is there no Friday night fred??

[devientenigma]

does this mean everyone has had rather stressful weeks, like me, or is everyone having ...........something else

[cornycatona]

I have my wine a chillin'

[StarlightMcKenzie]

DH gets home on Sunday. He's been barely home for a month with lots of abroad trips.

I have given myself permission now to let the house fall apart from..........now.

[Ineedalife]

I will join you zzzzz, I eat both kinds of cake

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Please can the island be warm and toasty (but not burny) and have the right kind of sand?

[devientenigma]

lol zzzzz, I play sims social on FB, it's my virtual haven, house is spotless Star Not only that I have a beach house, a pent house, a haunted house and an egyptian getaway

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Okay, hot is okay as long as there is lots of shade (and hammocks). I love the heat personally but I loathe applying suncream.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Oh dd would LOVE a haunted house dev!

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

I would like turquoise blue pollution free water, colourful fish galore and white sand that does not burn your feet.

Getting back to reality, why do some people within school keep going on about eye contact?!. Makes me quietly seethe.

[devientenigma]

lol zzzzz, do you play sims social? do I have you? always needing neighbours, just never remember RL names linked to MN

[Galena]

Can I move to the island too? Just as long as there's

We've had an odd week. DD was poorly at the start of the week. Better now, although struggling with going back to playgroup. Part of her CP is that when she is slightly under the weather she gets more tired more quickly. :(

It sucks.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Because it is the extent of their knowledge, and if a child doesn't have it, they can set all their targets around it and tick their box without having to 'move on' to sensible but harder work things.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

That last post was to antilla - sorry

[BeeMom]

My week went from great to horrendous, so I am booking my ticket to the island as we speak.

Please, if you would, the sand has to not only not burn your feet, but also not stick in sensitive areas, fair enough?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

sure, but it has to be sticky enough to build sandcastles and provide weight for our sensory kids!

[whatthewhatthebleep]

aaahhh...a seat and a coffee at last!!...been clothes shopping for DS today...nightmare but we survived it...

he's either clinging to me or running off to find a corner or something...spent half the time just locating him again!!...did get a few good bits though, so at least he now has some clothes that fit!!

He's on that cusp of just about no stuff in kids sections and going on to mens small sizes....12yrs old and feet a size 8.5 for his winter boots fgs...I can't keep up with him atm...frightening prices on mens stuff too!!!...(thank goodness for Asda today!)

pyjamas and choc peanuts in a while...dinner is a big pot of macaroni cheese.

Big week ahead for us so planning to do very little tomorrow and I'm not caring what state the house is in

[signandsmile]

Hi all, chez sign is smiley this evening as...... ta da!!! we went to fireworks yesterday, as a family!!! . I love them, but dh can't stay vertical and ds can't do noise and crowd..... well yesterday we did,

found local small show, got disabled parking and dh took his walker and sat, ds had woolly hat, ear defenders and lots of reassurance, but loved it, first proper family outing that everyone managed and enjoyed for longer than I can remember, (couple of years) . so thrilled.

dh had neuro appnt this week too, consultant just confirmed all the weird stuff is just part of the progression of his CMT but physio had some good useful suggestions and they will review in Jan, so that was really useful.

ds birthday 'party' tomorrow, (treasure hunt in teams, so not too many people all at once then back to hall for food.) Eeek!

[notactuallyme]

not a great start to this academic year. don't want to say too much as never know who might know me/ recognise me. first time in a long while that ds and teacher don't click. really worried about how this will work out - her 'lack of effort' is his needing a lot of input even to get half a page of anything sensible down. feel like just not fighting this battle tbh.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Can he change class? Flexi school? take a theraputic sabatical?

[bochead]

Oooh can I come?

There must be inner tubes to float in, while sipping Long Island Iced Teas or Haiwan 5 Joes from looooong glasses as ABA trained childminders help the kids look for crabs to BBQ. (It'd be nice if those cocktails could be served by dusky skinned hunks )

Fighting the urge to totally disengage & demonstrate my contempt, as the silly nit picking about my parenting starts up again in the run up to Annual Review. It's like a constant hoverfly buzzing around - can't they try a different approach for a change, just to alleviate my boredom? It's as cliched as "my wife doesn't understand me".

Funny old week. We've had a bug & DS went off his food. Rewrote and sent out my CV - hopefully something will come up soon.

DS's TA starts her ASD training next week (about time lol!)

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

Thanks star for that nugget of information.

Had one of DSs TA's this week wanting to put eye contact down on his latest Individual Empty Promise. It will be sent to me subsequently so I will then have some proper idea of the wording (he hit the rest of his targets so that is good). Infact I wanted to go home before I went into that room especially given the fact that other parents (felt for some of them sitting outside as to me some looked worried, fed up and defensive) were also in there in front of teaching staff discussing the same types of things!. Why did not each teaching staff member have a separate room?. You be the judge.

I am only glad DS has a statement because without one god only knows what he and I would be up against (more flannel for one thing). I just hope they let him actually do the GCSE course subjects he wants to do, he will choose early next year. Hopefully that will not be another educational bunfight in the offing; had that towards the end of Y8. It got sorted but not without me feeling and being extremely cross towards them beforehand.

[notactuallyme]

star is that to me? i am hoping to go back soon to review - i just feel that if you don't 'get' aspergers (beyond assuming all diagnosed children will be super studious, eccentric Einsteins) it's exhausting to explain.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Attilla, all of us reduce our eye contact when we are uncomfortable and anxious and confused. We dip our eyes to reduce our stimulation and make ourselves less vulnerable.

The way to increase eye contact is to work on self-confidence, ability, understanding social rules etc.

Eye contact helps us be liked by others because it makes us look like we have nothing to hide and are sincere and for THAT reason it is a good skill to learn. Some children with autism are taught to look at the bridge of the nose or between eyebrows as that can help.

The eye contact is probably the TA's personal preference as she might be frustrated that she can't engage the child and thinks that if your sort eye contact you have sorted engagement.