Children tied to chairs????

[meemee]

I have a new job as a play assistant (dinner lady, really) at a school for kids with profound and multiple disabilities. The younger kids are often wheeled about strapped into little wooden "safety" chairs - even the ones who can walk. Is this normal practice? To me, as mum of 2 boys on the Autistic Spectrum, it looks like laziness and an infringement of human rights! I'd go nuts if I discovered that my youngest (who is more severe) was ever restrained. Please let me know your opinions as it's causing me sleepless nights!

I'd start by querying the practice with your line manager and ask the see the risk assessment. There'll either be a logical explanation or get down to social services because that's bang out of order!

Quite often Health and saftey/moving and handling rules mean children always have to be strapped into their chairs when being moved or in certian other "risk" areas. Really depends on the risk assment and school policy. Sometimes the uk is too full of cotton wool, and often caregivers would rather apply the rules to firmly than use common sense and be used as a scapegoat if something happened.

i'd rather dd2 was strapped in than fell off.

i think it's reasonably common depending on the equipment - seen it a lot in transitions, and at our parent group held in an sn school the parents were taught where to put the straps so kids couldn't slide when we were moving from room to the gym for example - it was down a loooooong corridor and would literally take twenty minutes to get there if everyone tried to walk, with all the distractions and difference in ability en route.

they were 'untied' when we got where we were going lol, it was just a safety measure for the rolling equipment in the hallways.

dd2 has cp though, but i imagine they know which kids needs to be moved instead of getting there independently?

i do confess to tying her onto chairs myself in the past. if you are out and about and there is no supportive eqt available, you improvise with a belt around the child and chair back (through the uprights etc) to try to prevent the pelvis sliding forward, and we've propped and ties with all sorts in the past, once she grew out of the specially designed portable toddler restraints.

i don't have a particular problem with it tbh. i'd be more cross if they used her wheelchair without the strap - she can walk, but she still falls out of her wheelchair sometimes if she isn't strapped in...

I understand the use of the chairs for moving the children longer distances makes some sense (although I still don't like it) but today I saw, not for the first time, a girl put into the chair as a punishment. This is a different story. It just doesn't sit comfortably with me. I thought that the days of restraining children with autism were well and truly in the dark ages. Time to go and look at the risk assessment.....

Special school I visited strapped children in for snack. Basically to keep them there. Didn't sit well with me but I could see why they did.