FISHING 
Sue, one of our
members, who has a little boy with ASD, recently contacted me with a wonderful
offer. Her Dad is the Chairman of
the Wakefield Angling Club and she was very pleased (and most surprised) to see
just how much her son enjoyed his first two fishing sessions with Grandad. Apparently, he really took to it and
fished away quite happily (for four hours on one occasion).
Because of this, Sue
wondered if fishing might also appeal to other ASD children and her father has very kindly offered to
give six of our children the chance to come along and fish. An age range
of 7 – 15 yrs has been
suggested and, as a trial run, we are arranging two Tuesday evening sessions
(6 pm to 8 pm) on August 10th and 24th. These will be held at the Wakefield
Angling Club, Flanshaw Dam, off
The venue is safe and
secure (fenced in and locked) and has the necessary statutory safety equipment.
The bank is flat level (hard standing flags) and the clubhouse has toilets on
site. All fishing coaches have undergone Police checks and Child Protection
Training and the club has Public Liability Insurance. Equipment will be provided
by the club but obviously warm clothing is recommended in cool
weather.
As Sue said, because
it is so peaceful and tranquil around the Dam, fishing might appeal to those
children who don’t enjoy ‘noisy’ activities. Another good point raised was that it might also educate
our children on water safety.
If you think your
child could be interested please contact me a.s.a.p. There are only six places available and
it will have to be on the usual ‘first come first served’ basis. For the moment this is only a trial but
if it is successful and there is enough interest maybe we can extend
this.
On top of this, Wakefield Angling Club has very kindly
offered to donate ten complimentary One Year’s Memberships to the
WSGA. (Each membership will be for the parent/carer and child of
course.) How these will be
allocated will be discussed at the next committee meeting but it would be
sensible to only offer these to
families who are pretty sure their child will take to
fishing.
What can I say to such generosity! On behalf of everyone
concerned, a big ‘thank you’ to Sue and Harry for thinking of
us.
Carole
“South of the District” Leisure Club
Alicia Tulley of the Down’s Syndrome Support Group is trying to set up a leisure club in the South of the District and is asking if any of our children would like to attend leisure activities in the Hemsworth and surrounding areas (eg swimming, gymnastics, ball skills etc.). She is trying to find out just who would be interested
so, if you are, please contact her on the Support Group’s mobile 0795 2314706 or email her direct - Alicia@tulley19.freeserve.co.uk .
Carole
One of our excellent conference speakers, Ros Blackburn
has asked that we provide her contact details. This of course we are pleased to
do;-
“Logically
Illogical” ã
Information and insight into autism
Ros
Blackburn talks both publicly and to individuals about
Living With
Autism
C/o
R.A.F.T.
Ilford
IG1
4SL
01245 351 868
“I’m
quite prepared to travel any distance”
ADHD/ASD -
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS’
WEEKLY FILM PERFORMANCE
CINEWORLD,
Andy from
SCREAM/Eastmoor ADHD & Autism Support Group has given me the following dates
for the July/August CineWorld screenings - 10 am for 10.30 showings. (It
is OK to arrive just before the start if that is easier than being there
at 10 am). Most probably this newsletter will not arrive until after the first
date. All WSGA members are welcome
to go along, however you should first contact Andy direct on
01924 211360 as he needs
to know the numbers
attending.
Wed 28th July “The Cat in the
Hat”
Wed 4th August “Scooby Doo
2”
Wed 18th August – To be
advised
Wed 11th August – To be
advised
Wed 25th August – To be
advised
Price: £1.00 per child - Carers FREE
SCREAM also welcomes
WSGA members to their Computer & Activity Day at St Swithun’s Community
Centre on Monday 2nd August 1.30 pm – 2.30pm+ and to their group
meeting (with activities for the kids) on the 23rd August between 2
pm – 4 pm.
Enjoy the films - Carole
** Project
to search for autism gene **
International researchers aim to pin down the
genetic causes of autism by studying 6,000 DNA
samples.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/3901717.stm
A
PIECE 
OF CAKE
Sometimes we wonder,
“What did I do to deserve this” or “Why did God have to do this to me”. Here is a wonderful
explanation!
A daughter is telling
her mother how everything is going wrong.
She’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best
friend is moving away.
Meanwhile her mother is baking a cake and asks if her daughter would like
a snack. The daughter says
“Absolutely Mum, I love your cake”.
“Here, have some cooking oil” her mother offers. “Yuck” says the
daughter. “How about a couple of
raw eggs?” said the mother. “Gross
Mum!”. “Would you like some flour
then – or maybe soda?” asked the mother.
“Mum, those are all yucky” said the daughter, to which her mother replies
“Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves but when they are put together
in the right way they make a wonderful delicious cake!”
God works the
same. Many times we wonder why He
would let us go through such bad and difficult times but God knows that when He
puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and,
eventually, they will make something wonderful! God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a
sunrise every morning. Whenever you
want to talk, He’ll listen.
He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose your
heart.
(Thanks Fiona, I
think this is great – Carole)
MORE APOLOGIES
This time for the
inexpert appearance of this issue.
Due to Rob, our hard
working editor taking a holiday.
Enjoy it Rob and Carol
– all of our very best wishes – hopefully see you all
soon!
Last month in this newsletter someone enquired if any of us have a view on the present controversy and possible medical disciplinary hearing where someone aborted a baby at 30 weeks because the child had a cleft palate. To begin with, we’re quite sure this is not what our Parliament had in mind when they specified legally required circumstances “seriously handicapped” for such a late termination.
We dread this type of news item as it usually starts a debate in our home. It’s an uncomfortable reminder of a past time, because our child is fully aware that prior to his birth a sample of amniotic fluid was drawn to detect whether or not he had Down’s syndrome.
If Down’s was detected would we have accepted the offer of abortion? This was the subject of many agonising late night discussions. Once relatives totally without invitation entered into this discussion in the most dramatic way by inviting us to their home, having first “borrowed” a young physically and mentally handicapped man to demonstrate the folly / tragedy as they saw it of voluntarily having such a son.
The test for
Apologies for taking so long to get to the point we really want to make, but this is important background to what we really want to say, it’s right from our hearts and we do mean every syllable of it.
Obviously we love our child, naturally we wouldn’t swop him for any other person’s child, no matter how bright, social or high achieving that person might be. Nothing special there, that’s exactly what any parent would say. However our child is handicapped, has a hindrance that pervades the whole of his thinking, his very existence, presently prevents him from working, from functioning as most of the rest of us do, imposes terrible anxieties and injures him in ways beyond our understanding. Few people would exchange their lives for his.
We’ve met a lot of other people’s children, we would never wish to alter our child in any way to correspond with “normality” because, please believe us, he has far more political sense, moral belief, conscience, ethics, regard for peace, activism, action, animal and human welfare, also has a very healthy disregard for money, material objects, more than anyone else we know. We’re immensely, enormously proud of our wonderful child.
Extraordinarily proud because he’s tried very hard to understand just how some of us “ordinary” people work, think and function. We’re asked numerous questions, why does she do this? Why do those people talk quietly in corners? What does this mean? Why did that person act so? So many questions, some of which we are thankfully able to answer.
Of course there’s problems and difficulties, these might always occur. But, believe me, this is the good news;- Every year the problems decrease, not quickly or dramatically – but every year they diminish! This is a message of hope, seemingly some of our children will progress, they will learn strategies to better cope with life, to avoid dangerous situations, to judge and trust people, even establish relationships. At a slower rate than other people, but nevertheless will develop as their years clock up. Once we were quite despondent for the future, but believe us, we’re more optimistic, looking to the future without so much dread. OK, every body is different, including people with autism. They probably vary more than the rest of us, so our experience will inevitably to different to yours.
To eventually answer the opening question, if there was a test for autism, would we take it? To take that test it’s implicit that one will terminate that pregnancy. But we do not have a child with a learning or physical hindrance. Our circumstances are unique, so are yours.
Therefore, it’s best no such test is ever developed. Far better that pregnant women are never tested for autism because it’s not just the foetus that can fail – we could too. When we would all lose out.
