My “control freak’s guide” for my disabled daughter’s dignity and care in hospital
The thing that worries me most about my disabled daughter as she gets older is who will understand her. Who will really get to know who she is, and what …
Category: Health
Undiagnosed, but Dottie’s condition affects the whole family
6,000 children are born in the UK each year with a syndrome without a name – a genetic condition so rare that is likely to remain undiagnosed. Having an undiagnosed …
Moving on from #Bercow10: What next for Speech and Language Therapy?
Recently, a review was published by the children’s communications charity, I CAN and Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists to see what improvements had been made a decade after the …
Partnering with clinicians to reverse Rett, my daughter’s rare disease
“Did you say ‘Retz Syndrome’? How do you spell it?” These were the questions I asked the neurologist who speculated in passing that this might be the explanation for why …
Abigail’s rare childhood disease that she won’t outgrow
It’s Rare Disease Day this week and evey year we like to highlight the day, on 28th February, by telling you some stories of children and their families who are …
Top tips for working on your child’s speech and language targets
The speech therapy process is very much a collaborative one. Even if your child is lucky enough to get regular speech therapy sessions, that’s still only half-an-hour or an hour …
How I learned to take the best advice (and ignore the rest) when raising my ADHD son
In my first post on top tips for parenting a child with challenging behaviours, I suggested that you: Seek support and be compassionate with yourself and that you work as …
Legal grey zone lets health body strip vital funding from disabled children
Dominic is 11 and now in his final year at a mainstream primary school. He is very happy there and despite very complex medical issues and relying on a powered …
NHS liaison: The Designated Clinical /Medical Officer for SEND
As some of you may know, I have been doing my bit to help improve local SEND where I live in Surrey – right now I’m running their new Local …
Schools breaking the law on helping children with medical conditions
A report published by Young Epilepsy says one in three schools in England are effectively breaking the law by not having Individual Healthcare Plans (IHP) in place for children with the …
Steph’s chronicle of her family’s journey through SEND, cancer and loss
Renata and I first met Steph Nimmo back in 2013 at the Department for Education when a group of SEND bloggers were invited to speak to then SEND Minister, Ed Timpson. …
How I became a better child physio after parenting my sick newborn
We love sharing good practice with you that can help both parents and professionals offer improve the lives of children with disabilities. Andrea Selly, is the mum of twins and …
Irlen syndrome: a screener’s perspective
Back in 2012, we ran a parent story about her son’s difficulties, “When the words move by themselves – it could be Visual Stress.” It’s also known as Irlen syndrome and …
Tilly’s “tried on” lots of diagnoses, but none fit her mystery ultra-rare condition
Happy Undiagnosed Children’s Day! Did you know that around 6,000 children are born in the UK each year with a syndrome without a name – a genetic condition so rare …
Speech, language and communication needs: have your say and help change the future
We’ve covered the Bercow: Ten Years On review last year, when Barney looked at its recommendations a decade ago and what became of them. Today, we are really pleased to have …
Act now to protect the NHS funding of rare disease medicines like Ava’s
Having a child with rare disease can mean that you are given very little information about their condition. Parent carers find themselves becoming the expert, rather than the professionals who are …
What’s in a name: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome gets an important makeover
It’s rare for a medical condition to have its sub-types reclassified. It happened to autism a couple of years ago and there was uproar as people were worried they would …
Rare disease research is vital to patients. Now let’s use it to improve services.
Rosie Collington of Rare Disease UK writes… The UK has a reputation internationally as a leader in rare disease research. Over the past few months at Rare Disease UK, we’ve …
The heartache that lives alongside our son’s very rare disease
Rare Disease Day is almost upon us and we have the third of our parent posts today about their lives with their child who has a very rare condition. We …
Finding my son near death started our rare journey to his genetic diagnosis
It’s bad enough when your child has a severe illness, but when you discover it’s a condition few have heard of, the journey to getting them the right treatment gets …