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Original poster

Jacqui Jackson & family programme on BBC2 now (autism)

26 replies

onlyjoking9329 · 21/02/2007 23:28

just started.

OP posts:
therealcontrolfreakydave · 22/02/2007 00:02

she's pretty amazing isn't she?

therealcontrolfreakydave · 22/02/2007 00:03

and her eldest boy is lovely

jenk1 · 22/02/2007 09:53

oh no, is it going to be repeated?

Tiggiwinkle · 22/02/2007 10:02

I dont think this was a new programme-think it was a repeat of the one from a few years ago?

coppertop · 22/02/2007 10:04

Yes it was the "My Family and Autism" one from a few years ago. I watched it with dh last night and we were both sitting there nodding "Yep, that's just what ds1/ds2 does".

AitchTwoOh · 22/02/2007 10:14

she is a remarkable woman, isn't she? i watched it when it was first on and pmsl when Luke's sisters were trying to explain to him about NOT saying a girl's bum looked big etc. mind you, my dh takes the same stance...

now, i ask this in the spirit of blissful ignorance, but did anyone think that the boys' autism got worse the younger they got? does that mean anything or is it a function of age? is it that the older children would communicate more by virtue of age and therefore be more reasonable, or are the autistic behaviours of the younger two likely to remain static? it's just something i couldn't make clear in my head when i was watchign it, i remember.

Davros · 22/02/2007 10:19

Personally I think JJ is very strange.

coppertop · 22/02/2007 10:28

I think so much depends upon the child tbh. As a toddler ds1 was definitely further along the spectrum than he is now. He didn't communicate at all and spent a lot of time with his hands over his ears sitting in a cupboard under our sink (voluntarily I should add ). At 6 he is in a mainstream school without 1:1 help (though this can still change of course) and you'd have to look very closely to spot his autism.

Ben (the youngest ds) also has CP and Joe has ADHD so there's also more factors involved there.

DinosChapman · 22/02/2007 10:28

I saw this when it was on before. I think Jimjams knows Jacqui, doesn't she?

Jimjams2 · 22/02/2007 10:31

not as well as OJ!

Original poster
onlyjoking9329 · 22/02/2007 11:05

ben is the most affected by his autism. but he is the youngest.

OP posts:
Jimjams2 · 22/02/2007 11:19

I think that will vary according to the individual aitch. Ds1 appeared very mild at 2, he's now severe. he hasn't regressed- he just hasn't made any progress.

Original poster
onlyjoking9329 · 22/02/2007 11:54

it's amazing how different kids with ASD are, my girls were more able at 3/4 than DS was at that age, it soon swapped around, i think in lots of ways DD's have come to a standstill, whereas DS has continued to move on.

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 22/02/2007 12:43

aah, right. i suppose i was just wondering if the help that they'd received had improved their day-to-day conditions, iykwim? My cousin definitely improved as he got older, i think.

i actually thought that the mother was notably not weird, tbh, other than being ultra-determined.

AitchTwoOh · 22/02/2007 12:45

i think i'd missed that ben had CP, somewhere along the way.

nikkie · 22/02/2007 19:00

The peom at the end made me cry , One of the girls had wrote a poem about the family.

sphil · 22/02/2007 21:14

It's so right about the differences between children on the spectrum. Dh and I watched the programme last night - I know it's old but I'd never seen it before - and I was expecting to be nodding and saying (like Coppertop) 'Oh yes DS2 does that'. But there were so few points of comparision - we ended up saying to each other that it's almost as if DS2 has a different disorder, he's so unlike any of the Jackson children. I was quite disappointed, in a strange sort of way! Not in the programme - I thought it was excellent - but in that it didn't give me that comforting shared experience feeling.

Mind you, there were a number of things about Luke that reminded me of DS1

What I want to know is, how can JJ have had SEVEN children and look so thoroughly unraddled? Do I need to enrol in a Tae-Kwondo (sp?) class asap?

Jimjams2 · 22/02/2007 21:39

sphil- ah I know what you mean there JJ's kids are all completely different from ds1.

I think that's what completely blew me away about Lucy Blackman's book "Lucy's Story". For the first time I read about someone who was almost exactly like ds1. Other books had had some moments of recognition, or really none at all- but on just about every page of Lucy's book there was something I recognised and shared.

Blossomhill · 22/02/2007 21:57

I saw a follow up to this and was amazed at the progress Ben had made. He was being intergrated into a ms school and was seen running around and actively playing with his ms peers. It was so lovely to see how much he had come on

nikkie · 22/02/2007 22:01

I couldn't get over her doing all those courses and I can't keep up with one.Though she doesn't MN

sphil · 22/02/2007 22:04

JJ - must get that book!
Bh - would love to see the follow up. Does anyone know what sort of interventions Ben had(apart from gf/cf)? In last night's prog Jacqui J briefly mentioned 'teaching Ben in the afternoons' and I wanted to know what she was doing, but it was never shown.

Original poster
onlyjoking9329 · 22/02/2007 22:10

Ben used to do a split placement so was taught at home in the afternoons.

OP posts:
sphil · 22/02/2007 22:45

I was wondering if she'd done ABA with him.

Jimjams2 · 22/02/2007 22:48

oh no, definitely not!

macwoozy · 22/02/2007 22:58

My ds's progress, or could well be my optimism, has always been up and down, not huge dips, but enough for me to feel hopeful about his future one minute, and then feel really pessimistic and sad about his future the next. Just lately he's stimming alot, so his autism appears more obvious, could be stress and his stimming helps bring himself into his own privte world, IYKWIM. At 3 he was described with complex needs with not much hope functioning in any classroom, now although has 1-1 he is in mainstream and is coping relatively well, but come Juniors he might not be able to cope with mainstream at all.

I remember watching Jacqui Jackson and Luke and the second youngest, (is it Jo?) on Trisha, was impressed how well the children coped with sitting there in front of an audience. My ds would have totally flipped.