Spa school head has her say

[monica2]

Missed this programme whilst on holiday but thought this may be of interest.

I saw this the other day when I went on the site, and read the interview with Jude Ragan - I sat there and cried (feeling very low at the time). My ds came along and comforted me and made me feel better. It's a very good interview, definitely worth a read.

The programme was excellent Monica - sorry you missed it.

Interesting- so they do have less able children there.

Not sure why people were upset by Roxanne hitting herself on the head, ds1 does exactly the same thing daily- it was the most recognisable autistic moment for me. If you're going to how it you may as well show the reality.

Ah bless your ds chocs, my parents saw it and said there was a girl who reminded her of dd, not sure which one though, really wished I'd seen it. I agree Jimjams about showing the reality, if more people were aware it would certainly avoid a lot of those shocked faces when out in public.

I met Jude Ragan at a work event and thought that she was fantastic. She has so much compassion - I have a nephew with autism and said I was sad that although he talks about getting married a lot it seems unlikely it will ever happen for him, and she said that sometimes there are unexpected outcomes and that some people do fall in love with people with Autism, and it just made me reevaluate the way that I think about him. A thought provoking person.

The girl who was our au-pair when DD was born worked at Spa for a short while (agency) during this filming. She LOVED it there but she did find the emphasis on hammering the "its because you're autistic" a bit questionable and she couldn't understand why they excluded the boy whose mother had died. I didn't see the TV prog.

Monica, I've got it on tape, I think. A friend taped it for me

The prog really helped us as we FINALLY accepted that Sam's violence was due to his dx, not us!
Can you imagine how significant that was for me as his Mother? He is SO much like the poor little boy who lost his mother. Sam isn't quite at the same level, but then again I am still here. Sam has to deal with the fact though that his beloved grandad chooses not to have any contact and that has been hard. (FYI< Grandad (paternal)left wife after 35 years at christmas and ran away with a younger girly who doesnt want any contact. We get an occasional phone call, ut thats it, no visit since January).