There is currently a controversy in the Republic of Ireland about the use of "Isolation Rooms" to manage pupils with Autism.
Please note, these are not "chill out zones" or sensory spaces. They are plain undecorated spaces where a pupil with ASD will be
placed alone and prevented from leaving for a period. To learn more read this story on the Journal.ie
or listen to the RTE Radio 1 story here Warning: both links could be extremely upsetting to any parent or person with ASD. I couldn't listen through to the end.
They are used in mainstream schools where Autistic pupils are 'included' and in special schools as punitive measure in response to perceived 'misbehaviour'
I use inverted commas because inclusion in these cases is recalcitrant at best and not supported by appropriate training or resources. And what is considered "misbehaviour" in these cases is very much a case of interpretation.
At this time of year you might be lucky enough to be planning a holiday. And some of you, thanks to a negative experience in the past might be having trepidations - I have some advice that might make it easier and more enjoyable for everyone.
Where I live on the island of Ireland, it can rain for 10 of the 14 days you have set aside for your break. No matter how scenic the location, you do not want to find yourself cooped up in a holiday house with no broadband, no cable tv and the prospect of hanging around the local Supermarket for entertainment.
The usual indoor amusement centres do not work for people with high sensory needs, and they are expensive anyway.
And 'Long walks in the Rain followed by an Irish Coffee in a local pub' are for romantic weekends as a COUPLE. Not a family of 4 with no clothes dryer.
So take my advice and go somewhere sunny for your holidays. And fly!
The other good reason to go somewhere "foreign" is the fact that it will take you away fro…
I am going to break away from the honest blogging story for a moment to tell you something that happened today - which is also true.
I have always maintained my son is a genius. Not just because I am his mum and I love him, but a bona fide genius. He learned to count and read by the time he was 3. He could type by the age of 7 and at 11 he can read and memorise the credits at the end of a film, then retype them with matching fonts and layouts and a whole load of stuff that you never knew Microsoft Word could do - at about 150 words per minute.
This intelligence was severely underestimated in his previous school and it cost them. And when I told them they nodded patronisingly as if I was talking about a cat that could open a tin or a dog that understood walkies.
I have long suspected that Boo is memorising dates. Sometimes we go into a place we havn't been for a while, and he reams off the date of the last time we were there.
For Example: we were walking into the cinemaplex to see Mon…
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