There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

Ryan has always been a sickly child and missed a lot of school when he was being diagnosed with and treated for Glandular fever and severe anaemia. He was given some school work to been done to catch up once he was well enough so as not to fall too far behind in school. I had asked him several times about completing it and things came to a head one Wednesday when at first he tried to lie that he had done the work, but then became quite rude verbally so I asked Dadi Skilts to help me out, but Ryan was this time really rude, so Duncan turned off the PC and it became a full-blown meltdown. He punched the bedroom door enough to make his hand bleed and then took several chunks out of my kitchen table. Eventually, he cried himself out so I was then able to sit at the kitchen table and managed to talk him down, and I realised just how isolated from and scared of the world that Ryan feels and I am seriously concerned now about his total obsession with his PC/Laptop and Discord as his way of ...

I have never really liked the term ‘special needs’. Every child is special and every child has needs, so I therefore have previously used Specific Needs. Just as I have never really liked the term ‘disabililty’. Ryan and I use and much prefer ‘diffability’; to mean Different Abilities. Later in this post, I talk about the statutory assessment process that we went through with Ryan who now has a legally binding document setting out his specific educational needs. My original intent for the focus of this post was to go into greater detail on the 26-week assessment process and discuss Ryan’s statement, to offer advice to anyone embarking on a similar journey.      I have, however, now changed my mind on the focus of this post and decided instead to discuss additional needs. I will therefore not to bore you with all the details of statementing for 2 reasons: First, it is 16 pages long and secondly, from 2014, statements no longer exist. They have been/are being phased out acr...

The paediatrics team confirmed officially a diagnosis of Aspergers in June 2009 and Ryan now 7 was then placed on the waiting list for the ASD team*.  A full report was sent to the school detailing Education provision required. Referral made for Occupational Therapy and Melatonin prescribed. http://mentaldisordersofhumans.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/autism-spectrum-disoder.html Unfortunately the LEA did not agree, even though Ryan had 17 further major meltdowns (10 in school & 7 at home) over the next 6 months with 6 formal letters from my MP to the LEA and a final step of moving Ryan to a new school for them to finally agree to a formal statutory assessment for a Statement of Educational Needs.  Bear in mind also, I now had 2 children in separate primary schools 10 miles apart, while DS & I worked 22 & 25 miles respectively in the opposite directions to the 2 schools. School runs were a fun time as they both started and finished and the same times of da...

May 2009 sees us as a family begin the Positive Parenting Programme, taking steps towards managing children’s behaviour. It was a very good programme which we all benefited from and our mentor/facilitator gave us excellent support and guidance and it was through her that we first considered the option of moving Ryan to a different school. Ryan had another major meltdown in school because he had chipped his front tooth the night before in the bath and wanted to go to the dentist but couldn’t understand why he had to wait two days for the appointment. He expects his feelings to be met and catered for but doesn’t accept or even comprehend that anybody else has feelings in return.  I used to find this so hard to deal with.  He said to me when he goes to places that has lots of people he “ Feels like a flower going home”.  When I asked him what that meant. He said (quite calmly and as if I was thick and surely must have known what he meant) “Like a flower; going back dow...

Mental Health Concerns. We didn’t have the best start to 2009 either. Ryan’s violence continued to escalate as did my concern for his mental health. He was still very violent & disruptive. He wanted to kill everyone or himself. His head was ‘Full of zombies & voodoo’ (no he wasn’t playing computer games at this point). Several more instances and meltdowns resulted in him bolting from the house and school. This is where the Education Psychologist (EP) comes in (remember I mentioned her in Horror Friday ). She first met Ryan in March 09, he was seven at this point, and she agreed that he was a very challenging boy. The EP provided a very detailed report on her day spent observing him and offered some excellent advice and strategies for managing the situation going forward. Things did improve slightly for April and one of the strategies of Ryan being moved ‘up’ a class for his Maths seemed to work well. Giving Ryan some much needed boost to his self esteem. Oh I do have a knack ...