Please come talk to MNHQ about Special Needs topics: better with fewer of them or not?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We're looking into streamlining/reorganising our Topics list to make it easier for people to find the best topic for their thread, and to make it easier for everyone to find their way around Talk.

And, following on from some of the points raised on this Site stuff thread, we wanted to ask you folks about the range of SN Topics in Talk.

Currently, as you know, we have...
Parents with disabilities
Special needs support sessions
Special needs: children
Special needs: education
Special needs: legal/financial
Special needs: recommendations
Special needs: teens and pre-teens

Do you think it might be a good idea to lose some of these, given that some of them (legal, education, recommendations, in particular) are quite underused?

Would it be better to have fewer topics, so that every OP was more likely to get replies to their threads?

Or do you think the balance of Topics is fine just as it is?

Please do let us know...

yeah but I always wanted a like button!!!

Anyway, I have just been looking at my old threads, wished I hadn't now lol

so not any clues, you were on TTR and FB, do I still have you on fb? possibly not if you are sick of me lol, inbox me who you were, go one be a devil...........I'll give you a

I want a "yeah, wot she said" button.

We all post when we are at our most down DE. I have looked back before. It didn't do me any good.

Can I have a . Jammie Dodgers are my favourite :)

Come and chat rubbish on the Friday Night thread Devient, 2shoes, 2old and lougle. I often don't post ATM but often lurk and snurk at the thread. Drink and chat rubbish about nothing. Sounds a good combo to me.

I've only read part of this thread but wanted to add my thoughts.

As someone struggling to even get a 'label' for DS2 i don't know which part of SN to use - children or SEN, so i don't. Its bewildering being in the situation anyway, especially for as long as i have (7 years and still begging for help) and when you come here for help its even more bewildering when everyone seems to know what they are talking about and where you should and shouldn't post.

I think the main thing to remember is that its not just current MNetters with SN children (of any age) that will need support/advice. There will be newcomers.

IMO it should be one section for Parents of children with ANY special need and another for Parents WITH special needs.

(((hugs))) to paper, battling that long is hard work, I know Iv'e been at it 9 year, although DS is 11 and has a few official dx's and no real/correct support.

sorry meant to say Ben..............finish the packet lol

I should clarify that when i have posted, i have had support but its difficult to separate all the issues your child has into the correct sections on MN as a whole and not just on here.

dev

I'm feeling worried now that I might have missed acknowledging to someone's posts to me... and i definitely repeat what others say at times, usually when cross posting but sometimes out of sheer ditziness. it is quite hard for me to follow MNSN sometimes so any bitchiness flies right over my head

the whole many voices/ various nicknames /log on/ log off/ problem with dc & can't post for a few days stuff etc is really confusing, and I also go through phases of mumsnet 'crash dieting' when I try to click only a few threads, or not post for a few days etc.

I'm conscious that with an 8y old DS with asd, I'm a majority poster unlikely to have very novel insights... that said, with adult relatives with dementia, severe mental illness, learning disability, and a range of cancers (big family) this board has tutored me about much more than ds.

about caring, disability, vulnerability, isolation, worry, professional errors, education, unresponsive services, personal budgets, respite provision, managing a wheelchair with a baby, not being listened too, budget cuts, benefit hassles, legal wrangles and the usual general nonsense that pretty much every poster knows more about than they ever wanted to...

To me this is far too big a common ground to give up lightly.

The thing is, for me, that as soon as someone puts 'parents of ASD children..',etc., in the title, I am by definition excluded. But I may have some useful experience or knowledge. Those words remind me of our uncertainty with DD1. We're having a tough time with DD DD1, but the thought of having to give a summary of her before asking for support is exhausting. I envy those of you who can just put (ASD).

Special needs:carers/financial and SN:education/development maybe?

For the record, to dev lougle 2shoes amber and 2old as lurking on threads you've been on has always been enlightening. Speaking for myself only, I tend to be a bit scared of giving ideas or advice to people I perceive as way ahead of me in SN Knowledge unless it's on one of my pet topics.

Now I needs to say hi to ben and zzzz right, am off to bed now as dh pointing how much I'm addicted to the iPhone (he has a point)

Children and young people with SN/Disabilities (whatever age they are, they are sill our children)
Parents/Adults with disabilities
Products/Services for SNs/Disabilities

Yes good post Maria!

Maria

Lougle, the ole ASD is a bit of a pain. It's useful for those that can use it I think, but it's only psychological. It actually means very little in defining terms and most of us use the Dx/definition as an approximate rather than an absolute I think, at least once you have lived with it a while and learned that the picture can be quite a bit less straightforward than it first appears.

I know, Star, and it's deeply unreasonable of me. I just hate it that the profs seem quite happy to accept that DD1 has a brain with subtle but extensive abnormalities without actually knowing what it means.

I feel trapped in a world where she's so able in SS and therefore I get lulled into a sense of 'I'm exaggerating her SN and she's not that bad', then I get crushing whiplash in the outside world when I come across NT 6 year olds who are light years away from DD1 in their abilities, hobbies, etc.

It even starts to hurt that my reflexive "this is DD1, she goes to special school in x town..." (i.e. she has SN) isn't really necessary anymore. People have already sussed it.

Actually I just looked at the SN section in Education and its active and good. So maybe we should also have a separate Education section, possibly combined with legal/financial BUT I do think SN should all be in one place, maybe with a signpost in the Education section? I wonder though if being placed in SN it would put some people off?

I don't think you're being unreasonable Lougle. It's an ambiguous situation/system and it is embedded in a culture and semantics and the confusion means different interpretations for good and bad.

Davros - it might put some people off yes. another problem alongside that is that a lot of posters don't always know the SN section exists - because it is an active 'opt in', then posts don't appear in active convos, and I have seen quite a few posts since that opt in change (in behaviour/development, in parenting, in education) where the posters gets gently directed towards SN, only for the OP to say "i didn't even know there was one - where do I find that?'

a tricky one...

I never opted into SN, it was just there. This was the beginning of last year.

I had to EJ and I started posting on MNSN in around Oct/Nov 2010 - maybe a few months later.