Parental Blame and the PDA Profile of Autism – NEW RESEARCH

“Parent blaming is destabilising … it makes you a worse parent … the harm it does is long-term … it has ruined my relationship with my child.” We know that parent-carers are often blamed for their disabled children’s presentations, particularly when children have hidden disabilities such as autism. Research has already been undertaken on this …

Parenting too far? The “strange” things I do to help my autistic child.

Last weekend I sat for two hours shredding up perfectly acceptable trainers. As I was doing so I was torn between feelings of pride and self-admonishment. My autistic son has many rituals and anxieties around his footwear and in order for him to wear his new trainers, the old trainers must be destroyed so thoroughly …

Education and Health Care Plans: What’s the point?

I often find myself pondering, what's the point to Education and Health Care Plans if they are largely ignored by schools and the overseeing authority? Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP's) are legally binding documents which stipulate the specific additional needs of a child or young person and what provision the Local Authority will make …

How autism “expertise” can cause harm to autistic children.

When professionals turn against you as a parent, it is the most frightening experience of all. For many families with autistic members, daily life can involve a non-stop merry-go-round of professional intervention. And not all of these interactions happen within the professional arena. Many professional interactions happen inside our homes as we invite teachers, psychologists …

Gaslighting by School Report

The school report: a seemingly innocuous piece of communication that constructively feeds back insight into a young person’s time at school. As parents, we relish any praise given by our children’s teachers and seek to support any areas in which our children are not thriving. Throughout my children’s formative years, I embraced these reports, accepting …

What a Tory landslide means for my autistic family…

I am a single mother. My children are thought of as "ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate" by our Prime Minister. Except they're not. They're autistic. And as a family, we rely very heavily upon the welfare state for our very existence. I am an articulate, educated woman who cannot access the world of work outside …

How can application forms for support services become more respectful towards those in need of assistance?

Forms and tick boxes... Nobody likes their child or themselves reduced to a set of descriptors contained in check boxes but this seems to be the accepted method of screening for health and social care services - the route to health or social care service acquisition is via form filling. One particular form that I …

Trapped by paperwork.

I'm a "SEND Parent", with two autistic sons and a plentiful supply of examples detailing unjust, discriminative and possibly corrupt local council actions. Or non-actions to be more precise. I am desperately beyond desperate to march for Send National Crisis on May 30th, to lend my voice to thousands more in a powerful message to …

Supporting monotropism through home schooling…

"Monotropism is a cognitive strategy posited to be the central underlying feature of autism. A monotropic mind is one that focuses its attention on a small number of interests at any time." (Wikipedia) When myself and my children become focused on something it becomes all encompassing and dominates our thought patterns and focus. The something …

Are local authority SEN departments ableist by design?

The current national funding crisis for Special Educational Needs has created an environment whereby local authorities are operating in a systematically ableist manner. There are too few staff to meet demand and there is too little money to provide truly specialist provision - legal time frames and deadlines are regularly disregarded; there are not enough …