Our best personal posts of 2013
We have a lot of guest posts and of course our brilliant columnists on SNJ. But here is a look back at our own personal posts from 2013. Happy New Year!
Ten tips when your child is newly diagnosed with a special need or disabilityYou may have suspected, even all but known, but the moment when you finally get a confirmed diagnosis for your child is a watershed. You may feel numb, distraught, helpless. If you had dreams or expectations for your child's future, they're now in tatters. It's time to start again with a fresh set of hopes.- Ten things I wish, with hindsight, I had knownAs we go through the Special Needs Jungle, we pick up tips, we gain confidence and we often think "I wish I'd known ........ at the beginning" I wanted to share with you the ten things I wish I had known (or had the confidence to believe) when we entered the Jungle.
- Autism Acceptance? It's so much more than that...It's Autism Awareness/Acceptance Day, Month, whatever... lots will be written today about what autism is and what it isn't. No one expects to have a child with an ASD/ASC, whatever they're calling it this year.
- Debs writes.... My eldest son, K lives in a very literal world and we spend half of our day trying to watch what we say, and the other half paying for the fact that we forgot. "Watching what we say" - there you go, that phrase would have K staring at our faces to "watch" what we are saying.
- A personal take on depression: Would you recognise it in your child?It's Depression Awareness Week, although with the state of the economy and the weather, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the country was painfully aware of feeling a bit in the dumps. Ah, see what I did there?
- Dr Tony Attwood's views on Asperger's and girlsI was recently lucky enough to attend a conference given by both the world-renowned expert in Asperger Syndrome, Dr Tony Attwood and Dr Carol Gray, the inventor of the social story. The conference was organised by Freemantles School, a special school for children with autism spectrum disorders in Surrey.
- Asperger's, anxiety, Angels and an African adventureEighteen months ago, Asperger's Son1 signed up for the trip of a lifetime. His special(ist) school had joined up with World Challenge to organise a month-long expedition to Tanzania in Southern Africa. Participants would carry out project work in their twin school, Shia school, go on safari but most importantly, climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro.
- #ThisIsMyChild MumsNet Special Needs campaignMumsNet have today launched a new " myth-busting and awareness-raising" campaign called #ThisIsMyChild. It's been launched in response to requests from MumsNetters and supported by input from some of the leading charities in the field.
- Learning Disability Week - our own superheroesMencap have launched Learning Disability wee k to raise awareness across the UK. This year Mencap are celebrating families and recognising the hard work they do to support their loved ones. Their theme is "Who is your Superhero?" and this has caused hours of conversation here at SNJ.
- Have you, as a parent, ever sat down and thought "is this it?" Have you ever sat in despair wondering if it would ever get better? It's heart breaking and it hurts but it is nowhere near as painful as hearing your child say those words to you.
- When Tania went to #BlogFest and other storiesFirst came the bad news. Debs, who was due to be my 'carer' for the day, wheeling me around the venue, had been felled by the lurgy. Not just any old lurgy, but the first time in five years she's been sick. On the eve of #Blogfest.
Founder, Co-Director at Special Needs Jungle
Founder of Special Needs Jungle. (She/Her) Parent of two young adults with autism. New grandma. Tania, who is autistic, is a leading SEND advisor, working with the Special Education Consortium, Ofsted, and Whole School SEND. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Royal Holloway, University of London Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy and an Editorial Board member of Springer Nature Gene Therapy journal.
Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
Latest posts by Tania Tirraoro (see all)
- Dame Christine Lenehan: a career advocating for disabled children’s rights - September 27, 2023
- SEND Minister denies the Government is aiming to cut EHCPs by 20% with an emphatic, but unconvincing, explanation - September 22, 2023
- A new SEND minister NOW? Disabled children deserve better than to be a government testing ground for ambitious MPs - August 31, 2023
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