At 4.30 I woke to hear rustling and banging downstairs. My heart jumped. Could that be a burglar filling a bag with loot? Downstairs, near my special girl? Like this?Read more… Recommended by Looking for Blue Sky
The blind leading the blind… Sometimes like any other household we have to have family meetings to get things back on track, well today my Wife & I thought this was a day we needed to call one of these meetings. The kids had stopped responding to rules of the house, & were generally not [...]
It’s been a long time since Smiley was in respite, and the last overnight ended in tears, lots of them. But my social worker did not give up and by Christmas she had another plan. A small respite house in a country village .. I booked her in for two sessions of afternoon respite to [...]
Late yesterday, the DfE published the “Indicative draft Code of Practice” as a “work in progress” to go with the SEN/D provisions in the Children & families bill, now going through parliament. The DfE describe the Code of Practice thus: The SEN Code of Practice is statutory guidance that provides practical advice on how to [...]
For the last time, I sat in a hot and stuffy hospital ward, beside an empty cot, counting down the minutes until Big Bro would be out of surgery. It was his final piece of surgery – an operation that would reverse his stoma and enable him to poop as nature intended. Eight months. Eight [...]
Jane Raca, parent and author of Standing up for James, has written the following open letter to the Children’s Minister, Edward Timpson about the Children and Families bill.. I am a lawyer and author with a 13 year old disabled son. James has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, learning disabilities, challenging behaviour, and is severely autistic. I [...]
Last week I spoke at a top-level conference for council Chief Executives and Leaders from the SE7 – seven local authorities across the south-east of England. I was there as part of the Surrey pathfinder, to talk about how parent involvement had become integral to the SEN reform process. Parental participation was demanded by the [...]
With Parenting comes Sacrifices They start with Sacrificing things for Yourself Then comes Sacrificing things that you Want for Your Children But what about when One Child HAS to Sacrifice things for Another I think when there’s a child with special needs in the family this may happen more. I have been thinking about the [...]
Being the parent of an offspring who has been diagnosed with Aspergers, isn’t all you might expect it to be. It’s not all mathematical genius, potential English literature masterpiece and composing mind-blowing symphonies before lunch. Sometimes its just cosy evenings by the fireside, as they list a Comprehensive School’s worth of teachers, matching them with [...]
The surprising and extremely welcome news today from the Department for Education (DfE) is that there will, after all, be a legal duty on health providers to deliver the provision detailed in the health part of the Education, Health and Care Plan that’s currently being developed under the SEN reforms. Clinical Commissioning Groups are GP [...]
It’s been a bumper day of announcements and happenings surrounding SEN reform. First of all, came the publication of a list of local authority groups who have been appointed “pathfinder champions” as they plan to implement the reform to special needs provision in England. At the same time, a joint report on progress across the [...]
It’s been a bumper day of announcements and happenings surrounding SEN reform. First of all, came the publication of a list of local authority groups who have been appointed “pathfinder champions” as they plan to implement the reform to special needs provision in England. At the same time, a joint report on progress across the [...]
Debs writes…. As we go through the Special Needs Jungle, we pick up tips, we gain confidence and we often think “I wish I’d known …….. at the beginning” I wanted to share with you the ten things I wish I had known (or had the confidence to believe) when we entered the Jungle. Like [...]
When they have cerebral palsy and are living in residential care. Apparently. When I read that a parent claims that she is being denied proper access to her adult child because she has regularly queried aspects of his care, I was horrified. … Like this?Read more… Recommended by Looking for Blue Sky
Over the past few years we have been told all sorts of different issues and problems that Freddie has. With so many doctors and therapists it can be easy to get confused with what’s going on with Freddie. So below i’ve grouped it all together. One big map of Freddie from a doctors point of view [...]
As you will know if you are a regular reader, Son2 has Asperger Syndrome. He also has ADD (no H in there, he doesn’t move much!) Last year, while researching information for the forthcoming Rare Disease Day for work, I came across a case study on the Rare Disease UK site about a young woman [...]
The NCB (National Children’s Bureau) website has some brilliant free resources for parents, carers and practitioners available for download. One is the Early Years Development Journal. Like this?Read more… Recommended by Special Needs Jungle
Here is the second part of top tips for speech and language therapy from Helen & Elizabeth at SpeechBlogUK. Your child’s initial appointment Your child will probably be seen in a clinic room if they are preschool. If they are school-aged, they may be seen in school or in clinic – different departments work in [...]
You could be forgiven for thinking that on getting home, mine and Big Bro’s life would something akin to being normal. For a while I thought the same. I could finally start planning beyond a day in advance, there would be less things to carry around and more freedom in general. But that dream was [...]
As is often the case, I come across great resources and services for children with special needs on Twitter. I then cheekily ask them if they’d like to contribute a guest article for Special Needs Jungle and I’m delighted to say, today and tomorrow, we have a two-part article from two Speech and Language Therapists [...]
