Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

That's good news!
When I stop and think how I spend my time I realise much of it consists of me (or DW) acting as taxi as DS isn't remotely ready for public transport.
Just had a parents evening at his school with mixed but generally OK news.

There would be a massive market for small private schools with small numbers of dedicated teachers adept at dealing with e.g dyslexia, ASD and other conditions.

Well when I say massive market I suspect there aren't many players because of narrow profit margins. It takes dedicated visionaries to make these places work as we found out when his last school got sold off.

Too much of our economy seems based on giving us a great selection of trainers, mobile phones and mortgages for the inadequate shoeboxes we call houses. Instead of stuff that, for example, matters, such as education for kids who might have slightly different needs.

When i was young i knew a few people who went to moon hall, the 'dyslexia school' which startedto get big as dyslexia became more 'mainstream'. My guess is you are right there would be a similar market for 'spectrum' kids.

Fwiw, in our experience dealing with extra needs, not just dyslexia (which imo my niece was miss diagnosed with and what she actually suffers from is something else, and after years i have been vindicated in this thought as her school have recently said the same) but emotional and educational was handled well by some of nieces schools. I think its something some of the 'public' and some other independant schools deal with tremendously effectively frankly, to get good results from a group of children that often include the rich with problems, both educational and emotional.

SingleSue

Mine are 14 and 15 plus eldest at 18 when his joints are bad and no end in sight yet...middle son will not be able to independent live and going on public transport alone may always be beyond him but if with a group of people, he would be ok. Youngest is ok street wise to go on public transport but I am not sure he would ever be able to cope with the hustle and bustle of public transport.....but then again, you never know and they could surprise us.

Eldest uses public transport all the time.

We are a never say never family, we try to work on the things that put barriers in the way.

Davesnave

So are some of you saying we should return to the days when all the special needs kids were tidied away into their own schools?

I'm all for specialist teaching, but I like to see it alongside the 'normal' run of the mill stuff, so the kids learn to rub along with their fellows wherever possible. Yes, there can be conflicts and friction, but I see that as educative for all concerned. Children are remarkably good at coping with others' challenging behaviour, when they understand the reasons behind it.

Of course, I recognise it's a spectrum, but many of the special kids I met turned out to be not that demanding, if their needs were met. Quite often, I was able to use the support teachers for more than just looking after those particular kids, bringing others into the frame, so having them there benefited all.

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

There would be a massive market for small private schools with small numbers of dedicated teachers adept at dealing with e.g dyslexia, ASD and other conditions.

I would so love to be school librarian at an establishment like that! It would be so rewarding. We could have a good selection of Barrington Stoke books for the dyslexics, some very short and attention grabbing novels for the ASD kids and walls and walls of non-fiction for the aspies. The school librarian could know what they all like and help them choose books that they like with a bond of trust.

Very much looking forward to the Summer Reading challenge which starts over again in a month or so. With the autistic kids they tell their parent the answer to the questions that I ask and the parent tells me; with the aspies I get told a lot of regnal dates and plane types. I love it because the experience is totally different.

PasturesNew

Irritating man on the monring news, flogging his book How to Eat Out. Giles Coren he's called.

He obviously is only talking about "posh restaurants", places I've never been to. His rules don't work for me. He says you should tip an extra £10..... as my meal would have cost under £10, that doesn't seem right

He said about bread - apparently "all restaurants bring out bread".... I've known it once in an Italian 15 years ago. Anyway he says don't eat the bread, bread is what you feed elephants and it's a way for restaurants to get you filled up so the portions can be smaller.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

...non-fiction for the aspies. ...

I used to look at recipe books (well, the pictures) when I went into my library.

Reading's a bit like "Job done, what's next". You know the letters, you can make words, then you can read all words in sentences in books. Right, that's job done then, you can read.... what's next?

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Mine are 11 and 8. I'm looking forward to when they can go places on their own by foot/bike/bus, which will be sooner than driving.

zag, how old is your son? I know he is ASD - do you think he will eventually be able to manage public transport, or do you think it will always be unsuitable for him?

He's 14 but a very young 14, IYKWIM. Can't picture him getting a bus on his own just yet.

There's no direct bus that goes to his school, so it's a matter of changing buses which I think will take him time to get used to.

lostinrates wrote: »

When i was young i knew a few people who went to moon hall, the 'dyslexia school' which startedto get big as dyslexia became more 'mainstream'. My guess is you are right there would be a similar market for 'spectrum' kids.

Fwiw, in our experience dealing with extra needs, not just dyslexia (which imo my niece was miss diagnosed with and what she actually suffers from is something else, and after years i have been vindicated in this thought as her school have recently said the same) but emotional and educational was handled well by some of nieces schools. I think its something some of the 'public' and some other independant schools deal with tremendously effectively frankly, to get good results from a group of children that often include the rich with problems, both educational and emotional.

We took him to see Moon Hall when his old school was closing down (in fact some of the departing staff took up jobs there). He really liked it, although it was in the middle of nowhere and quite difficult for us to get to, though.

silvercar

Be careful what you wish for. My youngest passed his driving test in November and I've not been allowed to give him a lift since.

With both the boys, I would take them to school and they would make their own way home via public or school buses. So I drove eldest to school from the age of 11 to 17.5 and youngest from 14 to 17.5. ( They went to different secondary schools). Captive audience, mummy-son bonding time. I miss it.

PasturesNew

I think public transport was a major part of a serious breakdown I had beetween 11-13. No ASD back in those days fo course, so my school was two bus rides away. By the time I got to school my head was buzzing and I was disorientated and wanted a quiet corner/to run away.... but it was straight into lessons. And I'd never done my homework either. Having travelled home by two buses, into the house, there was nowhere to do homework and mum was cooking/serving tea, then dad was home, then we were all in the small living room all evening with dad's choice of telly.... never did homework.

So, having arrived frazzled and confused, I was then told off for not having done homework. Not really a great start to every day is it. Then I also wasn't sleeping at nights, which is a lifelong condition for many ASDs.

All added up to the educational equivalent of hitting a brick wall at 200mph. I asked to leave the school, ended up at one round the corner, and that was the end of education really.

zagubov

When I was at primary school I had to get two buses and the underground to reach it on the far side of town.

Impossible to imagine DS doing anything like that.

Actually I'd not trust any kid to do that kind of journey nowadays. The world seemed a safer place back then despite fears of an impending nuclear holocaust, which we pretty much managed to not think about most of the time.:cool: