Speedwell

The school grounds are fifty acres of wildlife heaven. This sprig, picked from a carpet of Germander Speedwell and smuggled home wilting in my pocket is thriving in a glass of water on the kitchen window ledge. A pinch of Demerara sugar helped.

Autism and Mental Health.

15th Jan. How I needed this weekend off.  It’s not the changing of pads, dealing with outbursts or clearing up messes.  It’s looking into the sad grey eyes of a mute autistic boy with mental health problems, knowing there is nothing you can do except give him kindness;  and wait and hope while the psychiatrists experiment with pills in the hope of hitting the right one..

PM and disabilities

The school  where I work is for severely autistic kids with challenging behaviour and complex needs.  X arrived a year or so ago aged 17, still in nappies (diapers), six foot tall and with no means of communication other than crying, scratching and biting.  He'd spent his life bumping around schools and homes that could not meet his needs, but were also not quite as expensive.

At first a lot of people wouldn't work with him, because he was stressful to be with and the bites and scratches often hit their target.  He eventually moved into the boarding house and to everyone's surprise began to settle into the routine, started to understand a little of what was expected of him. He still scratched and bit and cried, but gradually with the routine, the expertise, the consistency and a team of carers and teachers who understand autism, things started to change.

A request would come as tug on the arm instead of a slash.  He began to use very basic symbols to request food.  He started to smile with a huge infectious grin. He started to look at people instead of through them.  Yesterday after a shower he cried and jumped up  and down to get his way, but he didn't try to hurt anyone, and after a few minutes gave up trying to go to bed at 2pm and happily held hands down the stairs.  He understands simple words and can make simple choices. For a lad who has been blessed with so little he has made huge strides, and people have started to enjoy working with him.

There are so many children who have no hope of any sort of life without schools like this.

In the summer 10 students reached 19 years and moved on to other places, but only one new boy turned up to replace them.  The Coalition cuts were already starting to bite.

One to one care in a school with the requisite teams of carers, teachers, speech therapists, psychologists and so on is incredibly expensive and with nine places unfilled,  funding for the school (from local authorities) is getting dangerously low. Councils are trying to find cheaper alternatives, like all the well meaning places that failed X in his life.

Managers at the school are already talking not about how the school will progress, but about how it can survive.

My son's place, a village for severely autistic adults, is having exactly the same problem.

The conversation in  the local hairdressers today (not started by me) was about how astonishing it is that David Cameron, who has had his own experience of caring for a profoundly disabled son, could have so little concern about the disproportionate damage his cuts are already starting to inflict on the lives of disabled people and their families.

Tyre Tracks, Norwich.

DISNEY

Back in September I photographed the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Rich Ross.  What a grin!  He could have jumped out of a Disney cartoon himself.

iPhone

I've cancelled the alarm clock, timed an egg, looked at the weather forecast, played a game, checked my e-mails, tweeted, read the Guardian app, played another game, translated something from French, checked the M4 for traffic, checked the train times, perused my online diary, listened to the radio, chosen a recipe, put the ingredients on the notepad, cheated at crosswords with the thesaurus, sent a text, surfed the web, checked some bird song (it was a goldfinch), and used the calculator.
Why am I still standing here looking at this thing?  It's not as if I'm dependent on it or anything!

Icicles of Damocles

Icicles on Youll's Antiques, Hungerford.