is sn on the increase?

[spritefairy]

Now this is not to offend anyone with a child with sn but every other post seems to have someone who has a child with sn be it disabled or autistic. This makes me wonder.
Is sn on the increase or is it just diagnosed more than it used to be due to medical advances?

DS consultant was able to realise part of what was going on with DS asthma due to a video that I had been able to take.

Maybe it's because folk don't talk about it IRL, because we barely know any kids with SN. I have 4 DC & spent 8 yrs as a SAHM involved with preschool & committees & so on, so if it were really that common I ought to know a lot such kids & adults.

DC primary has a specialist centre for kids with SN with kids travelling up to 18 miles away, or we would know even fewer.

So I don't find SN that common or on the increase at all. Internet is a good resource for isolated people, though.

A lot of ds3's & ds2's friends parents have absolutely no idea that they have a severely disabled brother. We don't go to NT events with him!

I'm reading a book called Isobel's, about ASD from an anthroplologist's point of view. ASD was always there, but was "labelled" differently, psychopathy, schizophrenia etc

I work with elderly people, one woman i care for (in a residential setting) has been institutionalized since she was around 5. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Its only now, at the age of 70something, that doctors are telling us, actually we think she has autism.

School was highly when ds got his diagnosis. They are even more that he is now going to be assessed for ADHD. Yes in our area there is separate diagnosis processes for ASD and ADHD. But what shocked me is the fact that the diagnosing Doctor who wants the ADHD testing being done actually said he will need to go straight on the list as we don't diagnose after they are 13yo. So they won't diagnose before 7, they don't diagnose after 13yrs and there is a 4yr wait for assessment. It left me speechless.

Why do parents talk about fighting to get a diagnosis? This ^^ combined with the fact that everytime we were referred to CAMHS ds was seen twice and then released, after the 3-6mths waiting even for self harm issues GP was getting seriously frustrated as CAMHS were the only people who could help and they refused. I am really looking forwards to the day when I no longer have to deal with them as they make life so much harder and more stressful. They should care/help, but there is not enough money in the system. Their hands are tied. The number of parents I have had contact with who have got their child's statements/ simply because they were willing to take it to tribunal. Parents who don't fight and actually just accept the no, actually play into the hands of the system who is trying to do as little as they can get away with. No diagnosis no help, no statement no help. it is a very annoying system.

I am only on mn because of ds' sn issues. It is not why I stayed, but it was why I was recommended to find it. And it was the saviour when there was no hope. One simple ask if it is possible for him to have this med to help with sleep, made the hugest of difference to our lives. And mn understands when I need human interact because today ds can't speak to anyone and leaving the house is just impossible. You discover who your friends are when you get acquainted with SN and you do lose a lot of people who you thought were friends.

this thread for instance. starts about sn....ends up about one type of sn(I have no issue with that so not a dig at anyone posting) but it can make others...who perhaps have a child with a different disability feel they don't belong.

I think this is true, Samcro, I often see it happen on mumsnet, where special needs is mentioned, the assumption is that it is ASD. ASD can be co morbid with other disorders, and autistic features can be part of other conditions, but there are also many conditions which have no connection.

Yep cp is A lonely place

I thinks it's depressing how many people in prison get adult diagnosis of adhd or asd.

I don't think it is on the increase. I think it is the efforts now being made to raise the SN children in ordinary schools together with the normal ones.
There is also more attention being paid to them.

Doesn't need to be samcro - in many ways ds1 has more in common with many with cp than many with autism. Eg he uses a talker, as he cannot produce speech. It's one of the issues I have with categorising disabilities - the overlaps can come anywhere. I stopped attending autism support groups because the other kids were nothing like ds1 (steets ahead of him) & the problems under discussion were not ours, so I came out more depressed than when I went in

polter I studied the warlock report along with different models (social/ disability etc). I found it very enlightening.

My friend and I were discussing where the pupils from our schools with neuro disability were/are. I said they were the ones excluded, in different SN groups and clogging up our prisons. we are both glad things have moved on drastically but fully aware it's not far enough.

DS was labelled naughty, Immature, socially immature, hyperactive..... Etc. it was a new senco and brilliant CT alongside camhs referral that saved him from being excluded from school at 8yo.

there is still great ignorance amongst teachers

I agree, my parents both (recently retired) teachers regularly comw out with gems like

'Dylexia doesn't exist, it is an excuse used by middle class parents who can't cope with the idea their kids are thick.'

A children had aspergers 'because her mother was always a bit odd and dressed them in funny clothes'

'I could sort out all these kids who have been labelled ADHD with a bloody good hiding.'

Etc. Etc.

When ds got his non-diagnosis we were told outright that we should follow the advice and strategies to the letter (even though they were all things we'd tried for well over 2 years and had made things considerably worse), and were told that if we didn't do that we would be seen as not complying and would be discharged.
We were outright blamed for ds's behavioural problems by every "expert" involved until we went private and saw someone experienced enough to see straight through ds's mask, and who luckily believed what we were telling them.
We then have to put up with comments about getting a diagnosis because we want to gain financially or we want him to have support at school so he does better than his peers, only people assume that EHCPs are handed out like sweets and teachers jump at the chance so they can get their hands on extra funding.
Ds does worse than most of his peers because he's so anxious in school and working hard to hide it.
Sorry, may have said the above many, many times in the last few months, I'm very bitter about the dreadful experience we had with the NHS, which made everything much harder on top of having a child with SN in the first place.