Eats plants
It's tough when your kids don't have any friends at school. That has been the case for Daniel until this year. He was put into the wrong year when we first arrived and was the youngest in his class both in age and maturity. The children were all nice to him but they didn't view him… Continue reading Making friends at school and cycling in the rain
We got some great news today about Daniel: it looks like they're going to let him repeat year 5 next year at school. It might seem like a strange thing to be happy about and also a very simple thing to arrange but it really wasn't. They don't let children repeat years in Scotland for two… Continue reading Repeating a year at school
We're all very healthy and haven't had much need for the NHS since we moved here but the school asked us at the end of last year to organise an appointment for Daniel to discuss his autism and Tourette's syndrome. It was something I'd been thinking about doing at some point but hadn't got around to… Continue reading Praise for the NHS
We're still having problems with BT and I'd by lying if I said it wasn't stressful. I feel powerless and have no idea how to resolve the problem. Fortunately we haven't lost internet or phone so far but I received another automated email from BT on the weekend, same as the one from a couple… Continue reading Problems with BT and autism
The kids have been nagging me to take them on the pedal boats at Duthie Park for some time now. We finally did it this afternoon and it was really nice. The tiny bit of walking we did to get there and back was fraught with difficulty for Daniel who is engaged in an ongoing… Continue reading Pedal boats at Duthie Park
Daniel is an unusual child. When he was little he was terrified of small children even, on occasion, to the point of screaming whenever they were around. This made life rather lonely for me at times since most of my friends also had small children. I used to draw story boards of the activities we had planned for… Continue reading Sometimes our kids surprise us
It's a momentous week for me. Both my babies are at school. I no longer have a child at home. Elizabeth started school for the first time on Monday and although I'm very happy about this, and so is she, I have felt a bit teary waving her off everyday since then. School has been… Continue reading A momentous week
Temple Grandin is an American autistic woman who, through her work as a consultant for the meat industry, has made significant improvements to conditions for animals at abattoirs. According to PETA,"Dr. Grandin's improvements to animal-handling systems found in slaughterhouses have decreased the amount of fear and pain that animals experience in their final hours, and… Continue reading The world needs all kinds of minds
Once a week, I spend an hour and a bit helping out in Daniel's class at school. Daniel likes it, I like it and it helps his teacher who works on a ratio of 1 to 25. It's also nice for me to see what they're doing at school so that I can provide the… Continue reading Danielisms
Daniel is better this week. The tics are still there but less pronounced and with longer periods of relaxation between them. I told him late last week that it was absolutely fine for him to have his tics and that he could do them as often as he wanted at home and I think this… Continue reading Unique and eccentric = good
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