TV prog on tonight

[Carriel]

An old editor friend from my TV days (and a mumsnet fan) has just emailed to say a prog he worked on is starting tonight. It's called Born To Be Different 9:00 pm Channel 4 and runs for the next six weeks. He says and I quote "It follows six disabled children in the first three years of their lives." ( FWIW I thought the term was children with special needs rather than disabled, but feel free to correct me/him). I have no idea what it will be like but thought I'd flag it here in case it had anything interesting to add / it was helpful.

I called them and asked if we could have it by 3rd July and she said most probably. I think they need to make sure they have everything in stock, plus they may have to shorten the depth of the seat to stop it cutting into his legs. I did expect to come away with it yesterday though, was a bit surprised to have to wait.

fio, we started physio at 10 days old! Is that a record? The physio was rubbish though and we switched when dd was a year old. Still, have been very pleased with our CDC (Harrogate) - it always easy to get an appointment with people and everyone is very helpful. I think though that having a definitive diagnosis from birth makes it all much much easier.

I will admit I watched the first 10 minutes, started crying and had to turn it off. Sorry. It was just too emotional a subject for me.

just picked myself up off the floor 2under2. Agree with you about the diagnosis stuff though as my dd hasnt got one, it was only when things started getting alot more obvious and I started to nag more that we got the services- well I say that physio and SALT occasionally-portage a long wait for, OT never materialised. Thank god for the special needs nursery and wish Id pushed for that now as shes thriving there.

I agree 2under2 - knowing beforehand what is expected can make a big difference. We had all sorts of support visitors while she was still in hospital the first time - although it was put on hold ( physio/ot) as we moved out of the area and her heart defect needed fixing first. The community support ie paed. nurse etc was available with no gap ( due to relocation). Then once she was out of hospital after heart repair - we were straight into physio/ot sessions at the children's centre....

Our first contact with the physio was when he was still in Scbu at 3 wks old, good eh? Mind you ...it's all gone downhill from there

It's nice to hear of some good services for a change isn't it? I have them too now, but I don't want to get started on what it used to be like.

watched the programme this afternoon (from tape) - thanks for the tip-off, Carriel! I thought it was brilliant - so touching without being soppy and it seemed to give a very fair portrayal of the first few months with a child with SN. They did a great job of bringing across the very obvious love all the parents had for their babies.
I cried when the parents of the baby with spina bifida looked 'round the ward - really reminded me of touring the paediatric cardiac ward when dd was 9 days old (ok, and I am pregnant and prone to crying when there's anything about poorly babies! LOL). Anyway, really look forward to watching the next parts and seeing how the children are getting on.

I'm afraid to admit that I didn't watch the programme as I tend to avoid anything like this, I don't want to go back to those bad old, sad old days which stil come back sometimes anyway. Its so hard to be given a diagnosis although our biggest problem, I'm sure like many of you, was NOT being given a diagnosis. I do try a bit not to always be in the "autism ghetto" (although I find it an extremely supportive community) and to make contact and mix with people with chldren with other kinds of SEN/disability and even those with NT children! Its a real eye opener how different things are but its great to stick together.