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SN children

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Original poster

Ros blackburn is doing a talk in stevenage

30 replies

misdee · 03/09/2006 09:09

just got this in my email inbox from Lesley (dolphins group member)

Tracks
are pleased to present
Ros Blackburn
Logically Illogical
(Informative and fascinating talk for anyone interested in Autistic Spectrum Disorders)
Thursday 12 October 2006 @ 7.15pm prompt!
at The Nobel School, Mobbsbury Way, Chells, Stevenage, Herts SG2 0HS

Ros Blackburn is a 35 year old woman with autism. She was a withdrawn and isolated baby incorrectly diagnosed as profoundly deaf at the age of 6 months. She was then, aged one year, diagnosed as severely autistic but with average intellectual ability. Now aged 35 Ros feels that although many aspects of her autism have remained severe others, such as her severe language delay, have disappeared altogether. As an adult, she is regarded as High Functioning Autistic.

In her talk Ros describes many areas of her living and working with autism and gives an extremely useful insight into her autistic world, using humour and graphic examples of her own experiences. She talks about her life and some of the practices that have played an invaluable part in her progression; the positive as well as the negative side of living with autism. She describes the fun and also the problems of living with such an uneven profile of strengths and weaknesses and the sort of support she would like to have.

It is Ros?s wish that all those who attend her talks find them helpful and informative but above all entertaining and full of fun.

(Not suitable for young children, may be appropriate for older children with a particular interest in Autism, talk finishes at 9pm). Refreshments are available between 6.45pm ? 7pm ? everyone to be seated before 7.15pm please.
Tracks (Autism), a respite/pre-school for children with autism and communication difficulties,
would like to thank The Nobel School for all their support by holding this event.
( Tracks (Autism) Tel: 01438 314702/07809 051210 Email: [email protected] )

Tickets: £5

Please reserve???????.. tickets @ £5 each
Name & address????????????????????????????????Tel??????????????..
Address/Postcode????????????????????????????????.???????????????
I enclose cheque/cash in the sum of £??????????.
( cheques made payable to Tracks (Autism) )

can you email me and I'll send you the details of who to send payment to if interested. not sure on posting her contact detials up here as its her home address.

djmisdee @ hotmail.com (without the spaces)

OP posts:

Jimjams2 · 03/09/2006 09:37

She is utterly FABULOUS. Severely autistic (still in nappies- she'll tell you that in her talk), is as much of a danger walking down the street as ds1- basically she can't go out without a carer, can't read or write, yet can PRESENT an amazing talk, that is delivered as well as any GOOD NT speaker.

Go and see her- she uses the money she receives for her latest obession. When I saw her (she spoke for freee but there was a collection) she spent the money on trampoline lessons.

Original poster

misdee · 03/09/2006 09:53

i cant JJ, its too much hassle getting someone in to look after dh and the kids.

OP posts:

Chocol8 · 03/09/2006 09:55

I REALLY want to go and see her, she sounds brilliant!

If there's anyone else locally who wants to go, perhaps we could arrange go together?

Christie · 03/09/2006 10:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Jimjams2 · 03/09/2006 10:49

ds1 does that- at the moment its "broken" (or arhee as he pronounces it). He tries to get me to say broken frequently all the time then giggles manically when I do

misdee- I didn't mean you personally- I know it must be really hard to organise enough help- she's won't be trhat relevant for dd2 anyway- if you get a spare couple of hours go to the cinema or a cafe or for a meal!

mrspink27 · 03/09/2006 11:11

I went to one of Ros' talks a few years ago at a teacher/parents meeting. She was UTTERLY fascinating and so informative. One teacher made the mistake of arriving late and was rather too conspicuous. Ros went ballistic and had to be calmed down by one of the LEA peripatetic staff. Her 'thing' was ice skating and the word 'lamburger'! I would wholeheartedley recommend going to this. But DONT be late!!!

bramblebooks · 05/09/2006 21:13

She is utterly brilliant to go to listen to and watch. She really gives such an insight into her world and certainly helped me to understand autistic children better. She is fascinating and entertaining as well as realistic and thought-provoking.

bramblebooks · 05/09/2006 21:14

Her 'thing' was trampolining at the time, too - about a year ago. She talked freely about having to be restrained and having to travel with a minder who helps her to manage her time.

mrspink27 · 05/09/2006 22:33

Just remembered something about the trampolining which she told us about. Apparantly she was banned from a particular class because she wasnt following the instructors instructions! He told her to get off the trampoline, which she did, but then she got straight back on again. So the instructor told her to get off, which she did, but again she got back on again. I think this happened for a few sessions more than once a session with the instructor getting more and more exasperated until she was banned. Of course, as she explained to us, he told her to get off but not for how long!

londonthea · 07/07/2007 23:18

I know Ros Blackburn pretty well - I went to school with her for 7 years. I was stunned to read that she is so severely disabled by her autism as she behaved in a fairly reasonable fashion when I knew her. I'm not doubting her autism, she certainly displayed odd and challenging behaviour, but if her autism was so severe why did we not hear a single mention of it in 7 years and why was she a full boarder at a school that had no facility to care for someone with such a disability? At school she was perfectly continent (I was in the bed next to her for a whole year and would have noticed incontinence) and she was certainly not in nappies then. She also went on to take 3 A levels, pretty good considering I've also read that she is completely illiterate.

I know little about autism and my aim is not to attack Ros. If her talks are helpful to people then I wish her all the best. Is it possible to regress with autism? I'm sure many of you know better than I. I was just surprised to read that she is now severely incapacitated by her autism when it was barely discernable at school. I met briefly with Ros recently and although she mentioned the lectures she gives she again did not mention her autism. She was travelling with a carer who was driving her as Ros had had a trampolining accident which had left her unable to drive. Again there was no mention of being unable to function without care. I'm finding it all very curious and if anyone can shed light on the subject for me I'd be delighted.

lourobert · 08/07/2007 08:04

I saw her in portsmouth a few weeks ago and enjoyed her talk. She spoke of her love of trampoling but did not mention being in nappies during her talk to us.

At the talk there wwas a group of teenagers who had aspergers and (although asked not to by Ros) kept responding to her throughout her talk by saying things or asking questions. ROs managed to brush this off a few times but then it all became too much for her and she broke down with threats of physical violence and she found it very diffilcut to resume the talk due to being so upset. Im pleased to say that she did manager to compose herslef again and finish off her fabulous talk, she apologised at the end (as did the group of teenagers).

She also seemed to be reading the overhead slides that she had although she quite possibly had memorised these...!

londonthea · 13/07/2007 09:53

Since reading the messages posted here I have spoken to other people who knew Ros well. It is generally agreed that her autism is very mild, rather than severe. She is not illiterate or incontinent nor is she socially inept. Several of her former friends have been very angry at the way she is portraying herself through these talks as we feel it can give false hope to parents of severly autistic children. A friend who teaches autistic children as well as children with other learning difficulties was particularly cross as she felt that Ros was misleading people. People with such severe autism would never be able to do what Ros does.

Of course everyone is entitled to make up their own minds about her, but I thought it right to let people know what we all feel.

nikos · 25/02/2011 20:50

Been to see Ros speak recently and must admit something didn't feel entirely right. I did a search on mumsnet for her and found this old thread and was disturbed by the comments at the bottom of the thread. I remember my ears pricking up when she said she went to boarding school and thought it must have been a sn one as there is no way a severe autistic child could survive at boarding school without support. Does anyone know anything else?

jardy · 25/02/2011 21:10

Flabbergasted and fascinated to read londontheas posts.I have seen her twice and have been left reeling at the impact she had.I thought it was incredible.Now I am gobsmacked!Would like to find out more.This is amazing information.

EllenJane1 · 25/02/2011 21:23

Have to say it sort of makes sense. Maybe she really is too good to be true.

jardy · 25/02/2011 21:50

I certainly felt her speech was extremely entertaining and riveting.She didnt seem to show any nerves`before her speech which was infront of hundreds of people.She was word perfect,amazing.As the mum of a boy with complex needs,I was so moved.
Now I feel,a bit,well,foolish.She did talk about her nappies and also had to have a prompt to tell her to finish.She also talked about playing with her toys,but not been able to hold a conversation.It did seem a bit incredible to have such an amazing diversity of skills but perhaps that is the point,she is complex,but perhaps not with sld/profound sld like my son.

nikos · 26/02/2011 08:16

Just bumping to see if anyone else knows anything. Don't know if londonthea is still a mumsnetter. Can't believe that ros would be bothered to create an elaborate false life just to do talks but equally there is no way a severely autistic child could cope at a boarding school.

jardy · 26/02/2011 11:28

whatever she is or isn`t,she was fabulously entertaining,worth every penny

nikos · 26/02/2011 12:26

It is important though, whether she is being truthful or not. Because she is giving false hope about what children with autism can achieve.

catherinea1971 · 26/02/2011 13:14

I went to see her before xmas it was arranged by aiming high I think.
To be honest she was entertaining, I had my doubts about her though, she seemed to contradict herself a bit, for example she said she had no language until she was 13, but later said she went to a boarding school for her high school years...
Someone asked her about Aspergers, she said she didn't really know much about it but then spoke for about 15 mins about how Aspergers should not be under the 'autism' umbrella as it is totally different...
She said that she was in nappies still.
There were some other things that seemed off, will post later, DD's 1st b'day party......

nikos · 26/02/2011 13:38

Yes she gave a lot of contradictory advice in her talk that I heard eg the importance of having lots of routine in your Childs life but then later said you should be shaking them out of their routine to help them live in the real world. I did think she was entertaining and amazingly confident but at the end when I tried to grab onto what I'd learnt I realised she had contradicted herself many times and there was nothing concrete to take away from it. I am really concerned about this and the falsehood that might be touted as acievement.

Mists · 26/02/2011 13:49

I was at a course about sensory processing disorder once and Ros was there sitting at the back and interrupting

I've heard that she has been known to rub people up the wrong way in terms of parenting children with ASD.

But then again she is talking about her own experience and upbringing and probably finds it difficult to take in other perspectives or to see the point of different approaches.

Fascinating that she managed to attend mainstream boarding school.

jardy · 26/02/2011 13:59

There is a wide range of autism,maybe she has a type that...fluctuates or something like that.I am not trying to be funny,just intrigued.If my child was at the more complex end I cannot see there been much comparison.However SOME of what she said is helpful.At one of the talks I went to she nearly broke down in tears,and almost lost it,when describing that she cannot discriminate the impact of throwing a brick through a car window.I felt really devastated for her.I think loads of us did,and I felt so sad for my ds,who is the same (but not autistic).It made me see him in a more understanding light,cos she was so tearful.It made me think,does my ds also feel devastated he cannot comprehend the impact of his actions,especially violence.Therefore she really helped me and I got a lot from it.Point taken nikos.

nikos · 26/02/2011 21:01

Anyone else have any insight to this?

Tomorrowslookingfine · 29/03/2011 22:10

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but after a training course in which Ros Blackburn was continuously referenced i am interested to know whether people who have seen her believe she may, as Londonthea suggests, be exaggerating her experiences?

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