I?ve never felt unwelcome on the sn board, and I don?t click on the with sn link in active convos I go specivically to the topic. Active convos moves so quickly, and there are so few posts to sn these days that these topics generally won?t be picked up anyway.
Hrh it?s true that not all children with sn are unable to integrate due to their disability, but all children with sn are treated differently at some point in their lives, regardless of how severe their disability is. It?s just how society works ? we have this compulsion to stare/ask awkward questions/have an opinion on someone who is different. I don?t consider myself disabled as such, I just can?t see, and yet society has decided that I?m different and will be treated as such. As a child I was stared at, excluded from other childrens? games, pitied (that went down well ? not ), and as an adult I have been discriminated against in terms of employment, people come up to me in the street and ask how I ever cope with having a child ? etc. I am thick-skinned and it doesn?t bother me, but I can imagine that it might have bothered my parents, and it must bother other parents whose children have mild sn and whose children are treated differently, and for those parents it must be good to go somewhere where others understand and can empathise (because you can only empathise once you?ve really been there) with what they?re going through. And no, I guess not all children ?with sn? are the same as jimjams? ds, but you know what, not all children are the same as yours either, because every child is different. SN doesn?t have to define who you are, it?s a part of who you are. jimjams has a ds, he?s 7, and unfortunately he?s not able to do things all other children do because he has severe autism. but so what, he is a child first and autistic second, but the rest of the world doesn?t seem to see it that way so jimjams (and every other parent with an sn child) should be able to go somewhere where everyone else has been there and understands.
I also don?t quite get this concept that people don?t feel welcome on sn board or that they can contribute anything. I didn?t breast feed, and thus I don?t have anything to contribute to the breastfeeding topic, but that doesn?t mean I feel like I?m being excluded, similarly I don?t go camping, do knitting, and so the list goes on.