Primary school auties: summer and beyond - thread 5

[openupmyeagereyes]

This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of autistic children in Early Years and KS1. Most of us are parents of children in Reception or Year 1, but all welcome!

Here are the links to the previous threads:

Thread 1: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3080753-DS-with-ASD-starting-school-Sept-2018-I-am-feeling-overwhelmed

Thread 2: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3451020-Reception-auties-2018-19-thread-2

Thread 3: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3628263-Auties-transition-to-Year-1-thread-3

Thread 4
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3748449-Primary-school-Auties-into-2020-thread-4

Hi danni, all Is fine. Thank you for asking.

I have settled into binge watching Alias on my phone so no time to post!

@danni0509 hope the museum thing was good.

Dd has just started using a Tink and Pink pencil topper chew thing which seems to be helping with the unusual facial moves and sleeve chewing - much to my surprise

@dimples76 really sorry to hear about the hair pulling - I don’t have any answers at all, but like @danni0509 we’ve been through phases with a lot of picking. Dd Had cellulitis three years running - it’s always the summer for us and it just started to feel inevitable but the skin stuff seems to have calmed. I hope the hair pulling will calm down soon

I feel so sorry for our little ones - they’ve been through a lot these past months and especially the last week on top of all the usual challenges they have to contend with

We have had a lovely couple of days. Father Christmas coped v well with DS's Christmas request - a door bell! DS also coped well when he discovered that his gift was a game not a door bell. The sun even shone!

Hope that you are all finding some things to occupy your little ones. Open glad to hear that you're doing well.

We went to our first play group funded by short breaks/the local children disability charity yesterday. All the other kids are in specialist settings already and for the first time ever at a playgroup DD didn't stand out like a sore thumb. She fitted in. She wasn't the one who clearly couldn't sit still. The one very visibly flapping and pacing. The one with very obvious zero social skills.

She fitted in and enjoyed every minute of it which is unheard of. If anything has ever given me the kick to really push specialist as being right for her it was playgroup yesterday.

We have never attended before because I just can't manage both kids on my own but they allocated us a support worker so when the kids went opposite directions it wasn't an issue and when DD had a wobble then DS wasn't left to find the most lethal thing he can!

@dimples76 really glad you had a lovely time!

@Mumofsend that sounds absolutely brilliant. My DN is in specialist provision (with LD not ASD) but it has been amazing for her and SIL is so happy with the school.

Really glad the playground was good @Mumofsend! Sounds perfect. Is that a regular thing that you will be able to get a support worker to help, so you can go again? Sounds like DD would really enjoy it.

We're all fine. Tier 4 here, so not seeing anyone over Christmas, but we were only planning some outdoor walks anyway, so hasn't made a difference to food orders etc. And to be honest the new strain scares me so I wouldn't have wanted to risk carrying it to my parents anyway. They sound quite pleased to not have a cast of thousands at their house and it's fair enough TBH. Although we try to share out responsibility for meals they always end up doing all the shopping and I think they feel responsible even though everybody does muck in. Plus if they have everyone they now have 6 under 6 so it's not for the faint hearted! I suspect we will be having smaller Christmases from now on even post-Covid.

My two are getting very excited for the big day, and a bit crazy around bedtime. It's so much better if we can get them outside for 2-3 hours in the day, so we're going to focus on that I think! We've also signed up to Disney + so that should help if the weather is rubbish....

Merry Christmas to all, I hope you and all your dc’s have a wonderful day x

I hope you are ok too with the covid open x

Merry Christmas to you all. We just had a Zoom call with our extended family and DS threw himself into singing the 12 days of be Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day

Ds is still awake he went to sleep about 8.30 for 1 hour and has been awake ever since, keeps asking me if he’s been yet, why can’t he hear his sleigh on the roof, where abouts in the world is he etc etc

God I’m knackered and he doesn’t look to be going to sleep anytime soon!

Oh no danni, how will you get the presents out? I hope he passed out at some point, or does

He’s been opening presents since 3.30 open I gave up. He managed to get down stairs before I had chance to get him the last time and he see all his presents and started shouting quick mummy he’s been and then I heard paper ripping.

I can’t be mad he’s very excited bless him.

He’s basically done an all-nighter though 😬

Right not even 6am all presents opened and cleaned up, ds on his iPad now whilst me and dh have a coffee, I’m going to have to take him up to bed this afternoon as he’s had about 2 hours sleep in 24 hours and I’ve had zero.

So I’m going to take him out on his bike this morning and after his lunch I’m going to see if he’ll have a sleep for a couple of hours or he’s going to be really shitty this afternoon x

Oh wow danni. Hope you both get some rest later in the day!

Happy Christmas everyone!

danni I hope you got some sleep.

Hope everyone is ok and you all enjoyed Christmas.

Is anyone’s dc’s off from school next week onwards with today’s announcement?

Ds school is still going in so he’ll be doing his usual 3 hours a day from Tuesday. (Until my sendiass meeting and we discuss him going back to full time - much to his schools horror, but I haven’t had an email of the date and time of this meeting yet so I don’t even know if anything’s been booked, sendiass never got back to me like she said she would so I’ll find out when that’s planned for when he goes back next week!)

Ds hasn’t done any work as such this half term, other than his reading (he doesn’t like maths at all so I don’t do that and he’s not keen on writing at home anymore so I don’t push it but I do push him to do 15/20 mins a day reading) he’s still struggling along on yellow band but his reading comprehension is really improving, tonight he read the book the moon monsters get lost or something like that, he read that ok, but afterwards I asked him what happened which I always do question him about what happened and he said the spaceship landed in Marlas back garden because it ran out of oil and marlas dad filled it up with oil and then they flew all the way back to the moon.

He’s never really understood what he’s just read and could never explain the book like that to me before.

It looks like our schools are going back. I imagine though that there will be a lot of sending home going on over the next term. Both kids have inset days on the 4th so we're going back on the 5th anyway.

I hope the meeting gets organised and goes well for you danni. I'm impressed with what you are getting done, there has been zero school work here!
Comprehension can be quite difficult, when I was younger and I read aloud I found it really difficult to take in information in as I was concentrating hard on getting the words right. I bet there are some tricks to helping him remember the content of the story better.

Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for all the support.

Happy New Year! Now in tier 4 but school still due to reopen on Tuesday ...

Plenty of time for a u-turn!

We are tier 4 too.

Hi all, can I join? Been reading for a while. My DS, 5, is in reception (summer born so delayed entry). He is great and amazing at numbers and maths but struggles with rigid thinking, social communication, peer interaction, and is very literal and has sensory issues. He has loved Christmas, especially as he loves being at home with no other kids to stress him out, and his favourite present was an a to z of UK roads that he asked for (bedtime reading most nights!) That and books and jigsaw that went down well! He has 1:1 at school and spends a lot of the time in a separate space as he can't cope with the classroom and gets very out of control etc. We have just got his EHCP but we want to fight for a special school place as realistically I don't see him coping long term at mainstream.

Hi @MrsDuBeke of course the more the merrier x

I reckon all schools will close after what I’ve been reading this afternoon the NEU telling their members to not return next week etc, what do you all think?