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.

You sound horrible.

What a gross misunderstanding of the autism spectrum, and any other reason for noise sensitivity.

Some of the children in ear defenders will become adults in loop earplugs who can live relatively normal lives.

I thought it wasn’t a spectrum but more like a spider’s web graph? I’m a bit lost at this point. It gets more complicated every time I try to understand it.

Why?

Reducing educational outcomes will not lower taxes. It will not increase productivity. In the longer term it will only damage individuals and the broader economy.

It’s the same false economy as closing Sure Start centres.

The National Autistic Society still call it a spectrum. The EHCP for my son I’m looking at says ASC, and I can tell you what the S stands for.

Assuming your desire to “understand” is genuine - I’ve got a super autistic 9 year who wears ear defenders. What questions do you have?

Im only saying this as once I called it a spectrum and was told I was grossly misinformed and that the spectrum idea is outdated.

She sounds Honest

But we’re not seeing good educational outcomes

https://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/educational-outcomes-for-send-pupils-have-failed-to-improve-over-the-last-decade-despite-costs-of-these-services-trebling-new-independent-report-reveals/

I feel for you

It's both though isn't it? Yes we're in bad place economically which is forcing tough choices, I don't think anyone would disagree with that. But everything at the moment seems to be framed around "I don't want my tax spent on..." and not about the kind of society we want to be.

The diagnosis is ASD (Autism SPECTRUM Disoder), so it is a spectrum but that doesn't mean that the spectrum is linear.

I’ll stop using it when the NHS does 🤷🏻‍♀️

Were your questions really all about terminology? Honestly, ask away if not.

Let me get this straight:
People want to decrease SEN spending, access to work and disability benefits and don't want us to have reasonable adjustments. But they want us to work? But how?

Interestingly you can have a TA who could easily help and support children with individual needs. The issue is when you have behaviour. You can have one student who can absolutely dominate a whole class ehcp or no ehcp. All your resources will go into that child.

So the problem is over diagnosis. Because it’s not adhd or autism or PDA. It’s trauma, chaotic home life, unstable families which is why classrooms are failing.

My DS sometimes wears ear defenders at school. He's also in the top 5% of academic capability by national standards. I have every expectation he will be a net contributor to the economy as an adult as well as an all-round excellent human.

They don’t care how. They want us working till we drop and paying tax into the system without them having to invest anything.

The fact people believe they want to strip away the Equality Act to stop discrimination and leave the ECHR because of asylum seekers is absolutely laughable and they wonder why we call them stupid 🤣 obviously stripping people of their rights and freedoms is very beneficial to a far right regime.

Not all children with SEN are going to grow up to live independently. Removing ear defenders isnt going to change that outcome. It may however make thier life more fullfillung, and reduce the intensity of thier care needs. You may be right about the chikdren in your DDs class. But they arent the only chikdren using ear defenders, not all will have such extreme needs.

I work with adults who wear noise reducing loops to help them work, so they already walk amongst us in the tax payer world.

Just try harder?

It's a complete nonsense.

Not a linear spectrum. Autistic people have different struggles within the autism spectrum. These struggles are at varying levels of intensity, sometimes or all the time.

It sounds complicated because it is complicated. This is why it's "emotional" for us. It's not an easy condition to live with, it's relentless.

Someone else, on the other hand, can see it as just a talking point and political if they don't have to live with it.

ETA: (Waiting for image to be reviewed)

Schools may be noisier, or other things are more stressful so noise is not so easily tolerated.

Partner working and children chatting, maybe tapping computer keyboards, electronic guns, buzzing lights, ticking clicks? Auditory processing...if the lessons are quick the kids don't have time to process the info and it gets frustrating. Kids are under more pressure, teachers are under more pressure understanding of Sen has decreased, lots of nowt teachers as they are cheap and high turnover. All leads to a stressful environment. More meltdowns and decreased tolerance for noise.

Yes it's difficult but the people who do that do it anyway even with a diagnosis - hence why reform are saying autism is being over diagnosed. They still don't believe you.

Oh that's brilliant. Maybe schools could feed children raw carrots. Or maybe school age is too late and you've missed the critical carrot window of development.

Where is the evidence that removing accommodations for SN kids (like ear defenders) increases educational attainment and employment prospects?

That argument shoots itself down. If you give ND children support in school - and let's not forget that ear defenders do not adversely affect the learning of others - then they are more likely to achieve, more likely to be able to access work, more likely to be productive independent people. This is called 'investment ', something Tice clearly doesn't have a clue about.