dear mn hq why are so many disablist threads being left up

[Samcro]

one today for instance and mn hq post
"We don't think that this thread is disablist, it is a valid discussion that we don't think should be shut down. "

yet it has obviously been reported.
cause hurt and upset
how is that making life easier(or better) for the sn community`?

or this message from mn hq
That CBeebies is just far too PC
Thread deleted
Message from MNHQ: Thanks so much for all the reports about this.

Although there has been some interesting debate and discussion, we do agree that the OP and some of what ensues is disablist, so we have decided to delete.

how can these be interesting debates??
\not long ago mn hq said that they were going to be quicker dealing with this stuff
what happened??

If a child is showing difficulties that are associated with autism I don't think it wrong to make adjustments/ give support as you would if the child was diagnosed. The problem you had spin is that they weren't making the right adjustments but that happens frequently even when a child is diagnosed.

Just no one has qualified when a pursuit for a dx should stop, have they?

I did get my child assessed. There was funded provision and copious appropriate advice but no firm diagnosis because one did not fit.

Well, exactly.
That's what I was saying upthread; you DID what most concerned parents would do and sought a diagnosis.

dacre, maybe you missed my post where I said I worked in special ed for 20 years. That's how I know that firm diagnoses are rarer than they should be

So, in your experience and opinion diagnosis firm diagnosis is 'rare'?

So, in your experience and opinion diagnosis firm diagnosis is 'rare'?

"To diagnose my child with a diagnosis that did not fit would be eroding the meaning and validity of a proper diagnosis."

It would, and you took the OP to mean it in that sense.

But, it wasn't saying that, it was saying that people like your DC where some things signalled autism would be diagnosed in fact that people without any significant difficulties but could tick off a list online would be diagnosed.

Your conversation about undiagnosed SNs and a shoddy school system is one way more worth having than the one that OP wanted...but it's not the same conversation at all.

Not sure what you mean, Dacre.

tabulahrasa, thank you. I have already acknowledged upthread how and why I came to, perhaps, misread the OP's post on the 'labelling' thread referred to.

I still think the conversation regarding undiagnosed SNs I started does closely relate to the topic, even if it is not the same as the one OP on the labelling thread intended to have. It shows why I came to misread and not be as offended by the labelling thread OP's post and in relation to this thread about disablist posts on MN.

Well diagnosis rates for autism are high nationally. That's why we all have to listen to this piffle about it being fashionable.

And you're not claiming to be a renegade Professor of paediatric psychology with alternative national data, are you *silver?
*
You're commenting as a teacher on your - local, ground level - impression that firm diagnosis are 'rare'.

I am autistic, with high IQ and no speech delay. I think lower IQ and speech delay changes the way a person with autism presents but the autism is still autism.

I am affected every day, all day by anxiety, sensory overload and low self esteem. I am disabled. But if you met me you wouldn't be able to see that I am autistic, so you might assume my autism is mild. You would be wrong.

My take on the situation is that autism is autism (though obviously everyone with autism is an individual with individual needs) but presents differently depending on other factors (IQ, speech etc) because those of us without those issues mask our autism.

I write a blog about these issues www.purpleella.com if anyone fancies supporting that I'd appreciate it.

I haven't slept well, I can't think straight, but just to be clear Spin, your experience is as follows:
Child assessed for ASD, didn't fit criteria, no diagnosis.
Teachers trying to treat as ASD.
You fought against this.
Child now doing well, has grown out of delays.

How is this even comparable to what this thread is about?
MNHQ leaving disablist comments standing, giving the impression that it's ok to say diagnosed DC shouldn't have the diagnosis, they're just horrible.

My experience is that we had to fight for a diagnosis for ds, against a clinical psychologist who left lots of relevant information out of his report, against a panel who completely ignored ds's DISCO and ADOS assessments, where he passed the threshold of ASD in both.
Now he has a dx, it is still being ignored because teachers and head teachers have decided that he's fine.
I am fighting tooth and nail for understanding and support, but there's fuck all.
Presumably some of these teachers and head teachers are MNers, and if they read the shitbag comments that MNHQ leave standing, they will continue to feel that their opinion, despite childrens' diagnoses, is correct, because certain twatbags think its ok to make crap comments that would not be allowed to stand if they were about any other diagnosis
For me, that is what this thread is about, not a child who was not diagnosed but is now doing fine. My child, and hundreds (if not thousands) are not doing fine, because so many people are allowed to carry on believing their uneducated opinions hold weight.
Ds's outreach worker told me that the hardest part of the job was getting teachers to accept that there was a problem in the first place. She was clear that if they managed to secure any level of support, they'd done well. This is absolutely fucking shit, and MN should not be allowing debate around this area to stand. They are here to make parents lives easier? By parents for parents? Yet by not being clear in these instances, they are complicit in making our lives - those of us with autistic children, and those of us who are autistic themselves - harder.

And I must learn to proofread, because I wanted to say that it is not anyone's job but diagnosing professionals' to decide whether or not our children have ASD.
Teachers have no remit whatsoever to doubt a child's diagnosis, yet here we are, so many of us at the mercy of schools (and CAMHS) who decide they know best, and are quite happy to obstruct a child's chance to learn, and blame parents.

Yy pig

And thank you for the link Ella, I will have a look :)

Pig regarding my own situation, what you have missed out is my child receiving unbelievably awful treatment in school. Being criticised at every turn, by some, for what they didn't do but getting no acknowledgement of their progression or achievements, in order somehow justify how 'difficult' their additional needs were and keep their individual funding going to the school which was not spent on their provision. Having, on more than one occasion, a class teacher who did not get very involved in my child's education, could not comment on their progress and left my child to be 'taught' by TAs, who subjected my child to the above treatment. Needless to say this was not the provision my child should have had according to their individually fully funded Statement. My child was treated as a 'cash cow'.

It was absolutely soul destroying and potentially hugely damaging. My child survive but suffered during the process. Just because we have come out the other end (I hope) does not make our child's suffering insignificant.

My child was a victim of discrimination and prejudice because of there additional needs. This is why I felt our experiences are relevant.

And one more (sorry, I will go away then )
Ds did have some support eventually, but only because he had a teacher for a few months who has a DC with ASD, so she could see it clearly and knew how to support him. Until then, he was seen as naughty and manipulative.
I hope that teacher knows how much we appreciated it that finally we didn't have to spend every meeting justifying and proving ds's difficulties.

Spin, I totally get that you had a hard time, and that's dreadful, but your experience in this case doesn't have any bearing on the fact that MNHQ leaves disablist, offensive and downright hurtful comments standing.
And saying that it does sounds like you're saying that it's ok to say these comments, because that's the only way I can see how your experience fits into this debate?

When it comes to disablist comments, there is no room for nuances, it is black and white. Debate in these instances is harmful.

Your sarcasm is rude, Dacre. The post I said I couldn't understand was incoherent.

Can't be bothered with you, frankly.

Pig I am not saying disablist comments are ok at all. They are not. The discrimination my child received was a result of the same kind of disablist attitudes.

What I am attempting to say is that interpreting what is disablist, talking about 'labelling' or 'Diagnosis du Jour' simply as terms, being incredibly offensive, can involve a bit of an extra leap of understanding for me. When coming from a background, which involve experiences such as my own, where such terms could be used as descriptors of what is happening within the prejudiced mindset it feels like it leaves me with less language to communicate. That is at least until I can catch up with appreciating where other posters are coming from.

So I do believe context is everything. Added this I believe my experiences fit the discussion not because it is ok to make disablist comments, far from it. Just some of the terms used, in a disablist sense due to them being minimising, are ones which I may have used in terms of describing my experiences. I feel like these terms have being 'stolen' in a way. This can make expressing what happened to me and my child, due to disablist prejudice, doubly difficult. And it hurts me greatly, to think I might cause offence, unintentionally, when none was meant, at all.

Spin your child had shit teachers. My child with diagnosed autism had shit teachers who assumed one thing fits all when you are working with a child with autism. 'children with autism like sensory things. 'Let's put them in a sensory room with everything on and then wonder why they are biting people' type of shit. The problem was with the teachers.

Have been reading, because the original premises of the thread about the way disability is treated on mumsnet is close to my heart, but I think this thread has stopped being a discussion about that, so it is difficult to contribute.

Silver, when you say firm diagnosis is rare, are you referring to ASD or other disabilities as well?

honking but if anything, talking about 'shit teachers' on MN, especially on the main boards, is absolutely the most offensive thing to do!

I know some of their teachers were absolutely shit. Thankfully there were a few gems though.

The thing is, I sometimes feel like I stumble about causing offence, across the boards, which leaves things bottled up p, if I keep quiet. When I do post then, I do so voraciously and then I get accusations of derailing.

Polter then there is the frustration of the education derailing threads and frankly making you look like a patronising arse for 'educating' ignorant posters. I do think MN need to look into it though because every time I see one of those 'benevolently ignorant' posts a little bit of my heart dies for my son's already bloody tricky future.