The PDA Way

This is a short impromptu post as I’m tired, angry, emotional …and then some more tired. But I still needed to put something on here, if only to clear my head a bit. So Little C’s EHC (Education, Health and Care ) assessment request was heard at ‘the panel’ today and I’ve just had an email saying they  won’t  be assessing him.  It took such a long time to even get to this point. The amount of evidence we had provided plus the reports that the SEN team had obtained themselves were all in favour of Little C needing a highly specialised and bespoke education. All the professionals who attended at Mondays Early Help meeting were really optimistic that he would be accepted for it and we even talked about what kind of setting or provision might be best for him in the future.  So to say we’re disappointed is an understatement. I’m so utterly exhausted today. More so than usual. At the moment I actually can’t bare the thought of fighting this. It’s so hard having to keep fin...

  Today is PDA Day! An annual event held by the PDA Society to raise awareness and funds, and to increase acceptance and knowledge of PDA. One year I will definitely get involved and do something fun!  A sponsored sky dive maybe (or maybe not!) Suggestions welcome though.  ⬇️ https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/pda-day-2022/ ⬆️ This charity is amazing and I’m so grateful to them as they gave us answers when we desperately needed them. I spent so many hours on this website when I first discovered PDA. It’s pretty much the manual for all things PDA related.  Little C’s favourite teddy is ‘Panda’ and has been since he was a baby. I always think that’s weirdly apt given that the PDA mascot is a panda!  I just wanted to take this opportunity - on PDA Day -    to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has read my blog, forwarded/shared and ‘liked’ my blog, left messages and DM’d me. I appreciate it so much. I’m enjoying putting it all into words and I honestly I did...

In  a previous post I mentioned Little C’s ‘beatboxing’ and said it needed a post of its own to explain it. So here it is. The gist of it is that he walks (well more marches/stomps) round the room making noises with his voice whilst kind of body-popping along with it (confused? …don’t worry I’m going to show you a video) So it isn’t actually beatboxing but he often holds a felt pen as a microphone - and because of the noises he makes which aren’t actually words or anything, we call it beatboxing. He has been doing this for years but around the time he began playing a game called Friday Night Funkin’ it seemed to take on a more of meaningful purpose (i.e. the ‘microphone’).  We’ve established that Little C likes doing this. It makes him happy. He often feels the need to do it. We wonder if it burns off built up energy maybe? He once said he felt angry because he couldn’t do it in school. He sometimes says he needs time to do it before getting ready for bed. Little C can do this...