Anti-Carrot Campaign Manual

[MareeyaDolores]

This one.

Now, I think ds1 does need some therapeutic education. Some well-defined, boundaried, professional-led, targetted and evaluated provision. On top of the ordinary, old-fashioned, teacher-y style education and guidance.

But instead he (and other) dc are offered participation in generic emotional literacy guff. No wonder autistic dc are failing to cope. It's like asking deaf dc to listen to daily whole-class birdsong appreciation tapes. In lieu of giving out radio aids, speech therapy, BSL teaching etc. And then blaming them for not putting the effort in (and if it hasn't been done yet, I'm sure it will be, the dc with hideen disabilities are like canaries in the mine succumbing to the early whiffs of downgraded provision)

Absobloodylutely Mareeya.

It really winds me up how the school have twisted the 1:1 emotional literacy sessions ds is supposed to have (as per his statement) to somehow be met by 20 minutes a week in the standard school SEAL group.

On far too many occasions to list the bloody SEAL group has been the sole source/trigger for some of ds's anxieties, based on what other children have 'shared' in the group or the fact that they are dealing with stuff that he isn't sufficiently developmentally ready to handle.

This year the TA that runs the group cleverly told him that secondary school will be here before he knows it, cue a week of sobbing, emotional meltdown and trauma because they haven't done any of the transition work he was promised (and is in his statement) and his Inclusion teacher has been off sick nearly all year so the ASD Inclusion team have had almost zero contact with him, meaning he has had no transition stuff from them either.

What makes me even more angry is that the TA that runs SEAL, is actually his TA - who has had his fear of transition explained to her in detail and should have bloody well known better. and

Quite frankly a lot of deaf children are failing to cope in school AT ALL regardless of emotional literacy or therapeutic education.

Not sure why you are linking asd and hi?

Slummy, because on this board we have DC with all sorts of disabilities. SallyBear has DC with ASD and with HI.

Mareeya, that looks excellent. I am about to order it, having read the intro (and yelping 'yes, yes, yes!' as I do so).
The creation of yet another industry.

(Your getting that chap to pose with the carrot has gone down in history amongst my colleagues btw.)

I can't possibly give further details without permission but MD is not to be messed with-either on MN or elsewhere!!!

THat's pretty much an apt description!
Forgive me for being vague. Not an irritating attempt to build up an 'in' joke let me assure you. More a case of being mindful of how much MD wishes to share.

Good grief at that book!

and LOL

And I was THERE at the 'Carrot Incident' and I was so proud (if not a little stunned).

I'm not sure that the book will send me into spiralling depression. Even the front cover looks depressing, though representative of a much more productive TAC meeting than I have ever experienced.

'star you still have expectations'

yes I suppose I do, though no idea why. Emotional Literacy was my specialist interest area in my degree. First born with ASD. Ha flippin ha.......

only one left on Amazon now :) - this woman based in Scotland is also is really interesting on the false emphasis on SEAL and self-esteem boosting...

www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/projects.php?p=cGlkPTU2JmlkPTYzMw==

Thanks for that other very interesting link Alias.
It's a subject that consumes me greatly.
Youy raise 'self esteem' (God I loathe that expression) by helping someone to get better at doing something and not by onanistically discussing it. This pursuirt of indefinable goals throws people off the scent. It becomes harder to question the motives of professionals as on the surface it all looks so caring and well meaning and deeply moral.

In fact it is just the opposite.

'The paper concludes by arguing that what teachers can do to enhance young people?s well-being is mainly within the realm of ?good teaching? and that they should not be encouraged to become surrogate psychologists.'

Yes

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/feb/27/schools.children

Looks really good. If I see SEAL on another bloody statement!

Put quality, measurable provision and support in place for kids. Stop talking about it.

SEAL - my arse!

Gosh, great to see the Guardian (of all papers) tackle this guff head on.
She says it so much better then me.

'As with other evangelical bandwagons in education, it is difficult to challenge the deluge of worthy aims and self-righteous assertions about emotional literacy, and to criticise the dubious activities they encourage.'

sorry SallyBear and slummy; I quoted HI because it's the only non-ASD disability where I have any first-hand knowledge of educational provisions

(ie what one mainstream school did for one relative back in the day, so obviously not at all representative, but it worked. I think because they did exactly what the audiologist, parent and ToD advised, modified only by what the child said)

Mind you, an educationally unsuitable provision was briefly recommended because of possible 'later emotional impact' of the HI... said relative is a scarily well-educated, successful and obviously well-balanced adult now