Autism Friendly Clothing

Marks and Sparks (M&S, Marks and Spencer) what ever it is that you like to call them, has recently launched a range of autism friendly school uniform, the idea being that they are easy for children to get on and off.

This went on sale on the 01/08/2016 and although most people will have sorted their school uniform for the year by now, if you were not aware and need to replace anything that your child is not coping with then it may well be worth taking a look and giving it a try.

10% of all sales are currently being donated to the NAS as if you needed another excuse to get your hands on it.

The range includes things like pull on trousers without buttons and zips that they may struggle with and shirts where the top buttons are replaced by a discreet velcro strip so that the top can be pulled over the head to be removed. Reduced seams and soft fabrics also help those with sensory issues where these things can irritate and cause discomfort.

There is a more detailed description and some images on the NAS website and can be found here

NEW SEN Report Launched #SEN #ASD #NAS

A new report has been published by the National Autistic Society looking at how well the SEN system within England is meeting the needs of children and young people who are on the Autistic Spectrum. This is based on a survey of that included parents, carers and young people and it really does highlight the struggles that families have to go through every day just to get the all important support that they need to be able to do something as basic as attending school, something that all children no matter what their needs have a right to do. The highlights of the report show that (taken from the NAS website) But our survey found that: 74% of parents have not found it easy to get the educational support their child needs 69% of parents said that their child had waited more than a year for support after concerns were first raised – and 16 per cent had waited more than three years While 50% of parents say they’re satisfied with their child’s SEND provision, just 33% are satis​fied with health care and 30% with social care 17% of parents say they appealed to the SEND Tribunal against their local authority’s decisions on their child’s education For more information and to download the full report click below. (takes you to the NAS website) It really is an interesting read so please take the time to read the report, if you don't have time to read it all please read the highlights, this needs to be highlighted.  Download the report >

Plans for the weekend

1. Stay Calm
2. Take the lad to his swimming lesson
3. Survive 
4. Take the lad to an ASD Softplay session
5. Avoid Headache
6. Do the food shopping
7. Stay Calm
8. Tidy the house
9. Stay Calm - put the boy in his room to watch DVD while tidying to prevent loosing temper
10. Sort out the washing
11. Try not to loose mind

All seems manageable right? I forgot sort out car insurance and take parcel to the post office... 

Husband is at work this weekend so just me and the kids which actually makes it easier to get stuff done he has a way of making me really angry when I am trying to get jobs done by stomping around the house trying to help because he feels guilty, I'd rather he took the lad out and got out the way to be honest.

Wish me look especially with item 5

New Routine seems to be going well

What a difference a few days make, been consistent and not giving in seems to be working, he has read his school book again tonight, he didn't want to read it but he did it without to much fuss, he was clearer than yesterday and a little louder to.

So fingers crossed that by the end of next week we have it set in his memory and he does it without whining and nice and clear and even a little louder so that we can all hear how good he is doing.

Another positive thing that has happened today is that he came home with a certificate from school for doing his holiday homework, I don't remember doing any holiday homework with him but he did do his reading for the first few weeks. I guess that is what he got it for. He also came home with a sticker from the teacher for good work, unfortunately there is no note in his home/school diary to say what it was that he did well and as he is non verbal he can't tell me

Everyday Breakthrough Campaign Launches #ASD #NAS #Everydaybreakthrough

I am a paid up member of NAS - National Autistic Society, and because of this I get a monthly email from them with important information and news regarding Autism.

The highlights from this months email are as follows:

Everyday Breakthrough campaign launches!

Our newly-launched #EverydayBreakthrough campaign will celebrate some of the amazing work of staff across our schools and services. It could be buying a paper, or baking a cake; getting up onstage or taking a step outside – an everyday breakthrough can seem like the smallest thing. But to someone with autism, it can mean the world. We have a range of roles, from support workers to office workers, and every one of them takes a lot of patience, and a lot of commitment. But what they give in return is worth so much more. So find the role for you, and help make everyday breakthroughs happen more often.

Find out more and browse our jobs >

This is great news because anything that highlights the positive work that is being done out there every day by some amazing people is well worth your support. If you see me using the hashtag #everydaybreakthrough then you will know why. 

Check out the link and see if there is anything there that interests you, and please consider joining up and giving your support to the NAS

Question of the Day? Why are there Cats all over Clapham Common Tube Station

You will have seen in the news, on the web and just everywhere really that Clapham Common Tube station have replaced all of their adverts with some pretty cool cat pictures

According to the BBC News Site

"A London Underground station has been taken over by cats - with all advertisements replaced with pictures of the animals.

Almost 700 people helped the Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (Cats) raise £23,000 to buy the advertising space at Clapham Common station.

The cats will appear on advertising boards for two weeks from 12 September.

The aim is to provide a "relaxing, fun and light-hearted" space free from commercial adverts, Cats said."

Which is pretty cool, for some pictures and a little more information check out the BBC website

Pastry Pizza - The meal of teens everywhere

Tonight I used up the leftover chicken to make pastry pizza, basically I was to lazy to make anything particularly healthy and the teen loves it, the younger one won't eat it but he won't eat anything (sigh).

So to make this super easy gourmet (who am I trying to kid?) delight you need

• A pack of ready roll puff pastry
• Leftover cooked chicken
• Red Pesto
• Tinned grilled peppers
• A ball of mozzarella

Leave the puff pastry on the side to get to room temperature and then unroll it, I find leaving it until you have forgotten about it and then making the pastry pizza in a panic as everything else is already cooked is just about the right amount of time, I guess its ten to fifteen minutes.

Spread the red pesto on the pastry to about the thickness of the tommy puree you get on pizza, then add the left over chicken, peppers and cheese, and any other toppings you feel like adding, this is great for using up all those leftover bits of sandwich meat that you may have knocking around in the fridge.

Stick it in the oven until it is cooked, its quite hard to judge when it is done especially when you are burning the chips you just did to go with as you forgot about the pastry and had to rush, but I am guessing about 10-15mins for it to be cooked properly in a med-hot oven.

When it is done it looks like this (but probably more cooked as I took this out a little early) chop it into pieces you get about 4 good sized pieced out of a sheet of pastry, its nice with salad but my daughter has it with a few chips.

Also good for kids parties as you can cut it into fingers and put it on a buffet.

A person with Autism may.....

Question of the day.... Is Cheryl Pregnant

I don't care

Thank is all I have to say on the matter

I wish her well with it if she is but no interest what so every, why do these things even make the news sites?

Its tittle tattle at best...

Join me tomorrow for an equally rubbish question of the day :)

Finally...

After being without a Speech and Language worker for my lad since January he has finally being given a new one and she will be coming to see him at the beginning of next month at school.

In the letter it says she is happy to see him at school with his 1:1 but is equally happy for us to come along.

Damn right we will be coming along I want to meet this person who will be working with my son and setting him exercises and targets for his speech. I want to know who he is working with. Why wouldn't I want to be there?

I am looking forward to finally seeing someone again, we have been doing his daily exercises with him as have school since January and it definitely needs some refreshing.

Back to trying

to introduce that new routine, unlike yesterday the school remembered to put his books in his bag, I spent the time before tea explaining to him that we will be doing his reading afterwards.

He whined, he whinged, he huffed he puffed

but he did it, it took a long time and he was very quiet but he got to the end.

This was followed by lots of praise and a sticker on his reward chart and a promise that once it is full he can have a prize that he can choose himself.

Just another 8 stickers and its full

Once we have this in his daily routine we need to start adding in the spelling, but first things first.

 Picture Credit to www.rewardcharts4kids.com

Cat? We don't have a cat?

Got home from work to find a lovely note in my sons home/school diary saying that he had had his first social communication group of the term and that he had done really well and that he had been talking really clearly and without having to be prompted as he normally does.

Apparently he told them all that he has a white and orange cat and that this cat sits on his bed, now I think that this must have come from a little but of coaxing/guess work from his 1:1, either that or he was telling everyone about Stampy...

Pot Painting

There are a number of Pot Painting places that seem to be opening around the area, there are 2 within walking distance from my house so we thought that we would give it a go with the Kids, its unusual to find something that they are both happy to do together given the 10year age difference but this was an exception, they both seemed quite happy to come along.

First they chose what they would like to paint, you pay more for the bigger items, my daughter chose a monster money box and was told that its one of the least popular items there, she couldn't understand why as she thought he was 'cool'. The youngest chose a small Doggy.

I found a plastic apron and put it on him and we let him choose a few different colour paints to use.

Before you can paint them you need to sponge them down to remove any dust and to help the paint to adhere to the surface properly.

Then you can start painting, he loved it, he tried really hard to get it right and paint it the colours that he wanted, he did it mainly brown and I painted his name on it for him.

This activity was something that he really enjoyed, he could do it himself and needed very little support from me to be able to finish it, I helped him pour the paint and choose the colours and then left him to it. I was really proud of him and how well he did with it. 

He was also very proud of the finished product.

Picture Exchange Communications System (PECS)

As you may or may not know my son is non verbal, that is he doesn't speak, he makes a lot of noise but he doesn't use many words.

We are seeing him start to use more and more sounds and a lot of new words are there, so long as you aren't asking him to say them, its like he has a mental block which means even if he can say the word when you ask him to he can't do it.

Couple that with the fact that he can't get his mouth to make the sounds that he needs and that he really doesn't see why anyone would need to have a conversation anyway, he will only ever use language for something functional.

So a while a go with the help of his speech therapist we introduced him to PECs. For people that don't know these are picture cards that can be used to create sentences to help children or adults who can't speak to communicate.

When we first introduced them I expected that it might take a while for him to fully understand, but he took to is straight away, he immediately started using them to ask for things such as going to the loo, his milk and his favourite tea (meatballs).

It was like a light had come on and he could communicate in a way that he had never being able to before, his meltdowns from frustration of not being able to communicate with us just gradually went away. 

People have often asked about teaching him sign language, the problem with that is that he doesn't see the need to communicate, he doesn't understand why he needs to learn to speak, there is no way that he would entertain the idea of using signs which are effectively another language.

As you can see from the picture we make our own symbols we use a free ap that we found online here  and a laminator, but the book we bought from the UK Pecs people

The book, and all the bits are sold separately or you can buy them as a pack. I am so glad that we bought these for him and that we have encouraged this as he is now trying to speak as he points to the pictures which is something that I never thought would happen.

If you have a non verbal child and this is offered to you as a possibility please consider it, I was hesitant at 1st but we are so glad that we did it, it has really helped him.

Don't Stare

I found this on Facebook, so true

Trying to establish a new routine

This is something that is hard for my lad, adding something new into a established routine, currently after his tea he has his milk and then is allowed on the ipad to wind down before we start the bedtime routine.

I am trying to add his school reading in after the milk/ before the ipad

The last 3 nights we have gone from total refuse to read 2 pages to finished the reading book

So you can imagine how cross I am that the school forgot to send home his reading book tonight

I managed to get him to read last night, tonight he was whiny but he had got his book bag and brought it to me and seemed to be prepared to do it....

...but the book wasn't there, which means we can't do it, I suggested looking at a book from home but that caused a whole world of problems so he has gone on the ipad for his wind down time, tonight he is watching Minecraft videos.

I am hoping over the next few weeks to try and establish this into his nightly routine and then slowly introduce the spellings, a suggestion that we should just look at the spellings instead of reading tonight was also met with a whirlwind of screams.

The question of the Day? Should the PM wear Heels?

I don't care if she does or she doesn't I think it should be up to her, just the same as it is up to  me what I wear on my feet and up to you what you wear on yours, if I want to wear stupid high heels I can barely walk in then I will, if I want to wear trainers or slop around in flip flops I will.

I think that more important question here is about freedom of choice, all those saying she shouldn't because she should set an example are forgetting that as a human being you have the right to freedom of choice and by forcing someone to or not to wear something you are taking that away.

It's basically nobodies business but hers, I hope that she doesn't get pressured into doing something against what she would want to do

Seriously if she was male would we be having a conversation like this? Would we be asking if he should wear a tie after all women don't wear ties? Maybe a male minister should set an example by not wearing a tie?

So my opinion is that I do not care, its not a news story, people should stop trying to make it one.

The Bedtime Routine: Groundhog Days/Nights

This has to be the most important time of the day to get right for my little ASD lad, he has a very set routine that we can't change, he will let us alternate who takes him but that routine has to be the same.

We made a decision to remove the bath/shower from his bedtime routine, we both work fulltime and sometimes there just isn't the time on a night to fit it in, sometimes we do it in a morning and sometimes I am just damn neglectful and we don't bother.

So the routine is simple, but the start of the routine is key, he can tell the time and he knows that he goes to bed at 7pm, this means that any attempt to start anything prior to this, regardless of how tired he is will cause major issues. He also refuses to stay up late at any point even when he is told that he can wait for Daddy to get in from work.

Holidays are also an issue, he wants to stay in his routine, this can mean that he won't want to go out on a night and do those things that we all love to do on holidays.

So 7pm comes around and he has to find his teddy (Rory the Tiger)
Then its a hug for Mum and Dad and off up the stairs
Teeth brushed
Quick visit to the loo
Cuddle in his bed
Story (same one every night currently Monstersaurus)
Kiss
Lights out

I leave the room, he makes no fuss, he falls asleep within moments.

I was that Mum

before I had my son I just had my daughter who is very well behaved and extremely easy to look after, she is a high achiever at school, I never have to nag her to do homework, she loves reading, does what she is asked without complaining, life was easy.

I was that Mum that would look at people with kids being naughty or having a tantrum and think, come on its not that hard, be consistent that's all

I was that Mum that would look at people whose children where out wearing God know's what in public and think, just tell them No, its not that hard

I was the Mum who would sit and read every night with my daughter and do her homework with her, and wonder why others struggled

Since having a lad with ASD I can say that it isn't that easy, I don't take him to shop with me, he runs around screaming, crying, throwing himself on the floor, I can't control him as he has no ability of controlling himself when he is like that, his mind shuts down and he goes into meltdown.

I have learnt that sometimes getting there is more important than what they are wearing when they arrive, there are bigger more important battles and if he wants to wear spiderman shoes with his school uniform, hey he made it to school on time and without any tears, what's the problem?

Homework? what's that, we don't do homework, if I can get him to look at his book for a couple of minutes then we have done well.

I have learnt that not everything you see on the outside is as east to fix as you might think, not to judge people that are doing their best, and that everyone has struggles.

and most of all I have stopped being that MUM

Reading 13 Sept 2016

The nightly battle continues, but tonight he did his reading,  he didn't want to, and was very quiet, but he made some great sounds. His speech is slowly slowly improving hopefully in a year or two there might be enough for a short conversation.

Until then I will just take what I can get

It's Coming.... The C Word!

Its coming, you can't deny it, the kids are back at school, the nights are getting longer even if the days appear to be getting hotter?

Christmas

Trying to think of idea's of what I can get him, his toys don't hold much interest to him, they are stacked up and covered in dust.

Last night I spotted some bath stuff on amazon which I think he will love, he loves getting bathed and this will create different coloured bubbles and water, this might be an idea.

At the moment that is my only idea, he loves opening presents but doesn't enjoy playing, it always makes it difficult. 

Morning minecraft

It never stops,now his big sister is doing it for him,  he loves watching her do it.

It's also non uniform today, a day where it costs money to send them to school,  in return for wearing his lego top and shorts instead of school clothes we have to provide something for the school fair.

Not planned for this,  totally forgot. Might have to send a tin of beans lols

Happiness is priceless

No matter what he is always happy, he has so many problems and daily struggles but he is always happy, happiness really is priceless

Minecraft minecraft minecraft

Seriously this is all he does, it's the one thing that seems to calm him down and considering all his problems he builds the most fantastic things

12 Sept 2016

Good afternoon everyone

Long long long day at work today but came home to a lovely sight, my 2 kids playing happily together, I hadn't been able to get to school today to pick up the boy as I was working so my daughter went for him (she is way way older than him), I came home to find them both sat quietly together playing on the ipad, no cup of tea waiting for me or anything though lols.

Since going back to school reading has become a real issue, he will not do it, I try every night and he just refuses and goes into a meltdown, I have the same issues with spelling, I have sent a note into the school and advised them that the old techniques of a reward chart and stickers aren't working and that I will keep trying him, but for now its a nightly battle.

He has also started to get upset at bedtime, he isn't refusing to go yet but he is starting to get very stroppy, this routine didn't change at all over summer so maybe it is just to do with him getting bigger.

Aim Higher Charity Shopping Night

Local charity Aim Higher are holding a shopping night on October 27th 2016

https://www.facebook.com/events/2087231228168163/

The aim to empower families facing autism, mental health and educational barriers, and are worth all the support that you can offer

This is their website
http://aimhigher-online.weebly.com/

Update 11-09-2016

Long time no post

lots happening, we got the diagnosis of ASD along with GDD, hypermbility and a deletion (previously we were told is was a duplication) in his chromosome 16p11.2

He now has a statement of SEN or EHC Plan with school and a fulltime 1:1, this includes all the breaks and lunch time, he tried out of school club last week and loved it.

We took him to the seaside today he loved it, didn't eat or drink all day but liked bowling, walking on the sand and having a ride on the land train.