the case.

No no no! I'm a lot happier dealing with two children instead of 30, we're having a fantastic time. He's been happily in his pjs for two days on the trot, and I'm going to enter his lego constructions for the next Tate exhibition. He's also painting warhammer figurines with a brush that has three bristles...takes ages and great concentration! Let the holidays roll!

Fluffy Gizzardhump. Are anyone else's children addicted to The Secret Show, for the purposes of security, the boss of the agency is given a new name every day. I think they use a similar idea!

Thanks people, I'm still very chuffed! Not posting much at the moment, still horribly busy even though term has ended. I'm moving classrooms, so I've got to move furniture etc up two flights of stairs. Plus I've got to get sorted for next term, labels, books, planning and all that jazz. Maybe by next week, around Friday, I'll be able to start my holiday. Going to see Prince Caspian with B tomorrow, after a morning in school.

B used to fall out of bed regularly as a littlie, up to being around 7. We just put beanbags to break his fall and lift him back in if we noticed! he was never bothered by it. He sleeps well in a normal bed now, but the spirit of adventure still burns bright. He'd sometimes sleep under the bed, loves camping and sleeping bags and has kipped out a couple of times without a tent. Digging a hole and sitting in it? We call that an archaeological investigation. Currently he wants to sleep overnight in the playhouse. I'll end up in a tent in the garden justincase...

A whole year!!! with no exclusions, serious incidents, internal exclusions...even detentions. You name it, it didn't happen. If I wasn't so knackered, I'd be dancing on the table. What does he get as his reward? We're going to Canterbury to see where Thomas Beckett got murdered....again. And he had chocolate pancakes for dinner.

School have messed up then, ask for the book tomorrow am, they can post it to you. Just because the children break up doesn't mean that the staff won't be in and around in holidays, we've got a meet and greet board in school with all the photos of everyone that works there, and the pictures are stored on the school computer system. They can put together a book by the end of the week if you get firm and insistent now. Other thing is if the school has a website, it may have photos of staff and classrooms on it that might help.

Present for B's form tutor, the SENCO and the assistant SENCO. Card for the Headteacher. Chocolates for my two TAs, the LSA and the Reading support lady. And sweeties and crisps for the 30 in my class. I used to buy little gifts, until a couple of years of children unwrapping them, sneering, using them as missiles and then dumping them because they were 'cheap' Never seen a brat dump chocolate, even 'cheap' rubbish.

Don't worry, it's the writing SATS that are the real c*ck up, they're the trickiest to mark and with the highest level of possible interpretation/misinterpretation by the marker. Science and maths are much more clear-cut, and so I'm sure your lad got what he deserved.

I think the list is very helpful and clear, and it could become a powerful tool if followed carefully a step at a time. I have the opposite though, trouble at school and out in the world, perfect, calm and lovely at home. Met one Aspie, met one Aspie!

<'> <'>

That's exactly why I like this forum, learning about the sort of other things that people have to deal with and how they cope. In some cases, it makes me a better teacher, in others I learn something about how my son might see or understand something that I didn't perceive. I have no personal experience of living with a child that doesn't sleep, or smears, or is a worry to feed or any number of the issues and problems that are shared here, so I don't really have an opinion, just an interest. Other things I do, and I share that opinion, without intending to upset anyone or make them feel that I'm being dismissive or arrogant about what they are going through. We all struggle with different things, I'm knackered because it's the end of term and both my children are weary and snappy with each other, my class is whittering about their new teachers and classmates and are also shattered. The thing is, a forum should be a place of debate, and also support, and if we don't cut each other some slack here, where else will we find people who understand some of how it is for us? One of the lovely things about Greenwich was that all the children and all the adults just got on with each other and coped with any differences as part of the deal and perfectly acceptable. Some of the most boring of all events on my social calendar are those which involve primary school teachers, too many similarities and no real debate. Pleasant but dull and no real mental exercise at all. I read your stuff with interest Darky, and I'm sorry that you're cross. I like a discussion.

The union on strike is UNISON, it's nothing to do with the teachers this time.

And therein lies the difference between a parent's love and commitment and a professional's duty of care. Quite rightly, J's mum, your post is all about you and your son. But I have had over 700 children so far who have been my responsibility for a year, every day. You have the right to see, prioritise and comment on the needs of your child, and the nuances of your particular circumstances. I have to see all of my children, each equally as important as the next, and some who need my help, intervention and protection because I'm the first base. I wish that I didn't have a memory with awful, heart-breaking and enraging cases in it, but I do. I wish that all children had parents that deserved them and cared for them, especially the ones that I come to know personally. Most of them do, and that's how I have the strength to do this job. I could never be a Social Worker.

All I have ever done is my job, raised questions about why a child is exhibiting signs of distress or abuse. I have never accused any parent of abuse, that is not my role. Nor would a child be removed from their parent/s on my word alone. How can it be wrong to spot a vulnerable child in distress and not ask for further investigations to be made to find out why the behaviour is occurring and what can be done to help the child? How can teachers trust parents if a child who is soiling in their class turns out not to have a bowel problem, but to have found the one way to keep his father at a distance? Or to have a child that I thought might have an infectious disease turned out to have infected cigarette burns along the edges of his feet? Or the child with malnutrition because his mentally ill mother thought that most food had germs in it, so was feeding him on milk. Only milk. Skimmed. If no one ever asks, then children die. PS I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I'm sure. The only thing that I really regret are those children that are being mistreated by adults, either through ignorance or intent, that I must pass every day, or speak to and I don't know what they are going through. The ones that we miss because their parents are either unnoticed or too slick at manipulating the system and the professionals that they come into contact with, who get away with it. The ones responsible for the thousands of cases every year where children are harmed and no one knew or did anything until afterwards, and that is truly traumatic for those involved. I'm sorry that I gave the impression of being calm about it. I'm not.

A woman after my own heart, and a son too! It was Jurassic Park and velociraptors with us too! My daughter NT 17 still has phases of doing it, although B has forgotten. Edit for spelin

This is a fascinating thread, and I agree with so much of what different people are saying, and it is important that it is discussed, by as many as possible. Just to add briefly to baddad's MR and SW dialogue, one of the consequences, which is regrettable and very human, is that sometimes compassion fatigue sets in on the part of the professional. You get tired of being dismissed, personally attacked and accused, whatever you do won't be right and will be seized on...so you do less and less. The child falls through the gaps created by a parent with a hostile and threatening approach and a professional who can fill every minute with the needs of three or four other children with 'nicer' parents who will appreciate the attempt and the willingness to do something. I'm not justifying this, but it happens. And it happens with children with a range of needs, from plain learning difficulties ' Ah bless, he's a happy little soul' to those parents who feel their child is gifted and the teacher isn't recognising it to their satisfaction. NT as well as ASD. And Js mum makes a very good point about misinterpretation of signs by others and how that can lead to misunderstandings, but I've also had abused and neglected children in my class that I've brought to the attention of the SWs, and on several occasions it was true abuse and on others the family needed support and input to help them solve the problems. And on a couple of occasions, I was wrong, but I can live with that. Because the others are alive and thriving. Edited to add : If the rack and the stocks are full, I guess I'm in the pillory. And witches float Mumble, that's one of the tests!

I'm not offended at all, you seem to be a very lonely and isolated person with a need to reach out to others, and as you often point out, you are a long way from Britain. I was not suggesting at all that you leave this forum, although it was something you did do in January. I think you need to make close links with members of your own ASD community in your neighbourhood as well. Real life support and communication will make you feel much more included, and you will have the pleasure of making connections with others who feel the same way. And you will know what they look like and what they sound like. Can Eva not help you locate a local group, as she may be more informed about the possibilities in Australia? Then you can have picnics on the beach and tell us all about them.

Well, it's a positive for G, she and her friends are ecstatic! They're going to Stratford-on-Avon. To see Hamlet With David Tennant in the lead. I could post on the Screaming Thread as well, because I'm not going, but am collecting them around 3am when they return....