There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

The Importance of Attendance If you read any news articles on education, correspondence from your child’s school, or are simply clued up on parenting then you will know the importance of school attendance. Schools place a great deal of focus on targets and will often offer incentives and competitions to encourage and increase attendance figures, but what if your child has a serious illness. What happens if they really are not well enough to attend school. What happens then? Attendance targets at Ryan's school are currently set at 95% attendance for the school year. Therefore realistically your child can only miss 10 school days due to illness. Medical appointments such as GP or Dentist do not count, but you are encouraged to make these appointments outside of the school day where feasibly possible. If your child consistently misses school, even if it is only one day a week, that equates to 39 days over the school year. Even missing one day in a week results in pressure on the

Cancer Free On 5th August 2017 we hit a new milestone. Three months post-chemo and cancer-free . I can't believe the progress Ryan has made, it has astounded even me. The doctors are impressed and I'm impressed. His hair is growing back beautifully. It just looks like a really short crew cut now. He has put on a wonderful amount of weight that puts him now absolutely on the typical average scale for his height and age. He also no longer has Adrenal Insufficiency either which surprised even the doctors that he recovered so quickly. We now need to go and buy him new clothes because he's grown so well and improved so much and I’ll need to buy a new school uniform ready for September. Ryan’s sleep patterns are still a mess though, to the point he is almost nocturnal and that's not for want of trying to form some sort of routine by waking him in the mornings and letting the dogs into his room, but he does seem to tire still quite easily and he did manage to pick up

I Am... I asked Ryan to complete the following sentences.  I gave him the two words in bold and he completed the rest. It gives an insight into his Autistic mind. When you ask, say the two word prompt and try to take the first thing that they reply. I am... alive. I wonder... what's in space. I hear... sounds. I see... things. I want... eternal life. I pretend... that I am happy. I feel... nothing. I worry... that people will find out. I cry... every night. I understand... that humans shouldn't exist. I say... offensive things. I dream... of a time gone by. I try... to smile. I hope... it will all be over soon. I am...

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ~ Nelson Mandela. The aim of our blog is to educate and help just one person to support their child better. We hope to change perceptions of autism and living with an invisible challenge; but with so many myths and misconceptions out there it really is a 1 step forward, 2 steps back process, although that is half the fun of constantly challenging ourselves to find new ways of getting our message across. Contrary to popular belief many autistic children do make eye contact; it just may be less or different from a non-autistic child. Many children with autism can develop good functional language and others can develop some type of communication skills such as sign language or use of pictures.  Children do not ‘outgrow’ autism but symptoms may lessen as the child develops strategies to cope. Myths One of the most devastating myths about autistic children is that they cannot show affection. While sensory sti