AutisMum

Resources and aids to help your SEN child on a budget!

It’s been a while! After my brief period of being MIA I’m back with a biggie! Finding resources and aids to help your SEN child with a low budget!

When it comes to aids for our SEN kids we immediately imagine of all the wonderful things that we can have to support out little ones. It isn’t until we finally get to sit down at the end of the day (preferably with a cuppa), this kids are in bed and we, yet again, find ourselves trawling through the ‘oh-so perfect’ Instagram posts and Etsy inventions that leave us either broke or in envy of other users. Going through the endless catalogue of over-priced perfectly formed aids that we convince ourselves we can’t find any cheaper elsewhere with the same quality.

I’ll be the first to reassure you, it doesn’t have to be this way!

Having an SEN diagnosis may mind-boggle parents and some companies like to exploit this fact and charge extortionate amounts for something that you can find much cheaper elsewhere.

So here are my Top Tips for supporting your child without breaking the bank!

Shop around…. It sounds obvious but I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen parents online comment “I’ve just paid £….. for mine!” Do the research and take your time to find the aid you need, don’t feel pressured into buying in a rush.

Join social media…There’s no doubt about it, social media is used so widely for so many different reasons nowadays. You can always bet to find a variety of SEN second hand pages on Facebook. Join sites like Freecycle, you’ll never know wha you’ll find! Don’t be scared of posting a ‘WANTED’ post for items, you never know what people have lying around…if you don’t ask then you don’t get.

Make your own!… Obviously there are limits for this for safety (and sanity!) reasons but it is perfectly doable. Whether it’s fashioning your own homemade symbols/flashcards or altering clothing to suit…give it a go!

Look in charity/bargain shops… I’m not the first person to divulge my love of Poundland, in fact there is a whole appreciation page on Facebook! It’s called the Poundland appreciation society and there are always updates on new stock and upcycling ideas to inspire you. Shops like this and charity shops are a treasure trove for finding items that may be purposed elsewhere but can be upcycled or used as SEN items. My favourite buy so far has to be from Flying Tiger Copenhagen when they had their £2 sale….i stocked up on wobble boards and a gym ball which is a firm fave in our family!

EBAY…Need I explain? A well used site that helped me get a whole sensory centre for my LO for just 30 percent of the RRP price! Don’t be put off by having to find a courier, it’d still work out cheaper than brand new!

Resources… It’s pretty common now to see individuals making their own PECS and flashcards and cashing in…which is fine but if you have the time to do it then try making/sourcing your own! Twinkl has an array of ready made resources for learning or teaching daily skills. Better still you can edit some of them to suit your needs. I’ve linked some here…https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-s-2331-ks3-visual-timetable-resource-pack.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t4-s-303-daily-routine-visual-aid

The official makaton site also has free resources…https://www.makaton.org/shop/shopping/browseStore/Free-resources

And the National autistic society has free online training courses…https://www.autism.org.uk/professionals/training-consultancy/online.aspx

If you’re still struggling to find resources for your LO then don’t be afraid to ask your child’s school or nursery for help. Makaton and PECs symbols are more widely used in schools and i’m sure they’d be more than happy to print you a copy!

There you have it, just a few top tips to save you money this summer!

Tackling your childs EHCP

When you have a child that is in need of extra support, it can be daunting knowing where to go, who to turn to and what you need to do to help support your child in any situation they face.

“What are EHC Plans?”

EHC plans (or EHCP’s) have replaced what were more commonly known as ‘Statements’. The plans help to distinguish and detail your childs needs and how best to support them. It can be an overwhelming task to begin the process of an EHCP for your child but it can be done!

EHCP plans help to share your child’s needs with anyone that comes into contact with your LO, be it a school, a pediatrician or a nursery. It is vital to have a plan to get the support and therapy your child may need. You also can’t access a ‘specialist school’ without an EHCP.

A strong EHCP will have views from staff, care providers, parents and any therapy or assessments that your LO has had. This information is then processed into one document by your local council to prepare and can help towards any interventions your little one may need.

Step One

You or someone who cares for your child may have noticed your child’s’ additional needs. Maybe you’re even lucky enough to have a diagnosis for you child, maybe ‘red flags’ were brought up by their school….either way the causes for concern need to be detailed and documented to ensure your child is correctly supported. My best advice is to write down any changes or behaviours as you see them, it proves handy when you come to write about your child’s’ needs. You wont believe how missing out tiny little detail can affect whether your request is approved or rejected.

An EHCP needs to details your child at their greatest time of need. I’m not gonna lie, it is always soul destroying when you have to sit and detail how your child finds …. hard or how he missed out on … due to his anxiety but it’s the only way to ensure that anyone coming into contact with your child will know what they need help with and what they don’t.

Step Two

So, the most important thing to do next is to gather up any medical letters, referral letters and cover letters from educational providers, be it your child’s school or nursery. An EHCP that has the support from all the people who come into contact with you child is definitely a lot stronger than without a range of professional views. Be sure to send copies of any letters not originals as you will need to keep them for your own reference.

If necessary, sit down with your child’s provision and discuss what your concerns are. SEN can present differently in children in different settings so you may’ve noticed something different to what they have and vice versa. Make sure that all involved are in agreement of your little munchkins needs to keep the EHCP information consistent.

If you’re child is able to complete their section on the EHCP with their views then include them. Talk to them about how it will help them with things they find difficult and how you are all working together to make life easier for them. It can be through drawings, typed or written. Your child’s view, in my opinion, is the most important so include them!

Step Three

Check, check and triple check!

Check any information that you have gathered to ensure it is detailed and nothing has been missed. You can also request a meeting or a copy from your child’s care providers to ensure you are happy everything has been included to be accepted for an EHCP.

It’s really important to make sure you have everything detailed, dated and the name of who provided the document to ensure a strong EHCP.

Don’t avoid asking for support, IPSEA is a brilliant service who are able to support parents through the EHCP process. IPSEA can help to check documents, talk through the paperwork with you and help seek information to include on the plan.

The KELSI website also has pages dedicated to EHCP’s, they have guidance, information (including legalities of an EHCP) and electronic pages that you can type if prefer to not have it as a written version. This link https://www.kelsi.org.uk/special-education-needs/special-educational-needs/education-health-and-social-care-plans/how-to-apply-for-assessment is definitely worth a look!

Step four

Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get your EHCP request rejected first time. The appeals process can be started by you, all information will be in the documents that your LA provide you to appeal a decision. You get a period of time also if you feel that some details in the EHCP need changing. The EHCP is with the child in mind and the parents views are first and foremost.

The last step is to be sure to look after yourself! Between meetings, paperwork and the realities of supporting an SEN you can be left feeling drained and exhausted!

Pop round to your friend for that cuppa, leave the washing for half an hour to watch that TV show and spend time playing in the sun and being silly with your LO.

8 Top Tips for travelling with your SEN child this summer.

The summer holidays are just weeks away now and parents all over are planning fun packed days for their little cherubs. One recurring subject that always seems to pop up in discussion, though, is the journey that parents and children simultaneously endure when out on their travels. A ‘bad’ journey can be a real mood killer and scupper the excitement that leaves our kids squealing with delight before we’ve even arrived at our holiday or family day out! Whether it’s travelling by car, plane, train you name it and I bet that most parents have packed everything (and the kitchen sink!) in order to keep their kids entertained. This is all well and good until you open the bag and find that the ne most important item is still left of the kitchen side (story of my life.) So, here it is, my top ten tips that I always use when travelling to try and make the journey easier for my LO.

1. Snacks! You can NEVER have enough snacks packed when travelling with children. Why is it that every summer holiday our children suddenly turn into mass eating machines!?! I, personally, like to pack our lunch for the day in a backpack but then have a separate box packed with healthy snacks for LO to dip into whenever he needs to. I’m always sure to pack long lasting foods…oaty bars and bananas are a firm favourite! Keep sugary treats to a minimum to avoid sugar highs and try to pack foods that can aid travel sickness if your LO suffers. Fresh ginger or ginger biscuits can help or sugar free mints can help avoid travel sickness.

2. Paper Rather than pack your bags to the brim with colouring books games and stuff that will weigh you down just take a booklet of plain paper. There are so any different games and activities you can use it for whether a simple noughts and crosses or a family game of guess the drawing. The list is endless! Be sure to take pencils as opposed to pens to ensure that ink cannot run out and take a sharpener! (you can never be TOO prepared!)

3. Wipes and sanitiser It’s certain that travelling with kids will end up in mess and sticky hands so always be sure to carry a fresh pack with you for those emergency moments. You never know what will be around when you need to stop for a loo break so sanitiser will become your best friend when you find the toilet on the service stop has no soap in the dispenser (is this just me this always happens too?)

4. Small outside play toys. You may think I’ve gone potty when mentioning this but between toilet stops and refreshments stops you may find yourself frequently stopping on your car journey. Being stuck in a car for long periods of time can be frustrating for any child let alone a child with SEN. For that reason we always take a small ball for if we see a park on our way and a skipping rope that helps to allow our LO to exert some energy no matter where we stop. You could even try and pre-plan what is around you before travelling to find park stops!

5. Sensory items These are an absolute MUST for my LO. A lot of children find sensory strategies calming or feel relaxed just knowing that their favourite sensory items are available. If you wanted to really engage your LO you could even wrap up new or existing toys/items so it’s more exciting! Try to find items that stimulate your childs’ needs, for example if you have a child that is sensitive to noise take their ear defenders, if you have a child that is visually sensory seeking take a torch or a cause and effect light up toy (the noisy ones are always a hit! Lol). Giving your child the sensory input they need will really relax them on your journey.

6. Treats It’s a given that, as parents, we promise ourselves that we won’t fill our kids with sugary treats but in moderation it’s ok. I find that using treats as ‘prizes’ will help engage a child in new games that they may resist ordinarily… like I-Spy, Never have I ever, Fizz-buzz, spotting cars and What am I? to name a few.

7. Maps and routes If your kids are anything like my LO then they are full of curiosity about the world around them and being informed of where we are going can really help. I like to use Google Maps to aid their questions as to our journey and our route. You could then use it as an educational game, who can spot the….(station etc), how many miles to… and what road are we now on. If anything it’ll stop the “Are we there yet” question!

8. Electronics I begrudge giving my LO his favourite console for the entirety of our journey or it’d be near impossible to get him off it! So I like to pack it without him knowing as a special treat for doing his best whilst travelling. Even as adults journeys can be long and gruelling and meltdowns are can happen (it’s not the end of the world if they do!)

So, there we are just 8 of the things that I like to do when travelling. Relax and have fun, it’s never like you imagine it to be!

Sorting your Summer Holidays!

So, the countdown has begun and the summer holidays are nearly here! I’m sure I’m not the only person who woke up this morning questioning where the first half of the year has gone in amazement!

For me, June and July mean only one thing….planning!

I don’t know about you, but I find that my darling boy thrives off of routine. Without it, he can find the open endedness of the summer holidays a struggle. Coming out of the days where he performs the same ritualistic tasks during the week and where he knows what to expect can be unnerving for children with SEN.

So, you may be thinking….how on earth can I plan something for the whole 6 weeks of the summer holidays? Where do I begin? I won’t lie, everytime I begin my planning I feel like I’ve just been catapulted in the deep end of the pool without any warning. I sit at the computer trawling though lesson plans and Key Stage topics of learning feeling like I’ve turned a corner and bumped straight into a giant who is looming over me. However, that feeling soon goes and we end up super excited for the weeks to come.

Lets start at the beginning

So, first things first I find that making a week by week plan really helps focus my LO. Each week of the summer holidays will have a theme. I find that having a theme focusses the attention of my LO’s very busy mind that races a million miles a minute. It reminds him that there is purpose to each week.

Last year we did space week, transport and travel week, dinosaur week to name but a few. Pick topics that you know your little munchkins would really enjoy. Make it engaging and be as silly as you want, there’s no limit (although I was questioning where that limit was as we spent the day moving only like different dinosaurs!) But honestly, follow your childs lead and excite their imagination. It may sound cliche but having fun is all that it’s about!

Planning each week

So, by now you’ve got your topics for each week and you’re already resenting staring at the computer for hours planning. Let me make it easy for you!

There are so many sites around that even schools use to aid planning of lessons etc so don’t feel overwhelmed. Twinkl is an amazing site that has thousands of different resources for each age group. Their content is regularly updated to keep up with current trends and some are even editable so it’s definitely worth a look. A lot of the resources are FREE (yes, really!) or you can subscribe for around £50+ for the year to have more access to content. Sparklebox is another site that it used a lot within schools, they also have an array of resources to help support your child with learning and play. Again the content is FREE and what is amazing is that educational professionals also upload resources they have made so you have the peace of mind that the resource is likely to be educational and bundles of fun!

Another thing that I like to do is to reference back to schools homepages. On there you can find topic grids, what is great about topic grid is that you can use that to reference ideas of what your child would/should be learning based on what year they are in. You can then use that topic grid to aid towards finding resources and planning a learning/invitation to play task.

Social media can also be a great way to find ideas for each of your topics that you have planned. With the likes of DADlab on facebook to give you ideas for all things science and scrolling through instagram (planning purposes only, honest!) for inspiration for crafts, recipes and activities you are sure to come up with a variety of activities that your little ones will love.

Lastly, I like to remember that despite all this planning that my child can take the lead when he feels ready to. Changes happen and not everything has to be so ‘regimented’. Some of my planning does go to ‘waste’ because we’ve done something different but giving him the stepping stones for play and learning to help ignite his imagination is worth a million hours of doubting myself during planning. Play should be open ended for children and when they ‘take the reins’ you’ll be sure to have a day full of giggles and fun.

Subscribe and stay tuned for upcoming regular instalments of different ideas for over your summer holidays!

An Introduction….

I’m fairly new to the ‘modern day blogging’ and I would be the first to say that I have absolutely NO experience in computers. Whether it’s working with graphics or simply using software I am utterly clueless. Nada….Zilch!

However, I have a passion for writing and all things Autism…put them together and you ended up here! Aren’t you lucky?!

Why I decided to do this…..

If you’ve navigated yourself here then you’ve probably noticed two things, my ‘welcome’ post and how bare this page currently looks!

I briefly touched on the fact that I am a mother of one little superstar who is diagnosed with ASD, amongst other complex needs. To say that the time in which my LO was born to now has been a journey would be an understatement. There have been many smiles, laughs, (lots) of tears and I have sat in amazement more times then I could ever imagine.

No-one ever tells you the truth behind the life on a child with SEN, maybe that’s because of the continuous stigma that can be attached to such a topic, the ignorance that some people show when they say “I’m sure he’ll grow out of it”or because we’re all so damn busy that we don’t get time to sit down with a hot (or even lukewarm!) cuppa and tell each other how my child decided to announce to an underground train full of people how he had just blown off! (Yes, that genuinely happened and yes, I did laugh! more of that later.)

I’ve always said that if I had seen the things I see now 10 years ago then I would be wholly shocked, but then I remember, I was once the ignorant person who didn’t ‘get it’. I was once a person who had never even heard of autism. I don’t get angry at people that we meet that have the same views that I would have had all those years ago but it does sadden me.

It’s sad that we live in a world where parents have to fight for their child to receive the support they deserve within the education and mental health system. It’s sad that we live in a world where one person feels it is their god given right to tell us how we should ‘parent’ our children ‘correctly’ and how autism “didn’t exist many years ago”. It makes you wonder on the scale of people who suffered everyday because they were deemed ‘naughty’ or ‘troubled’.

That is exactly why this blog exists.

Hello!

Hi there! Welcome over to Autismum.

I bet you’re sat there right this minute pondering as to why the word Autism is continuously spelt incorrectly…..either that or you get my simpleton sense of humour!

I’m a mother of one, one little beautiful being who has held my heart for nearly a decade. One handsome little munchkin who just so happens to have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder(or ASD for short!)

I have questioned myself for a very long time as to starting my own blog and wondered “where would I begin?” or “who would want to read it?”. However, I guess the fact you’re reading this has meant I’ve bitten the bullet and taken the blogging plunge!

I can’t say for definite what the content of this blog will be but am certain you’ll see LOTS of posts regarding my own experiences in the journey that comes with having a child on the spectrum.

Whether it be information, daily rants, advice or new ideas I hope to use this platform to aid others, connect with like-minded people and create a loving community who can also help spread awareness.

I look forward to beginning my blogging journey with you!