There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

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

Twenty Dollars A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked. "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you - but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked. "Who still wants it?" Still , the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still , the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way

Since starting this blog I have wanted to talk about my eldest son Owen, but have not known how to go about starting a post about him. As a big believer in fate the perfect catalyst presented itself to me earlier this week and delivered me the perfect post.    Before I present that post I just want to give a bit of background to a tale of two boys.   Two boys that do NOT get along.   We all know siblings fight but our house on occasion has been utterly heart-breaking with the level of dislike and resentment that Owen has for his Autistic brother. Soon after Ryan’s diagnosis I purchased a book titled ‘Everybody is Different. A book for young people who have brothers or sisters with Autism’ by Fiona Bleach. I brought this book for Owen in an attempt for him to better understand the difficulties that Ryan faces.  It is an excellent book and very well written, Owen did read it all with me, but overall it has not helped him to accept Ryan’s differbility . He resents too much the di

  “While little is known about the interaction of ASC and aging, it is generally accepted that adults with ASC 1) tend to be fairly poor self reporters when it comes to health issues, and 2) as a group tend to be fairly sedentary. As such, concerns related to the long term health and wellness of adults with ASC should be at the forefront of any discussion of appropriate services. –The Current State of Services for Adults with Autism, prepared by Peter F. Gerhardt, Ed.D., Organization for Autism Research I have two sons so can only really talk about puberty from a boys perspective in the sense of its effect on Ryan while also dealing with Autism and vice versa how his Autism has affected his dealing with puberty. Puberty is a confusing time for any individual but for Ryan with speech and language difficulties the confusion can be more profound. He is not necessarily able to understand what is being said to him about the changes that he is experiencing, nor can he clearly ver

Throughout Ryan’s school life he has been subjected to many exclusions, some of which have certainly not been the best way of dealing with the situation and quite likely simply used as an easy way out. The following information is what was given to me when I was battling against Ryan’s first school instead of us all working together. It is all taken from the SNAP Cymru website. www.snapcymru.org .  They have provided me with valuable support and guidance over the years that I am very much appreciative of. Voluntary Exclusion - what does this mean? Voluntary exclusion is where schools ask parents/carers to keep their child at home as a way of dealing with behavioural difficulties. This is not good practice and denies pupils their rights to an education and denies both parents and pupils the right to appeal against this form of exclusion. Local Authorities (LA) will consider appropriate measures where schools are found to be using voluntary exclusion. What can parents/ca

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 across the UK and