A chance to blog

With this week being the time of the Special Olympic Summer Games in Athens, I thought I would comment on the importance of sport in young peoples lives, particularly for those with Learning Disabilities. When my son was first (and wrongly) diagnosed with "Mental Retardation" at the age of three, I was told that he had no eye - hand coordination and would never be able to play sports that involved using that skill. So, we played baseball with him, badminton, tennis, and five pin bowling. He has played bocce, basketball and has gone skiing. He has played football and street hockey. Hmmmm...... but they said he couldn't! Oh and did I mention he can swim and plays pool? Oh, and at the moment he is not playing badminton for a while but has just got three kickboxing belts in a mainstream club! My son has had bowling trophies, (from playing with mainstream teams), football trophies, mainstream again. He achieved Gold standard at tennis lessons and played Badminton for the...

Having taken a look at the Face Cards products I have received from Dunedin Multimedia Ltd, I have to say I am very impressed. For Autistic Children and possibly those with different facial recognition difficulties, they are ideal, as the pictures are of “real” faces as opposed to the “happy face” type often used to demonstrate expressions. . The products have a variety of pictures that are gender and ethnically diverse and can be easily related to. The charts and cards illustrate so many different facial expressions and the cards are easily portable in a plastic holder that can fit in pocket or bag. Even better, the CD Rom once again illustrates expressions but has the added learning incentive of games! The four games allow the user to choose and guess expressions with “Find A Face” and “What Face” and to draw their own expressions with “Draw a Face” and, finally, to have a lot of fun with “Face Goo” which will definitely have everyone chuckling! Also on the CD Rom is a section called...

I am feeling really frustrated today. It is the start of Learning Disabilities Week and I feel just as frustrated today as I did when I first found out that my son had a learning disability. It just doesn't go away. On one hand I am so happy with the progress he has made in 22 years but on the other I could scream when he does things that set him back and neither he or I know why he does them. However, most of his issues stem from too much information in his head that has not been processed properly and that just leads to stagnation. It takes so much digging to find out the root cause we both end up with headaches. In addition, it does not help when some of the confusion has been brought about by government "experts", put in a position to help him progress into work that have no concept of how an Autistic mind works. He has had two meetings with one such person and is no further ahead than before he saw them. And...they get paid for this type of service! Now the pro...

Hi everyone! Had a lovely trip to the hospital to check on the progress of my recent foot operation. Today I got to see a member of the surgical team that I had not met yet. She was not exactly the warm and fuzzy type and a smile was obviously not on the agenda for Wednesday mornings. We went through the rigmarole of removing bandages etc and keeping in mind that this lady had not seen me the week before, she informed me that the progress was "disappointing"! Well, she should have seen it the week before and she may have said the improvement was incredible!! She then told me that I could remove my sexy elastic anti - DVT stocking and that she would re-bandage with a light dressing. She told me that I had better make an appointment for the next week as there was no way I could start my rehabilitation yet. My husband was with me and we both left thinking that I had been spoken to like a naughty child!! Not once did this lady ask me about diet, the actual amount of activity I h...

Well, have decided that I will begin to blog again! It has been ages but at the moment there are a ton of topics I would like to get into so it seems like the best way to do it! At the moment I am laid up with a sore foot since my operation so have some time to get back into writing before going back to work. So from tomorrow, will be back with whatever is on my mind!! As long as everyone is aware, the opinions are my own and just reflect my view of the world! Some people would say that's an odd view, but, hey! See you soon! Andrea