C.E. Jottings

More urgent than Xmas! Anyone know an Independent Educational Psychologist, Conductive Education

This from Mumsnet. Can you help? "Hi I have two children aged 3 and 5 who both have got celebral palsy. They both have just been given statements however the school I asked for the LEA has not agreed to it so we are going to tribunal. They have said they are suited to a maintream school. However I have been sending them privately funding it to a non maintained special school for conductive education in sheffield. They have been... Read more →

"Tired all the time". Impact of sleep deprivation on parents of disabled children

Into the inbox today popped an email with a press release from The Family Fund about their report "Tired all the time". The report forms part of Family Fund’s 40th year activities in raising awareness of its work and the barriers that families raising disabled and seriously ill children continue to face. SEVERE SLEEP DEPRIVATION AMONGST FAMILIES RAISING DISABLED CHILDREN EVIDENCED IN NEW REPORT LAUNCHED AT WESTMINSTER The Family Fund presented their report ‘Tired all the Time’ to a packed... Read more →

"I urge all of you to start preparing now." SEN Reform. Seminars. Sheffield. September

"I urge all of you to start preparing now." So said Children's Minister, Edward Timpson, speaking on 4th July 2013 to the Association of Directors of Children's Services. Are you ready for the "biggest reforms in 30 years to help disabled children and those with special educational needs". Or like most of us, are you still in the dark? > What do you know about the Children and Families Bill now before Parliament? > What has been learned from the... Read more →

50% of parents of disabled children know little or nothing about "biggest SEN reforms in 30 years"

What do parents of disabled children know of "the greatest reforms to SEN in 30 years"? Not much according to a survey undertaken by Special Needs Jungle, the results posted on the SNJ blog. "50% of all respondents knew very little or nothing at all about the SEN reforms – and this was the same in Pathfinder areas which is really concerning." Fascinating stuff. Shocking even, seeing as the Children and Families Bill will be on the statute book during... Read more →

"The World of Death by Indifference" - of LB ('Laughing Boy'), a young learning disabled man

I have no words for this. Just go and read it. "The World of Death by Indifference" Then, if you can bear to, scroll back to July 4th, the day this young learning disabled man died and read the posts in between. There is also a post on The Small Places that finds the words I cannot. Read more →

She's leaving home: cuts, mortality and independent living

Some subjects are just not easy to write about. One's mortality, for instance. How many times over the years have I heard parents of severely disabled children express their worry about what will happen to their child once they themselves 'depart this stage"? I am minded of this by an article in the Irish Independent and the distressing story of a Mum and Dad forced to give up looking after their daughter at home and to put her into residential... Read more →

Warrior Parents? New one on me.

I'd not heard the phrase before Friday morning. "Warrior Parents", she said, as if assuming that we in the audience were all familiar with the term. Both words definitely were in capital letters. At the same time, she seemed pleased with it, something new. So a few minutes later she said it again. It was the only reference to parents in the whole of her presentation. So I googled the phrase, just as she said it, with the quotation marks.... Read more →

So wrenching. So well written. Words fail me.

Do you sometimes read something that brings you up sharp? Something so wrenching, so well written, you just don't have the words to respond? So this was for me a moment ago. Another exhausting evening watching the Olympics. Later, turned on the computer, replied to a couple of family history emails, looked in on Facebook, read a few tweets. Am thinking of bed. Spot a likely one, retweeted by @EDCM_campaign (Every Disabled Child Matters) Hi @RoyalMail can you explain why... Read more →

The emotions of labels: a parent's tale

Some writing just gets to the heart of it. The impact of it. The emotions of labels.Doesn't matter what impairment your child has. Violet is herself visually impaired, a "Mum of 2, wife of one. Disability campaigner. Novice Blogger and tweeter and expert chocolate eater!" she says. One of her children has Asperger's syndrome. Her blog post "High Functioning Autism vs Aspergers: The emotions of labels" is about her response as a Mum. Look, here's an extract, but just take... Read more →

How many children have SEN? Again.

Actually, I was googling "Brinks-Mat" and "Stephen Lawrence". Links between criminals and detectives in the two cases had been mentioned on BBC TV, last Saturday, as I was making myself a slice of cheese on toast for breakfast. Searching for something quite different, in other words, as I find often happens Google threw up "Can 20 per cent of schoolchildren really have special needs?" - an article by "writer, biographer, journalist and broadcaster" Peter Stanford in yesterday's Daily Telegraph. 20%... Read more →