New MN campaign around children with special needs

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Following on from this, um, lively thread from a couple of weeks back, we wanted to follow up on kungfupannda's excellent suggestion of an MNHQ-backed awareness-raising campaign aimed at - in kungfupannda's words - 'making it absolutely, uncompromisingly clear that in order to fully include children with severe disabilities, people might have to accept a bit of disruption once in a while.'

We were thinking about something along the lines of our We Believe You campaign on rape myths; that is to say, an ongoing awareness-raising project aimed at the general public, rather than a short-term campaign with specific policy requests attached. We would be thinking about pages on Mumsnet itself featuring the experiences of our posters, activity on our Bloggers Network, ye olde Twitter hashtagge, and any press coverage we can grab.

The suggestion on the thread was for the campaign to be called 'Tolerance is...', but we at MNHQ are a little unsure about the word 'tolerance' (which can suggest barely-contained irritation, rather than the kind of empathetic understanding and generosity of spirit we'd all like to see). So we were wondering whether something along the lines of 'This is my child' would work better?

Please feel free to use this thread to give us any feedback and ideas, and generally let us know what you think.

Thanks
MNHQ

Tbh, even without SN, age is not always a good indication of where you will be wrt forms. I have no idea what I'd put if I was expected to record my 'hopes and dreams' on a form and I'm nearly 33.

TBH, I don't like the idea of a campaign, I have always said you can not raise total awareness of every disability/special need etc etc and what each and everyone looks like and concerns.

Inclusion is exclusion for some.

Something CAF used to always highlight too, a disabled child means a disabled family.

Then for us we will still be the outsiders even among a group of disabled similars, never mind the whole population in general.

Without sounding woe is me, my life/style with DS is horrendous and terribly isolating, I personally feel not even those who think they are going through similar, really are and hence really know. I would not wish this on my worse enemy and I have lots, but then theres many due to DS. However if anyone should want an awareness into our life, living as a disabled family they are welcome to come along.

Arb
I think that it is important that it is an inclusive campaign - at the moment it is mainly posters who have SN or whose DC have SN who seem to be posting on this thread. It can be quite intimidating to take part in a thread like this, because I am worried about using the wrong terminology or offending someone. I would like to offer my help in the Social Media side of things, because that is what I know about.

I am wondering about including DC in this by getting them to write or draw about themselves. If they are not able to do this alone, perhaps a sibling or a school friend could help. We've had girls with SN write for Jump! Mag - I'd be willing to publish a couple of articles on there for the campaign. Sure we could get some more bloggers involved, if you wanted that.

I am a person, just like you.

I think that this shouldn't just be about people with social communication difficulties but also those with craniofacial syndromes, Syndromic conditions, life limiting conditions and people with profound disabilities.

my 12 year old can't read or write, in fact he can't hold a pen, he can not tell you about his life..........only through his behaviour

I have to agree with Sally though, it should cover all disabilities, however those with multi disabilities and are challenging and complex will still be outsiders and isolated.

I agree, Sally.

I guess one of the huge difficulties about this sort of campaign is that the word 'disabled' is vast, and covers so many different issues, and levels of difficulty.

The form is designed to cover from birth to age 25, so I guess they have to use fairly vague and wide ranging questions!

I was only saying about it to demonstrate that in a lot of cases parents have to speak for or on behalf of their children (whether because of age, learning disabilty or communication difficulties)

I don't have any personal direct experience of SN or disability so please don't flame me if I'm clumsy here, but I did have an idea slogan-wise.

Would "This is me. How do you do?". The idea is that the second half expresses the fact that the person speaking is part of society and can/should be treated as such; any picture/sub text accompanying can express the SN and anything else that might be appropriate - whilst not everyone is capable of shaking hands or verbally expressing "How do you do?" you can use whatever goes with the piece to show that different forms of expression are still a greeting and an inclusion in society. Hash tags could be #thisismegreetingyou or #thisisoursociety.

Just a thought.

devientenigma sorry but your wasting your time, this campaign will be of no use to people like us.
it is all about the acceptable face of disability, cute kids.
adults and cute kids that don't tick the boxes will be on the outside of it as usual.

wow, i find that quite hurtful, threesocks.

I like 'Don't Dis me' - who said that?

why?
this is a campaign for sn children.
I have asked a few times about adults.....no answer.
so it should imo be inclusive, age and sn all included

'Inclusion is exclusion for some.'

dev I don't agree. I think it is BAD 'inclusion' that is the problem.

For some, inclusion is a special school. DS is included in education now he attends one. Before he was IN a mainstream classroom, but he was definately not included in receiving an education.

TBH I feel the campaign will also bring along the trumping and the divide between us parents of disabled kids.

I really don't care if I get flamed for this but there is already a difference between mild, moderate, severe and profound. In how we engage and communicate with.

Then add each and every individual disability the child/person has on top of this, it equates to the differences.

E.G many children with my sons disabilities find it extremely difficult to brush there teeth for one reason or another. However my son also has a heart condition meaning bacteria in the mouth can cause a fatal infection. Now if he was mild learning disability he may be easier to engage and be quicker at being supported iyswim.

however if my DS was to be included in any social setting whether it be his special school or something else, he has already excluded himself. All depends on how you want to perceive whats said.

Well, I got tired of telling the stupid autism outreach teacher that due to spikey profiles, there was actually more of a difference between two children with autism, than there was of two NT children.

She never grasped that and insisted that stupid generic ASD provision suited ALL children with ASD.

I think the same applies across the disabilities. Disabled people are not a homogenous group, and I think that people really need to be educated about this too.

Disabled people People with disabilities - obviously- are not a homogenous group

StarlightMcKenzie oh god yes.
I remember a teacher calling dd and others "athotoids" and saying things like..."athotoids do this"
I have yet to me 2 that are the same

I still feel like 3sock in how I don't fit, but then if DS doesn't fit anywhere, why should we.

I have two dc with ASD and I have two dc with a craniofacial condition both of whom are deaf with one of them having ASD.

I would like state that there is a huge emphasis on Social Communication Disorders here, but few people seem to see the other face of disability. Those children who endure a lifetime of pain, suffering and ridicule because their bodies fail them and because they "look funny". Children who have had major reconstructive surgeries. Some of these children don't have learning disabilities but they are expected to have a lower IQ JUST because they look different and are unable to speak properly.

Some of these children may never be able to get a job, get married and have children because Society has already written them off.

that is why I think we are wasting our time.
all people want is a campaign about children, but their children will be adults one day. and the disability will still be there and so will be horrid stuff.

what about 'think again'?

as in: think you can have formed a proper opinion about me from just one look/stare? think again. then onto the 'this is me' side, and 'don't dis me'

think again would cover the panto type situation - 'you think you know why I'm doing this? think again', and could be used to cover many different situations/disabilities.

I agree it is tricky to come up with something snappy that is going to cover all disabilities, as disability is so varied. maybe we ought to be looking at getting a 'brand awareness' going, with different facets to it - kind of a 'mumsnet against disablism' (not v snappy either - am sure others can come up with a better tag), and then whichever angle is being attacked alongside?

I read this thread last night, when up with night feeds, and there were more ideas I liked - will have a hunt when I have a minute - need to rescue ds as he has got himself stuck again!