Some advice please....

[rivers]

I would love to meet up with some mums with children with SN but I have no idea how to! Have any of you been able to meet up with other mums in your area and how did you do it? Thanks!

Hi Rivers, welcome to MN! If you go to the section called Mumsnetters meet-ups, it does exactly what it says on the tin. You can generally find it under the area you live and from what I gather there are regular meet ups, with and without the children.
Good luck and happy surfing. xx

Hi rivers. I've met a few mum's in my area through going to a physio/music therapy group for our kids. I know there are lots of parent support groups in some areas though I couldn't find one near me (SE London). Have you tried searching on the internet? or how about contacting the local branch of a relevant charity - sorry, I can't remember what SN your child has.

Hello rivers Does your dd receive portage? I met friends with sn children at a mums and tots group at the portage playrooms. I have also met mums via various communication programmes that I have attended.
Conatct your LEA and find out if they offer any pre school provision or groups that you could attend.

Good luck

Hiya

The best thing I ever joined was The Toy Library for children with special needs.

It is really good. They have different sessions throughout the week, one day for Autistic Children, another for speech, another for children who need Physio etc

The children go into a big Nursery room and if the staff have enough volunteers the Mums can go out into the coffee lounge for two hours and chat!!!

I have met so many Mums this way. Otherwise I would not have met anybody. who has a special needs child.

I did think there were more special needs toy Libraries through the country.

Maybe you could ask your HV? Maybe she will know of similar places

Rivers

Where do you live?

Definitely ask the HV! I go to a special needs support group but my friend runs it. Have met so many lovely people and all of our children have a wide range of special needs. It has been a god send for me so I can understand how you feel.

Agree that you should try the charities (e.g. NAS branch for autism) and local special needs playgroups etc. I met my first SN mum friends at SN playgroup. Now I know FAR TOO MANY!!! Dh huffs when the phone rings in the evening and bellows "its a bloody autism mum" but I have a general rule now that I don't answer the phone in the evenings and much of the weekend..... Once you know one person you meet more and it snowballs.

Rivers - I've been on 2 MN meet-ups with my dd with SN and the MNers have been fantastic! All the other children in my case were not classed as SN. I think the meet-ups were as beneficial to the other mums as they were to me because they were able to see the ups and downs of dealing with a SN child and I was open to any questions. The events were also good for me because I was able to chat to the other MNers in real life and feel totally at ease.