Isn't She Talking Yet? - Times Online - WBLG

One for teachers

Here is an online article called The Ultimate Guide to Special Needs Teaching: 100+ Resources and Links. It's American, but it looks like there's some useful stuff in there. 

Miscarriage

The laydees over on Mumsnet have been having a huge discussion about miscarriage, from which it emerged that there is a real and urgent need for change in the way the NHS deals with parents unlucky enough to suffer one.

What’s also clear is that some fairly straightforward changes would make a huge difference. Mumsnet has, in consultation with its users (375 000 of them each month), drawn up a list of 10 key recommendations which they feel would make miscarriage less traumatic, and which they've sent off to UK health ministers. Their suggestions include not treating women who have miscarried on ante or post natal wards, something which I personally find completely incredible in its lack of sensitivity (the idea that this happens, I mean, not the suggestion. I can't make sense today - sorry). You can read the whole list of recommendations here.

 

Disability dolls

Here's a piece from today's Times about dolls that reflect children's physical disabilities - the one in the picture is an anotomically correct Down's doll - low-set ears, crease in palm, protruding tongue, etc.

'They are not the only “disability dolls” available on the market,' writes Carol Midgley. 'Far from it. You can buy dolls with prosthetic limbs, walking frames, hearing aids, “blind” dolls complete with guide dogs. When Mattel launched Becky - Barbie's friend in a wheelchair - it sold out within two weeks. In the past few years, the toy industry has been waking up to the fact that it makes good financial sense to cater for overlooked consumer groups.'

I don't see how it would be a bad idea for children to play with dolls that accurately reflect their own physical aspect, though I'm keener on disabled rag dolls than on these super-realistic plastic ones (which I find slightly creepy, just as I find those gross trembling newborn baby dolls you can get incredibly sinister - in both cases, they look like dead or preserved children, not like toys, but maybe it's just me).

On the other hand, I don't know what I think of what it means for children's imaginations to only play with toys that are physically representative of themselves. A Down's (or whatever) doll among a pile of other dolls, yes, a whole pile of Down's dolls, not so much. And I can see how you could argue that no children play with dolls that are entirely like them - we're none of us Barbies, for instance - so why make an exception for disabled kids?

What do you think? And how long before disabled dolls make it onto  the latest  gross-out  US college comedy movie?

[This is a really badly written entry. Sorry. No time to fix.]

Travel broadens the mind, but does it heal the heart?

Extraordinary piece here, from yesterday's Guardian, about a GP called Jane Wilson-Howarth, who'd been working in Nepal and popped back home to have a baby. The baby, David, was born with a harelip cleft lip (thanks to Emma, below) and, it turned out, a whole slew of other problems besides:

"After days of tests and opinions, the consultant paediatrician arrived at David's cot and sat us down. "We've identified several problems," he said. "Your baby has holes in the heart, only one kidney, low sodium, spinal abnormalities, and the fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain are missing. His intellectual development is not going to be normal ... It is important that the baby has open-heart surgery - soon."

Freaked (not unreasonably) by the prospect of "bone-cutters crunching through each rib" of their newborn baby, and freaked by the not inconsiderable rest, his parents decided that "soon" could wait a bit, and took David back to "the sane, baby-loving people of Nepal". Read the article here , and do tell me what you think.

(Picture of Pohkara, Nepal, via Flickr)

Language

Forgot to say below  - read this. It's called 'Why I don't use the word 'retarded''.  

Edited to add: I was looking for a picture to illustrate this and stupidly typed 'retarded' into Google images, fondly imagining there would be some clever thing that supported the notion that the word is Not Good. Dear oh dear - more fool me. You'll just have to do without a graphic. But then I found this, from Ouch!, which is, it turns out, the BBC's site for disabled people. It asked a load of people, disabled and otherwise, which words they found the most offensive. No surprises at the top, but "special", "brave" and "handicapped" all make the top ten. What is a euphemism-hating person supposed to do, though, when so many of the SN people she knows are in fact all three?

Guilt, guilt, guilt-o-rama

I feel so bad for neglecting this blog - sometimes the neglect keeps me awake at night. And sometimes I think I should just stop doing it - but then not having it at all is worse than just not updating it very often, I guess.

Anyway, in haste:

1. Justin Fletcher got an MBE! Which is completely marvellous news.

2. Nell (pictured last month looking rather martial) got into the local church school, despite my intemperate grumblings about faith schools and their admissions criteria, so that is even more marvellous news. My love for Camden council has also reached dizzying new heights, because everyone involved with the whole SN thing has been beyond helpful and beyond kind. I am now literally praying for a Statement - how Nell, who can't speak clearly, is expected to go from having 1 adult per 5 children to 1 adult per 30 otherwise is not clear.

3. She's having surgery on her palate at Great Ormond Street on July 3rd, which is good  -- though we've been told not to get too excited, or even mildly excited, as nothing may happen at all results-wise. I am, never the less, in full Pollyanna mode. I am also, privately, quite freaked out at the idea of her having a general anaesthetic. We have a cardiac appointment tomorrow to make sure it's all going to be ok. Which it will be. Of course. Obviously. But still - you know how it is. Counting down to D-day is never the best fun. And it took me months (years? a lifetime?) to get over the bit where they've administered the anaesthetic and ask you to "say goodbye" to your  tiny child lying there.  I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

4.  Since she last had surgery when she was 12 weeks old and has no (apparent) memory of it, I thought it was about time I (gently) explained the basic gist to her - 'Your heart was a little bit broken but the doctors fixed it,' which she found an amazing thought. (I wish I'd taken less freaky photographs at the time - all of the ones we have are really hardcore and I don't want to show them to her yet. Tip: if your baby has major surgery, take "nearly home" pictures as well as full-on, raw scars and intubation ones).

I also said 'we're going to have an operation to see if the doctors can help you speak a bit better', which she liked the idea of and which made me feel quite tearful, because her attitude to her speech problem has always been that everyone is really thick for not understanding her, and that the problem is theirs, but that she kindly tries to help them out by signing if they're being dim about her speech. I guess she's discovering that it's a bit more complicated. This is, of course, good and necessary. But it makes me feel sad.  Mind you, she's never mentioned it, before or since, so presumably she remains mostly unbothered.

5. I have to deliver a book by the 30th of June, so despite popping up now, I'm popping off again.

6. I hope you and your children are all well and happy.