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I think there's a personal profile on the Cerebra site that you can download and fill in? Not 100% sure but I think I've looked at something like that. ETA - found it http://www.cerebra.org.uk/Resources/Cerebr...ro-Forma_v2.pdf

My MP replied and said that the bill was too restrictive in it's current form

Hi Moll (I think I know who you are!) I really don't begrudge anyone (and if you are who I think you are, it certainly wasn't your photo, not even anyone in particular!) their photos or talking about it either - I just want to be able to post photos and talk about it too! I am lucky I had last year with ds#2.

Ds#1 (8) is tricky this year. Last year he was well into Star Wars and obscure Star Wars Droids did the trick! This year he likes Pokemon and I've got him some cards and some Pokemon Marbles but there's not much out there in mainstream shops (and I've probably left it too late for Ebay etc) He's not asked for anything really. He's getting an Eye Clops, Drawn to Life DS Game (he did want that) and various other games. He's also getting a PS3.

I visit a few mainstream parenting forums and right now they're full of photos and posts of various Christmas Plays. Neither of mine are in their plays. I know it's for the best and I don't want them upset but it is upsetting in a selfish 'my child isn't like the rest of the class' sort of way. Also last year ds#2 was Joseph in the nursery play, I had some concerns about him but didn't really expect any major problems and this year he can't even set foot in the school hall, only goes to school part time and it's quite possible he'll not be remaining at his mainstream school. What a difference a year makes Not after sympathy or hugs, just wanted to remark upon it - I know a lot of you will be feeling similar things just now.

I'd be annoyed too - as a time which should be expected to be stressful for your son, the support worker should have been making him her priority. In earlier years (before we gave up on plays altogether) my son's worker would concentrate on him, sit next to (or near) him and keep him on track, if he decided to leave mid play then they'd follow him! If she's there for him then there's so much she could have been doing to help him.

As it turns out the Children's Centre were very good but didn't know anything about having ds#2 there when he's excluded - seems to have been a mix up in communication! I had a list of concerns but it doesn't look as though this is going to happen. He's just been turned down to be assessed for a statement although we will appeal.

Ds#2 is 5 and in Reception (part time) struggling hugely even with support. He's just been diagnosed with PDA and ODD (I disagree with the ODD) and will be reviewed with regard to ASD in 6 months time. He's barely in the class and most days only does mornings at school but in January will be going fulltime - I feel that he has a right to a full time eduaction and him going part time has made no difference to the situation anyway, we hoped it would help him settle. There's a possibity of the local Children's Centre doing some work with him. So far all I know is that this will cover times when he's excluded from school and times when he needs a break from school, there will be a playroom set up for him and his support worker will go with him - she only works with him fpr part of the mornings so I'm not sure how that would work out. We're going tomorrow to have a look. I'm not sure this is good or not and would appreciate any thoughts. Now I've had time to think about it I'm worried that he'd be isolated from other children when his social skills really need work and also wondering if this is the solution because there's simply no specialist provision for a PDA child with no learning difficulties in our area. Also it's not, as far as I can see, a long term solution and may confuse him - he was hysterical last week because he stayed for lunch on a different day so it would possibly need to be on a regular schedule, not hit and miss depending on his behaviour. As far as I'm aware (and I might be wrong) but there's not a group as such there for difficult children, it would be just for him. Please can I have some different viewpoints? I can't decide if this is good or bad.

I've posted a number of times about ds#2 (5) and his frequent exclusions from school lately. This week he was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and also keeps his Pathological Demand Avoidance diagnosis. I'm not happy at all with this diagnosis. I can understand ASD but to me there is absolutely no reason why ds#2 would develop ODD, what I've read assumes many of these children come from very difficult backgrounds, which ds#2 certainly does not. I know this isn't the case for every child with ODD. The other issue worrying me is the suggested approach to ODD is very basic parenting - parenting courses, praising the good, ignoring the bad which we do anyway. I actually find these suggestions insulting. And apparently there's nothing out there for children with ODD, no services to be accessed. No support, nothing. Our consultant feels that in time ds#2 will be diagnosed with ASD eventually, what stopped him being diagnosed at this point was his good eye contact and how he will check the adult is watching him before he does something 'naughty', he also is very social. I was wondering what is the basic (clinical) difference between an ASD diagnosis and ODD - I know ASD is the brain simply being wired differently, is ODD a condition a child develops and their brain are actually perfectly 'normal', it's the basic difference and cause that I don't seem to understand. Is ODD actually less 'serious' than ASD? Ds#2 is much harder to deal with than ds#1. I'm not explaining myself very well, nor am I convinced that ds#2 does actually have ODD - tbh I'm pretty upset - but any comments are welcome.

I think for the minute all you can do is wait and see, not that it's easy. Maybe keep a diary of anything particularly striking so you can use it at a later stage if you decided to seek assessment. I had concerns about my ds#2 since he was about 2 but they were all small things that could also be explained by him being 2 (or 3 or 4) and it's only now at just turned 5 and having started school and caused mayhem that he's being assessed, has been diagnosed with PDA and we hear this week whether he has also been diagnosed with ASD too. He used to be a ###### in the car! My older son would either sleep as a baby or a toddler or sit quietly and watch the view, ds#2 screamed the entire journey (once all the way to blackpool 4 hours away - after that we made sure all our holidays were taken within an hours radius!). From being a newborn he felt the need to protest strongly in the car, I thought he'd learn to like it like ds#1 but he never did (he's ok now at 5!) We were told unless a child was severely autistic then it was very difficult to make a diagnosis so young and only time would tell.

I'm wondering if anyone can help with regard to my appeal letter to the LA with regard to an appeal against a decision not to carry out a statutory assessment of ds#2 (5). He has PDA (and we should be finding out if he has ASD on 2/12) and a number of exclusions, is barely in the classroom and has very challenging behaviour. The reasons given not to assess were 'We have looked carefully at the evidence presented. Having considered this information, we have decided not to do statutory assessment. This is because we have insufficient evidence of his educational needs at this stage and therefore believe statutory assessment would be premature. We would like an opportunity for the Educational Psychologist to work with ds#2 at School Action Plus before further consideration can be given to initiating statutory assessment. However in recognition of his difficulites, we have asked that the Special Educational Needs Support Service continue to work with ds#2' They are correct (the ed psych is coming in 2/12) I suppose but my gut feeling is that we can't wait 6 months to reapply. Even with support ds#2 is mostly out of the class, only attending school part time and there has been a variety of professionals giving advice on handling him. School feel that he should be in a special school, the ASD team think the best place for PDA is mainstream. I can't see the Ed Psych being able to add any more to the advice given. School have even been trained on PDA. The Child and Family Unit were not contacted with regard to this decision and they're well aware of the severity of his behaviour. Do I have any grounds for appeal? Any advice welcome!

I've been dealing with poo for the last few years (and smearing). At first we were very cross but since ds#2 was about 3 I've tried very hard not to show a reaction and just cleaned it up. Ds#2 (5) usually poos in the bath then throws it across the bathroom where it ends up on the wall and floor - he may be aiming at the toilet but if so his aim's not very good! We've just been to a bowel management clinic where he was diagnosed with severe constipation and prescribed movicol (they said lactulose was rubbish, he'd been on it two years!), he had high doses for a 'clear out' over half term and is now on a maintainance dose. We've had a few poos on the toilet (although he will NOT wipe and it's a struggle to get him clean) but still frequent poos in the bath. If I put him in the shower he poos there. If I don't put him in the bath or shower he may go to the toilet or will soil himself. Even if he's just been before the bath he often still poos in the bath! At the hospital we were told any poo is 'good' and not to worry where it comes out for now, as him withholding it may cause further constipation problems. While I can accept a poo in the bath, I do internally resent cleaning it up off the walls and carpet. I've asked him to tell me if he has a poo in the bath (no luck with him telling me before he poos!) and not to try and put it in the toilet for me....assuming the best possible intention here, I'm not totally convinced he is actually trying to put it in the toilet! I have no answers for you but thought I'd share our experience and sympathies. Poo is not nice and day in day out it wears you down. I'm not sure if the soiling is a behavioural problem or a medical one or a bit of both.

I've posted a few time lately about ds#2 who started school in September and has been excluded more times than he's actually been in school. http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.ph...c=19338&hl= We were told to apply for a statement which we did and I've now heard through school (although no-one's had the decency to tell me as yet ) that they won't be assessing ds#2 for a statement. I'm not sure about the reasons exactly as yet although I think it's because the Ed Psych hasn't seen him, nor have the behavioural team and the ASD team are involved when they shouldn't be technically as ds#2 hasn't had a diagnosis yet (the ASD team are familiar with our family though which is why they're involved). While not totally unexpected I'm pretty fed up. School is terrible, he's on a part time timetable when he is actually there and not excluded. It's not my problem that the Ed Psych hasn't seen fit to see him (because he hasn't had 2 cycles of an IEP - for some reason it turns out nursery never did any even though they did get people to come in and see him). He has support every morning and one afternoon a week but that's mostly spent keeping him safe when he's taken out or leaves the classroom. I don't know where we go from here, school are absolutely shocked. I suppose it's a waiting game now until he has his official diagnosis (should be a matter of weeks) and has had the 2 cycles of an IEP and hopefully the Ed psych in to see him. It's quite upsetting that these early days, which should be so special, are going so wrong - the children are making friends etc and ds says there are some who say they won't play with him because he gets sent home. How long do we need to wait until we can apply to be assessed for a statement again? Not having the letter I'm not sure whether we can appeal, I vaguely think we can.

Thanks for the replies - it's been a horrid half term and the weekend has been even worse (too many halloween sweeties?)! Ds#1 isn't too bad when it's just him and an adult but ds#2 is a nightmare even when I've only got him!

I can absolutely sympathise! My 2 are 8 and 5 and have spent the entire holiday arguing and winding each other up. Ds#2 loves winding up ds#1 and ds#1 loves to say constantly how much better his life was before ds#2 was born. It may be normal but it's exhausting and I think you're entitled to a rant! My half term has been horrible too!

I took my two boys to an outdoor activity place today - they're 8 (AS) and 5 (PDA, possibly ASD) and it was a nightmare. They fought in the car all the way there, we got there and ds#2 went on a rampage pressing the fire alarm button, climbing everywhere generally being very difficult and getting me lots of disapproving looks. I had to leave ds#1 with my friend and take ds#2 away (ds#1 announcing to the room how naughty ds#2 was and how he was always getting excluded from school). Ds#1 managed most of the activity then they were both an absolute pain at lunch. Then they went sledging - ds#1 arguing with the instructor over where he wanted to start sledging from every time he went up. Someone pushed in front of him, he told the instructor who said they hadn't (to be fair he was probably pretty sick of ds#1 by now!) so ds#1 flipped and stormed off shouting about how he wanted to stab the person who pushed in and needed to be held to stop him from going back in and attacking the boy. In the meantime my friend was shouting over as ds#2 had had a strop (he pushed in and was stopped) and legged it over the top fence and was away, he legged it and headed for the climbing thing so I had instructors looking for me to get him out of the area, I wasn't quick enough as I'd been dealing with ds#1. Catch ds#2 who legs it again and runs all over the place with me and ds#1 in pursuit and people shouting 'he's over here!' Bundle them in the car and go home - telling them they're not going anywhere for the rest of the half term break. I really can't cope with them by myself when we're out anymore (not that I ever could!) and I'm so fed up. I want to be normal and do nice things with them without them causing mayhem and drawing as much attention to us as possible. I rang social services when we got in although I'm not sure what they can do - they were useless when I asked for help years ago when ds# was little and things were really difficult.

Funny isn't it! My ds2 (5) dresses himself in shorts and teeshirt no matter what the weather. He will sometimes wear a jumper or a coat but wouldn't think to put one on himself. With ds#1 (8) we did have problems with the change of seasons (in summer it would take him ages to stop wearing winter clothes and vice versa). Now he wears teeshirt and trousers no matter what the weather but moans when he's cold, it wouldn't cross his mind to put a jumper on.

I bought ds#2 socks with the names of the days on and we had the problem that he would only wear 'Friday' because he likes Friday (!) - wouldn't wear any other day and there was trouble when the Friday socks were getting washed!

I've posted before about ds#2 who's just turned 5 and just started Reception. He's been sent home so many times since starting I've lost count and the last 3 times have been formal fixed term exclusions. He's only on a part time timetable to begin with and I've just added up that in the last month he's had 7 days (adding the half days together) of education out of a possible total of 20. He's just been diagnosed with PDA with a likely AS diagnosis following (although I have ds#1 with AS and with ds#2 the PDA is the predominant issue I think). School can't cope and really think he needs a speciallised placement but the problem is that there isn't anything suitable in our area for a PDA child. There are children in a local special school with PDA but these children have learning difficulties, some severe, and ds#2 is very bright so it's possibly not the right place. I'm incredibly fed up now. He has a support worker who's been off sick for the last 3 weeks with no cover and there's no funding for any supply TAs. We've started the statement process but it's still early days, we're still not sure as to whether they'll assess yet and even if they do it's going to be a long time with ds#2 barely in school. Just seems that there's nothing anyone can do (I've looked at IPSEA but the exclusions are all perfectly correct and tbh I don't blame the school for excluding him, he's a very real Health and Safety risk).

"I know I have Aspergers because I went to the hospital and someone told my Mam and she told me later. The first Pokemon I ever battled with was Turtwig but I still like all Pokemon. But my Turtwig has evolved into Tortella now. And I named it Hoppy becaus eI like the name Hoppy but I don't know why." (I asked ds#1 whether he'd have known he had AS or felt a bit different if no-one had ever mentioned AS to him and he said he wouldn't - which surprised me a bit)

Oh no what a big shock for you and your son. Try really hard to think of the positive side - that he is out of a horrible situation and that you are out of a school who don't sound like they have been the right place for him. Hopefully the exclusion will stand you in good stead for a much more appropriate placement for your son. If he's been told he's a horrible boy then that's no good and no matter what statement you get, if the school have the wrong attitude and see your son as a problem then it's a hard attitude to change. In the meantime try and ring everyone you can. My son is being sent home lots atm and I ring his consultant (I think this is all relevant to the possibility of him getting a diagnosis), parent partnership, the SEN liasion team - anyone involved in the hope that someone will do something! Thinking of you.

Birthday's are a nightmare in our house. Ds#1 is so stressed about having a 'perfect' day he explodes at the slightest thing. Everything needs to be 'right' down to the way his invites are written, who attends his party, how the sweets at school are given out. Most birthdays have a major blow out. Even ds#2 (who's being assessed with regard to ASD) blew up when his class went to sing happy birthday to him and was sent home.

Ds#2 who is 5 stopped going to the toilet for poos almost as soon as he turned 3 (he'd only been doing it for a matter of weeks). He goes in his pants but more often, he goes when in the bath. He'll deny having pooed wherever he's done it and will attempt to hide dirty pants / poo (in the bath toy box!) sometimes he'll pick it up out of the bath and put it on the toilet, on the walls, carpet and has been known to throw it at the wall. For the last 18months or so I've been trying to make this a real low key issue and will put him in the bath if he's pooed in his pants (and he'll usually poo in the bath as well then) or get him out clean the bath and bathroom and stick him back in the shower. He has huge issues with people looking at him and won't let me see to check he's clean / I have to wipe his bottom with my eyes shut so a bath is the best way to make sure he's clean. It means when he does soil, there's a huge issue getting him to let me check / get him to sit on the toilet / get him clean -he completely denies everything! I just wondered about anyone on here who has children who soil. I'm not sure if it's a physical issue or a behavioural one - or a bit of both. He has lactulose and that did improve things for a bit but now we're back to square 1. He was recently diagnosed with PDA and is still undergoing assessment for ASD. Just wondering if anyone has had similar problems or overcome similar problems. It's very time consuming and wearing and is costing a small fortune in hot water and washing!

Wow that's exactly what I used to do with ds#1 - yell 'red light' and then 'green light' when I caught up with him! It would tie in really well to the racing car theme too in this case (I think they were 'train signals' with ds#1) I have a runner too (now ds#2) and the dash from car to school and vice versa daily is hair raising. He mostly stops at roads now but it isn't guarenteed and he never used to stop at all. I really should be slimmer!

I'm a boy, nearly 9 and have Asperger Syndrome. I like to play on my ds and the computer sometimes and I like Pokemon. I have an annoying little brother. The best friends I've had in my life are called Kieran and Kieran and I have two best friends at my old school both called Reece. (I typed for him!)