Monday 2 February 2009

"What it says on the tin..."


Excuse the lengthy delay. Not gotten into this properly yet, that is clear. Mind you, another part of my mind rails against setting up and continuing a blog and website - there are enough nutters and perves out there as it is; am I putting my family's safety and privacy at risk even with the sites I have today? No answer to that yet except to keep alert and ask the same question again in the future.

Anyways.  A few bits of good news that have nonetheless unsettled Nikki and me.

First, we mentioned previously that the assessment of Angharad for a Statement of Special Educational Needs was underway. We'd always assumed that such a Statement would be both necessary and forthcoming. We'd assumed it because Angharad has Down's Syndrome. Thus, in error, we labelled our little girl according to her condition and had expectations that followed naturally from our original error. Well, Janat, our Portage Care Profesional (http://www.portage.org.uk/whatPortage.html) had previously intimated to us that maybe ACE wouldn't need a Statement or might not need the type of Statement that we'd assumed would be necessary. Our first reaction was that "no Statement = ACE loses out" and it took us a few hours to get used to the idea that this was good news. Yet, had we been told, at the same time we were advised that she had DS, that Angharad would be able enough not to need a Statement then we'd have been delighted. She'd have been just like any other 'normal' little girl. Well, Janat was only expressing a subjective opinion when she made that suggestion a few weeks ago.

Then, the Statementing process got underway and ACE was assessed by an Educational Psychologist both at the Playbox nursery (where she has a whale of a time two mornings a week) and at home. He took her IQ. I have no end of problems with IQ testing in principle and in practice; but I can return to those another day. It turns out that ACE was "well within the 'broad normal' range". If 100 marks the population average for IQ then the broad normal range is 80-119. Learning Disabilities are judged to be ratings of <70.

Today, Janat told us that Angharad is now "out of criteria" by which to measure her Portage needs and that after only one more visit - next week's - ACE will have no further need for, nor be in receipt of, the weekly Portage sessions. By any criteria this is good news. Angharad's detailed developmental profile is assessed in the Portage sessions. This assesses her performance in areas such as Self-Help, Motor skills, Language skills, Socialisation, and Cognitive skills. Anyways, since she doesn't have Learning Disabilities Angharad can no longer have the Portage service. Which also coincides with her high performance in each of the headings, above, as assessed by Janat. Again, this is good news but we feel as if it is bad news too. We've come to see Janat as a friend to us both and to Angharad, and her weekly visits have become much more than assessment sessions. So there's going to be a need to 'let go' of her professional expertise and her friendly support. It shouldn't maybe, but this feels scary! 

Still, Angharad manages to kick our backsides each time we run the risk of labelling her and I'm sure that she'll do the same thing this time and continue to go from strength to strength!

To conclude, I shall write-up something about the classes that Angharad attends in 2009. These include Tumble Tots (http://www.tumbletots.com/our-programmes.php), Music with Mummy and Wyn (http://www.musicwithmummyliz.co.uk/classes.php), Disco Tots (http://discotots.com/), Tatty Bumpkins (http://www.tattybumpkinclasses.com/benefits.html), and more. Bottom line? She's having a whale of a time!

1 comment:

  1. good read and easy too...like the pics especially the new Frock! site is better and better...you have links to other sites...d0o any of them have a link to you?...reckon they ought to especiallty for those starting out... its heartwarming and full of hope for the future...good on you mate and Angharad will be so proud of you when she is old enough to really appreciate how much work you have put into this...

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