Pathological Demand Avoidance Day!
Today is PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) Day and I wanted to do a quick post to promote awareness and provide reassurance to all those families who are supporting children and …
Category: Autism
Teenage years and special needs: from angel to devil and back again
Puberty with any teenager can be a tricky business and a time of immense change for everyone in the family. If your child has special needs on top of that, …
So what? I can’t always swim against the tide with my ASD son
Today we have a lovely guest post from a mum, Michelle Myers, who writes a blog called A Slice of Autism. As the title suggests, Michelle has a son with …
Believe me: it’s not awareness that’s the problem with autism
So here we are again, Autism Awareness Week. Every year people go to great lengths to fundraise, stage events, write posts and generally try to raise the profile of what …
Guiding children with autism to learn co-regulation
In my first SNJ post I gave a brief overview of Bright Futures School and how we use ‘guiding’ (derived from the autism intervention Relationship Development Intervention or RDI) to …
Urgent action needed to train all teachers in Autism
Last week, the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism sent an open letter to the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, calling on her to make sure that all teachers receive …
Teaching social context to children with autism and why it’s vital for safeguarding
Tania writes: Today I’m so pleased to bring you a guest article from a highly respected head teacher of a school for children with complex autism in Surrey. Justin Price …
How has living with autism changed since the first boy was diagnosed?
A story on the BBC website caught my eye the other day about the boy who was the first child to be diagnosed with autism. Donald Grey Triplett, was diagnosed …
NAS chief tells SNJ why it’s time to end the autism diagnosis crisis
Last year, the National Autistic Society launched a campaign aimed at ending the often seemingly endless wait for a diagnosis for an autism spectrum disorder. It’s a problem faced by …
Why there’s a bright future using ‘Guiding’ for children with autism
Tania: Today we start a new series of articles from Zoe Thompson, who has been a regular contributor to our SNJ LinkedIn group Zoe is the Head of Development at …
How to make your friends and family with special needs kids feel welcome
I post a lot of information on the SNJ social media accounts; it’s part of my role as one of SNJ’s Directors. However, there are always going to be posts …
Three new book reviews: Autism and meltdowns, eating and puberty
SNJ note: We’ve been looking at a few more books for families with SEND – or should I say our reviewer, Nicky Goode has. This time she’s looking at: Autism …
Banned from Prom, but my school refuser son’s new future beckons
What happens now… A while back I wrote a piece about school refusal and gave some ideas that were hopefully helpful for other people experiencing a similar situation. Our story …
Sensory processing in autism: research developments
Today we have a guest post from Dr Cathy Manning who is conducting research into the way children with autism see the world around them and how sensory processing can …
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) – What actually changes now?
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) has long been recognised as being a condition related to autism. In fact, until recently, it was listed on the National Autistic Society (NAS) website as …
Why my son with autism has enriched my life, not ruined it
The other day we posted an article link on to our Facebook page from The Guardian, featuring a letter from a Dad to his child who has autism. It was a …
World Autism Day: A boy and his Assistance dog
It’s annual UN World Autism Day, April 2nd today, although the National Autistic Society have stretched it into a whole week this year. As Tania has done the awareness day …
What three beneficial qualities should you encourage in children?
I was wondering what to write the other day when I got my weekly digest email from one of my favourite sites, the fascinating question and answer site, Quora. It’s …
A Potential Diamond helps young adults with autism shine in employment
With the new SEND system giving help to young people, in some cases, as far as age 25, more attention is being focused on what happens to young adults with …
SEN Reform: Resistance is Futile. It’s time to Boldly Go and Make it So
Are we there yet? Well, yes, all bar the shouting, all systems are go for September 1st and SEN reform implementation. What that system will be like depends on the …