Dean Beadle Motivational Speaker: Put Your Thinking Caps On...
	SNAP's Fond farewell to Janet!
	NAS Conference Dates
	BBC Interactive First Aid
	Insurance for Nannies
	Undiagnosed Conditions
	Child Bereavement Trust
	Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM)
	NAS Book Selection

We apologise for the somewhat late arrival of this newsletter..

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this newsletter. A special thanks again goes to Dean Beadle who writes a regular column for us. Dean is an autistic sixth-former who is currently giving motivational speeches across the UK on the subject.

Thanks also to the two parents who contributed to the undiagnosed conditions article.

If you would like to send an article relating to special needs for the next issue, just send an e-mail or call 020 7729 2200 - there's no charge for charities, organisations, parents or nannies.

(For company rates, please call 020 7729 2200).

SNAP Childcare 91-93 Great Eastern St. London EC2A 3HZ Tel: 020 7729 2200 Fax: 020 7729 0022 E-mail: info@snapchildcare.co.uk

Learning. A much misunderstood process. Many are of the opinion that learning exclusively occurs between the ages of five and eighteen. They'd be wrong.

Most of the negative experiences in my education have been as a result of this belief; many of my teachers believed that they had finished their learning in life and were not willing to adopt new strategies. Those that share this attitude have no place in the world of the special needs child. On the other hand, the successes in my education have been as a result of teachers who have embraced new ideas and strategies; those that were willing to learn with the child.

This trial and error approach may have its critics, but in my opinion it is the most inspirational way of working. The understanding that one must develop their skills with the child is one that I wish more educational professionals would adopt. Perhaps if teachers and childcare workers were more willing to learn on the job (learning about each child's needs and developing their strategies to fit each child individually) then perhaps their success would be within much easier grasp.

So, dear readers, I urge you, go forth and learn. Become a world expert in each of the children in your care and before long you'll know exactly what strategies and support they individually need.

Open minds result in open doors and, on the flipside, closed minds result in limited success. So open your minds and take new strategies and ideas onboard and before long you'll see your child flourish before your eyes.

Dean Beadle March 2007
(Photo by Luke Carter)

Each year the National Autistic Society (NAS) hold a series of conferences across the UK (London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Belfast, Isle of Man, Nottingham, Exeter and Newcastle).

The conferences cover a range of subjects including:

Challenging Behaviour in ASD
The Sensory World of People with Autism
3-Day Introduction to TEACCH

For fill conference details: Click here

For further details of the NAS, please click logo below.

At SNAP whenever we interview potential nannies and carers, we always ask some first aid questions to make sure we know that they can deal with incidences which may arise.

In our search for up to date information we came across the BBC Health Website which is excellent. Of course a hands-on First Aid course is always the best, but not everyone has time to do these.

This site has several different sections:

What is First Aid?
An overview of why people should learn First Aid, What should be in a First Aid kit, First Aid Training, Duties of a First Aider.

First Aid Skills Programme
In this section you work through 7 areas (Bleeding and Burns, Bone, Joint & Muscle, Poisoning & Allergic Reactions, Respiratory Problems, Resuscitation and scene of an emergency.)

You work through the sections answering questions to what you would do in specific situations. Your score is then shown as a percentage in a pie chart for each section.

Test Your First Aid Skills
In this section, you are randomly chosen an emergency scenario (such as a child having their first asthma attack, finding a child apparently unconscious).

You are then asked three sets of questions relating to identifying the problem and the actions you would take.

Procedures Index
A comprehensive index of First Aid Techniques and Procedures in the same categories as First Aid Programme.

www.bbc.co.uk/health/first_aid

Morton Michel provide insurance for people working in the childcare industry, including one policy specifically for nannies working in the home.

The policy is for qualified or experienced nannies who look after a child or children. The cover applies both within and outside the home (e.g. when taking children on trips, outings etc.) as long as these trips are in the UK.

As a policy holder, nannies can also obtain practical help and advice using the heir dedicated helplines.

Click below for full details:





www.mortonmichel.com

As every parent knows, finding out your child has a certain condition or disorder is hard enough. Some parents however have a child with special needs, but no diagnosis has been or can be made, and this can be even harder.

Parents we have come across through SNAP can feel very isolated and anxious they are not doing the right things to help their child's development. There is uncertainty about what the future will bring and many come across practical difficulties, such as being unable to find a suitable school or access resources.

One such parent 'JB' recalls trying to identify a suitable school for her daughter aged 10.
"My daughter does not have a diagnosis. The best anyone can say is that she has a general delay. This may be so, but in some areas she is in-line with her peers or just very slightly behind, but in other areas she is several years behind.

I was told about several special schools, but she would have been way ahead of any of the other children - she isn't going to either make any friends and certainly they weren't going to help her development . The schools were for children with behavioural problems, which my daughter would no doubt have picked up".

'JB' decided the only option was a mainstream school with support - where of course her daughter is behind all her peers, both intellectually and socially. "The special needs schools have facilities such as speech therapists and physio's, but we have to pay to see these people privately".

Every family takes their own time to come to terms with having a child with special needs. For those without a diagnosis, this can be even more difficult to achieve.

"IT" recalls the early years with her son:

"If no-one can tell you how your child is going to progress you seem to be constantly disappointed. Every parent wishes for the best for their children, which is what we did, unrealistically maybe. We thought with enough effort, therapies and special foods, everything would be all right. Eventually we came to the realisation that there would be little that my son would be able to do, but back then every unmet stage was very hard to take. I had no-one who could say "oh yes my son also did that or eventually could do that" - we just had to wait & see.

My son is now 9 and is very much part of our family, we accept and love him for who is he is, but it has been an uphill struggle".

Information sharing through the Internet has allowed more parents to be able to make contact and even set up their own contact groups. One such organisation is Syndromes Without A Name (SWAN).

They provide both information and advice and have an on-line forum where people can communicate with others in similar situations.

Click below to be taken to their site:

Contact a Family is another very helpful organisation. They provide information on very rare syndromes and also publish a very useful factsheet on-line

For the general Contact A Family Website, click below:

The Child Bereavement Charity exists to help the many thousands every year who experience the death of their baby or child and children who are bereaved of someone important in their lives.

By listening to both children and parents, we lead the way in improving the care offered by professionals to grieving families both in the immediate crisis and the many months following a death.

We help grieving families both directly through our information and support service and our Buckinghamshire-based bereavement support groups and indirectly through training and supporting professionals who come into contact with those families.

Training & Supporting Professionals.

The Child Bereavement Trust designs and provides training courses and workshops for healthcare and other professionals whose work brings them into contact with children and families who experience loss and grief.

A range of training is provided at our dedicated training centre, Aston House, West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Additionally, we offer a countrywide service, where you can choose from the programme or request we devise training specifically to cover particular areas of interest.


Our comprehensive training programme can be downloaded from our website www.childbereavement.org.uk or telephone 01494 479749

e-mail: training@childbereavement.org.uk for more information.

In addition, the charity devises resources to support professionals in their work with bereaved children and those that will be of help to the families themselves. Further information is available on our website or e-mail enquiries@childbereavement.org.uk

Examples of our one day workshops
Children, Young People - Loss, Death and Grief - aims to provide a depth of understanding of the needs of bereaved children and young people and the skills and resources required to provide appropriate care

Creative Ways of Helping Bereaved Children and Families - aims to explore ways of helping children express themselves and communicate when someone important in their life is dying or has died.

Communicating with Families when Children have a Life Limiting Condition and Complex Needs - aims to provide an overview of the families difficulties from the point of diagnosis and to examine ways to reduce overlapping of provision within services to minimise pressures on the family.

The Child Bereavement Trust
Aston House, West Wycombe
High Wycombe, Bucks HP14 3AG


Support Team: 01494 446648

www.childbereavement.org.uk

We received the following e-mail too late for our previous newsletter, but all the details are still very relevant. (Thanks Mandy for bringing it to our attention)

The Every Disabled Child Matters campaign is fighting for rights and justice for every disabled child. Join the campaign at http://www.edcm.org.uk and ask everyone you know to do the same.

The target of 25,000 wanted for July has been reached, but supporters are still needed to keep the momentum of the campaign going.

The e-mail below is self-explanatory. This campaign for disabled children has made a really big impact (e.g.£340 million in new services announced last month)- please sign up if you haven't already to enable it to keep its momentum and push for more for all disabled children and their families.

The Every Disabled Child Matters campaign has set a target of 25,000 supporters by July. With under weeks to go, we are at 21,000 - with 4,000 to go.

Help us meet and beat our target. Please sign up at http://www.edcm.org.uk if you have not yet done so, and then send this message on to your whole e-mail address book, to your company, your school or to any other e-mail lists that you are on. Ask everyone you know to sign up - and then pass this message on to their own address books.

Please be creative in who you send this too! We want everyone to sign up - whether they are directly involved with disabled children or not, everyone can and should be a supporter of EDCM.

The rest of this e-mail explains why this matters.

Campaigns need supporters. Numbers matter - 1.8 million people signed a petition to the Prime Minister to oppose road pricing

Since our launch last September, 20,000 people have signed our petition to get rights and justice for every disabled child. It's a great start, but it's not enough.

Your support counts. Without our supporters, we would not have been able to persuade the government to invest £340 million more in disabled children's services, or make disabled children a priority with a new national target.

With every new supporter we add to the campaign, our chance of making real change happen increases.

It takes a second to help make every disabled child matter. Sign up to show your support for the campaign at http://www.edcm.org.uk

Thanks as always for your support. If you have any questions or require any more information about the campaign, please do get in touch.

Best wishes,

Steve

More from EDCM:

Aiming High for Disabled Children:
http://www.edcm.org.uk/aiminghigh

Five more things for families from the
Comprehensive Spending Review

E-mail your MP to ask for their support:
Get Involved

Steve Broach
Campaign Manager - Every Disabled Child Matters
Council for Disabled Children
National Children's Bureau
8 Wakley Street London
EC1V 7QE

T: 020 7843 6082
M: 07879 638 102
F: 020 7843 6313

steve@edcm.org.uk

We are pleased to let you know about recent titles added to The National Autistic Society's tried, tested and trusted books list:

My family is different - Carolyn Brock, Illustrations by Steve Lockett and Jess Abbo

A workbook for children with a brother or sister who has autism or Asperger's syndrome. It's not easy having a brother or sister who has autism or Asperger's syndrome. This cheerful book, full of puzzles, pictures to draw and colour, games and other activities, helps work through some of the issues and celebrates difference. The illustrations are part coloured only to offer colouring-in opportunities. For four to nine year-olds.
Published by The National Autistic Society, 2007, 40pp, A4, pbk, illustrated, photocopiable
(Code NAS 690) ISBN 978 1 90572 230 3 £8.99 plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

My friend Sam: introducing a child with autism to a nursery school - Liz Hannah, Illustrations by Steve Lockett
This accessible and affectionate book uses simple wording and delightful colour pictures to describe some of the difficulties that young children with autism may have, and also some of the things they are very good at. The large print and drawings mean that the book can be used with a whole group in circle time. Liz is the author of two other NAS books: It can get better and Teaching young children with ASDs to learn, both illustrated by Steve Lockett.
Published by The National Autistic Society, 2007, 32pp, A4, pbk, illustrated in full colour
(Code NAS 692) ISBN 978 1 90572 222 8 £7.99 plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

Counselling people on the autism spectrum: a practical manual
Katherine Paxton and Irene A. Estay

Many people with an ASD have emotional difficulties and receive counselling. It is therefore essential that counsellors have a good understanding of their needs. This book is an excellent starting point, written by counsellors with many years experience of working with people with an ASD.
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007, 207pp, pbk
(Code NAS 720) ISBN 978 1 84310 552 7 £15.99 plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

From isolation to intimacy: making friends without words - Phoebe Caldwell
Phoebe has worked for many years with people with severe learning difficulties who are non-verbal. She explores how to build and work on relationships based on the ability to listen, pay attention and respond in ways that the other person understands, the basis of Intensive Interaction.
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007, 188pp, pbk
(Code NAS 713) ISBN 978 1 84310 500 8 £12.99 plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

Distributor for NAS Publications:
please send all orders to
Central Books Ltd
99 Wallis Road. London E9 5LN
Tel 0845 458 9911
Fax 0845 458 9912
E-mail nas@centralbooks.com
Or order online: www.autism.org.uk/pubs

ISPEEK at home / ISPEEK at school
Janet Dixon

Each CD offers 1300+ picture symbols to aid communication: from feelings and facial expressions to health and holidays (home) and work and break time (school). Bright and culturally varied. For use on Macs and PCs.
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007, CD Rom
At home (Code NAS 702) ISBN 978 1 84310 510 7 £27.03 (incl. VAT) plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

At school (Code NAS 703) ISBN 978 1 84310 511 4x £27.03 (incl. VAT) plus p&p
Click here to Order On-line

All these books and resources and many more are available from our online shop and from our distributor.

For full list of new publications please Click Here

We have brought down the price of postage and packing to £2.00 per order on UK online and mail order purchases sent with payment. We have done this to encourage our customers to order online or by post with payment because of the high cost involved in invoicing and processing telephone orders.

The postage and packing charge on these orders remains £3.95 per order. No postage and packing charge for orders over £50.

We accept official orders sent by fax or by post on official order forms or headed paper. We offer 10% discount on all NAS publications to NAS members (sorry - discount not available online). If you are not a member yet you might like to visit our Membership Site NAS members can maximise their discounts by ordering by post with payment.

If you have any comments about our publications, please let us know!
With best wishes,
Alex Tyla, Publications Sales & Marketing

The National Autistic Society
393 City Road
London EC1V 1NG

020 7923 5725 (x 634)

www.autism.org.uk

www.info.autism.org.uk