Richard Tice comments re autism and ear defenders

[Overthemhills]

I’m so tired of the anti-disability rhetoric everywhere on various sites and from various politicians. This one - Tice calling the sight of children wearing ear defenders in school “insane” is about the most stupid and cruel barrel-scraping comments a politician has come out with for a very long time.
My child is disabled but undiagnosed and does not use ear defenders so I have little on the way of skin in the game, or this particular game, but just how low do some people want to go to make the lives of people struggling with disability worse - on top of the cost of living and NHS issues.
I’m starting to think I will need to avoid every news item and social media platform until the next general election at this rate.

I'm 46, and there was a girl in the year below me in primary school who regularly had meltdowns in the dinner hall, including physically lashing out at the midday staff. Obviously I can't diagnose anything, but based on what I know now (4 autistic kids), I'd say she was experiencing sensory overload.

It's always been teachers who've recommended ear defenders for mine, unfortunately they were too self-conscious to wear them. Mine are no longer in school at all, but this kind of public shaming of a very small adjustment is so damaging.

@user1471453601 I can’t tell if you want peiple like me to be upset and terrified by your comment? I would do everything in my power to protect my child from people like Tice and the Reform party. I am lucky that I likely have the resources and money to do that. So many other parents won’t, though.

@Flibbertyfloo maybe people are just bad at expressing their concerns, but it doesn’t seem like they are concerned about lack of support for SEN children more than they are offended by the idea of children being diagnosed with Autism/ADHD and those children being around their children. Try suggesting an increase in funding for schools and see if that gets a positive response from Reform voters and supporters!

Thankfully my child with Autism/SEN isn’t disruptive to other children, just to his own learning. So I don’t think he’s ruining his classmates education just yet.

I totally agree. My child wears them sometimes. I think they're great. I was responding to a poster who thinks lots of people want SEN kids removed. I don't think it's that simple. I think most people just don't want SEN kids to be poorly supported in mainstream for everyone's sake. Give the schools the funding and resources and let all children access mainstream with the right support if that is right for them.

To be clear I hate Reform and think his comments are nasty. I have a SEN child. I was just saying that I don't think people in general expressing concern is the same as saying lock all SEN kids up in an institution.

This really scares me. I've already started becoming wary about the lanyard my son wears stating that he has ADHD and autism so his behaviour may be different in public. Both my children with SEN wear their ear defenders and not only in school. It's almost like there's a change in the air and I can feel people tutting at, well, everything now it would seem.

Remain started off with illegal migrants and now they're coming for everyone who isn't a white male? Women spout their support for them yet abortion rights are being touted as as a national conversation. Even painkillers during pregnancy causes autism according to Farage's best bud. We're sleepwalking into this with the media as the pied piper. Horrible times.

I absolutely agree. That's why I think schools need adequate funding and resources.

@twilightermummy totally agree!

@twilightermummy it is scary. I am already focussed enough on making sure my child isn’t treated poorly by others due to his differences. The idea that people might be emboldened to harass me or him about it is so worrying.

I can’t bear how divisive, oppositional and populist politicians and politics seems to have become.

The man is an absolute cunt. He always has to have someone to pick on and this week it’s disabled children. I honestly don’t know how he sleeps at night.

He said that those children who don’t have a diagnosis are now in the minority and are feeling left out! He’s as thick as pig shit to even think that let alone say it. My two are NT, did really well at school and are now doing really well in their careers. They have never once felt left out because they could sail through school, with no support, no adaptations and do exactly as they wanted to for a career.

Tice has said some awful things over on X about people who are entitled to Motability cars, too. He’s a vile ableist gobshite. I really hope people start to wake up to him soon.

@SilenceInside sorry I wasn't clear. I'm terrified that the group of chancers Tice represents will be any where near government.

I promise to be clearer in any further post on the subject.

I think we all need to be clear given the dangers we face.

and for the sake of clarity I thing Reform, via Farage is so close to Putin, and that Putin is so close to undermining western democracy, such as it is, that it is terrifying.

I'm not one for hyperbole, but I really am afraid that western democracy is on the edge.

trump is not in favour of it, Putin isn't either. Some leaders across the western world (Hungary for example) don't seem to be.

If these people hold sway, we will be in a world of trouble.

And as for the like a of Peter Theil and the other techbros. Words fail me.

He is a cunty ableist gobshite!

Ear defenders are a visible sign that a child has SEN. That Tice is targeting school children with additional needs tells you all you need to know about him and his rancid party.🤢

Could he punch any further down if he tried?

You know how men who rail against gay men are often closeted? I wonder whether there's something similar at play here because goodness alone knows Tice could really have done with a bit of Lego therapy and an ELSA programme when he was younger.

[tongue in cheek, I'm not suggesting he's diagnosable with anything other than being a cuntathlete in training for gold at the cuntathlon.]

I think it’s very likely the next govt will be Reform, or a Reform/Tory coalition.

They’ve made no secret of the fact SEN is in their scope as a battleground essentially because of the spiralling costs.

So it looks like their modus operandi will be ‘these children are not disabled and do not need extra funding’

My DC has ADHD and was allowed ear defenders for a recent test. Their scores went up 20% using them.

Honestly wish I'd been able to wear ear defenders as a child as I had (still have) hyperacusis, so many noises are upsetting and/or unbearable. I had to soldier on and that wasn't fun at all, resulting in far more trauma than I should have had to experience. I do think it's a good thing kids are allowed to wear them nowadays, I can't see what the problem is.

It's kind of a dog whistle isn't it. Horrible.

Forgot about Farages ridiculous comments on Autism and paracetamol as well.

I really hope all their proposed voters actually start paying attention to what they say.

I've got 4 autistic children and none of them need ear defenders. They do use other things though and I completely understand why some children need ear defenders. I know when I was at school in the 90's nobody wore ear defenders. But i also remember crying in the dining room at school every day in year 1 because it was too loud.

I remember kids in my year being told off for "loitering" in the toilets and not eating lunch. I used to hide in the cloakroom with a book and say I'd forgotten I was meant to go to the lunch hall, which very rarely worked. That was primary. In secondary they were still "loitering" in the toilets but they were smoking instead of going to the lunch hall to eat lunch. I think ear defenders are a better solution.

It makes me so angry! People have always been neurodivergent, they just haven’t been seen or understood properly. These things are proven to help, why on earth would we get rid of them? I’ve got a great idea; let’s get rid of walking sticks and hearing aids next. 🙄

On a serious point , what would Reform UK do to public sector workers? Would we be more at risk? I work for HMPPS.

@ChattyGeePeaTea
Uou win the internet today! Love it!

There’s supposed to be a hereditary link , if a parent is ND the chances are the child will be . You only have to look at the number of threads where someone is struggling with their ND child and then says they are also ND.
There has been an explosion of autism etc in kids and it really needs investigating why before we are bankrupted . I know 2 single parents who are ND and each have 3 children who are ND , the older ones who do nothing but live in their bedrooms gaming . No jobs , no social contacts , can’t be good for anyone .

What I will say is my DS is 5 and never ever wore or I felt particularly needed them until he got to year 1. Now they seem to put them on him a lot and I’m not sure if it helps him or not really because noise isn’t something I personally feel he struggles with. He doesn’t like people crying and he doesn’t like hand dryers in public toilets but that’s it. I’ve noticed he asks to wear his headphones now at home as a result. I think it’s either a comfort thing or he just thinks they look cool/feel nice. I’m not keen personally because I don’t think he necessarily needs them and it’s another way to make him stand out.

I’m not agreeing with Tice here fwiw, I’m a Green voter so total binary opposite. It’s just my personal anecdote about my DC’s school’s perhaps over reliance on them.

😂