ok. this is a weird one but - my kids seem to get MORE autistic over the school holidays!

[hecate]

I don't get it.

The random yelling gets steadily worse, the echolalia, the flapping, the in-my-facness, even the sleeping gets worse, everything, by the end of the holidays I am frazzled and I've had enough and am practically camping outside the bloody school! (They go back on Tuesday thank GOD)

So the school gets them back and they can't do anything with them for weeks, then they slowly calm down and get back to themselves, both at school and at home, and are much more 'normal'. - At the moment they are screeching, flapping, chanting, pulling, weirdos (I'm allowed )

I worry what the school must THINK of us when we return these feral kids to them and I also think what am I doing so badly wrong that school can do something I can't. - ie make them calmer and more 'normal'

Do any of you know what I mean?

He did love it though. We went last Friday, and being Friday again (god knows how but he knows the days of the week) he has being trying to persuade me to take him again since returning from school.I've had the brochure shoved at me, things we took along brought to me and lots of pointing and shouting out the door.

Bivi was in the Pyrenees but no water so had to pack it all.

Carrying all water up pyrenees sounds fairly nightmarish!

Ds1 communicates very well - its obvious what he wants!!
Wow thats some tent! Actually I can see that working for ds! Its like a large play house! Thanks.

If you don't have a runner, so you have a child who will stay near the tend for a half hour/hour it would be idyllic. For us it was hard hard work because of this need to walk and walk and walk.

We went to the one near Salcombe. Farmer is lovely there.

Yes it was rather heavy (took me best part of a week to recover must be getting old!)- made Ds carry his own sleeping bag in his little sac - he managed too!

aww bless. I take ds1 out on Dartmoor and make him carry his own rucksack

I wouldn't say my ds becomes more autistic during the holidays (will include weekends in this defintion too), rather he simply has got to be taken outside or to a playscheme where he can be safe and let off steam.

'it was watching him try and stay in or nearby the tent that made me realise how he needs to be able to move. And how he just can't sit if there's an open road in front of him. I then got to wondering why he couldn;t sit still and having had some sessions with Donna Williams really think its because of the way he 'thinks' (not with language). I might email her soon to ask more about it, because in fact his inability to stay still, stay anywhere unless its locked is ironically one of the biggest reasons he can;t go out more. So it becomes a vicious circle.'

Wow - are you writing about my ds? My ds can only relax if he knows that the door to a given room is locked (whether at school or at home) or if he strapped into his Major/car seat. Giving him the opportunity to be free is disastrous and potentially dangerous.

EXACTLY locked doors=all sorts of opportunities, which is why inclusion will never never work. DS1 needs a locked door to learn anything and actually to relax. If a door isn't locked he wants out of it. Bollocks to inclusion. I would not be happy if ds2 and ds3 were being taught behind locked doors (they have enough of that at home "mummy can I go to my bedroom to play with my toys" "no darling ds1 will climb at your window and almost kill himself so unless mummy is free to supervise you can't you know that") They don;t need locked doors, but ds1 does.

I'm doing research into the ways in which severely autistic children interact btw- if you want to take part let me know (it's very positive, doesn't analyse individual children but looks at patterns on videos -there's a massive lack of research into severe autism - I can email you more information).

DS3 definitely got worse during the first half of the holidays. Definitely.

oh on the locked door front. DS1 is the first person that his shiatsu man/practitioner (??) he's ever had to lock his door for. But without that locked door he couldn't relax.

JJ - ok, feel free to email me some information: [email protected]

My ds has been videoed at school before as part some OT traning thing but whenever we've tried to video him, he turns his back or escapes!!

LOL DS1 used to be impossible to video because he would appear up close squinting down the lens and refuse to leave the camera alone.

I'll send you some info either tonight or tomorrow - whenever I next do some work -( I should work tonight but I was up too late last night then ds1 was up in the night and I am absolutely exhausted so I might take the evening off)- and explain it in more detail.