SEN Reforms – The Minister visits
Last Friday a groups of parents from parent-carer forums around the country came together at the Department for Education to talk about how parental involvement in the pathfinder reforms had …
Top Tips for Speech and Language Therapy – Part Two
Here is the second part of top tips for speech and language therapy from Helen & Elizabeth at SpeechBlogUK. If you have any tips that have proved useful, please do …
Top Tips for Speech and Language Therapy – Part One
As is often the case, I come across great resources and services for children with special needs on Twitter. I then cheekily ask them if they’d like to contribute a …
Ten things I wish, with hindsight, I had known
Debs writes…. As 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 …
Children and Families Bill – initial views
Finally, the wait is over and the Children and Families Bill, which includes the SEN reforms, has been published. Debs spent yesterday poring over it and here are her initial …
Children & Families Bill published
The Children and Families bill, issued in draft form last year, has just been published. Within this bill are the reforms to the way special educational needs are provisioned, including …
Rare Disease Day: How Dan’s rare disease didn’t stop his mainstream education
Rare Disease Day is at the end of February, with the theme ‘Disorders without Borders’. In Europe it’s coordinated by EURORDIS, the European Rare Diseases Organisation. Many children have special …
Special Needs Jungle named in The Times “Top 50 Sites To Make You Smarter”
Wowzer! Special Needs Jungle has been named in the The Times (yes the UK national newspaper) as one of its “Top 50 Websites To Make You Smarter”. How amazing is that? …
Research backs Emma’s FACS battle
One of my fellow special needs mums, whom I met over Twitter, Emma Murphy, is spearheading a campaign highlighting the emerging dangers of taking the Epilepsy drug Sodium Valproate (Epilim) …
Storytelling Week
My colleagues over at NetBuddy have an article in The Guardian about Storytelling week and how to engage your children, especially those with special needs, in the wonder of a …
A morning with Monty, a very special boy.
My good friend Angela, who is my ‘co’ in co-chair at Family Voice Surrey, always has an air of unflappability. I’m not quite sure how she does it. As well …
Ten tips when your child is newly diagnosed with a special need or disability
You 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. …
Key Working : Whose Job Is It Anyway?
When the SEND Green Paper was launched in March 2011, the Department for Education said they would “test the role of key workers”. Several parents approached our parent-carer forum in …
Chinese Whispers and Garth’s Uncle
As you may have read on Friday, Special Needs Jungle has a new regular contributor in Debs Aspland, the director of Kent PEPS and parent of three children, all with …
Teenagers and suicide- a growing challenge for our times
Mental health in adolescents with or without special needs is a growing concern and a particular interest of mine. I found an article on MedPage Today about a survey of …
Exciting news from Special Needs Jungle-bringing in a fresh perspective for 2013!
I have some exciting news for Special Needs Jungle for 2013! In 2012, the site really took off and now covers a much wider range of issues about special needs …
Ordering at Starbucks, Asperger’s style
Yesterday, I took the boys shopping to Basingstoke. As I’m not currently able to walk far, I sat in Starbucks armed with my iPad to do some work, while they …
Skiing, Steam Punk and a view to the future
Happy New Year and I hope you all had a great Christmas without too much stress! Ours was relatively quiet, with both Son1 and Youngest away skiing with their special …
Merry Christmas from Special Needs Jungle!
Have a great Christmas from Tania, Son1 & Youngest .. and Leo the Labradoodle! See you in 2013.
SEN Pre-Legislative Scrutiny report- a précis and my views
The Education Select Committee report on its pre-legislative scrutiny of the SEN draft bill has just been published. The scrutiny entailed two oral sessions in which parents, professionals, service users …