http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7981478.stm
just listening to radio 4 'from our own correspondant' made me realise yet again how families with special needs bypass and ignore political and cultural differences for the sole goal of helping their child in the best way they can.
The link is to a programme by Katya Adler, a journalist,  who went to Doha with the aim of getting to understand the culture etc. She tells how she was frustrated by her failure to get to know any Qatari families, or to step inside one of their homes.
Well, I did.
In fact I was welcomed into two Qatar homes, one of which was a member of the ruling Al Thani family.
As a Portage enthusiast, I see parents in the role as their child's first educator. When I suggested that I should visit children in their own home the Principal of Sunbeams Kindergarten, Joanna, was surprised and at first sceptical. However , she agreed to take me, and what wonderful welcome I received. Listening to Katya Adler, reminded me again what a privelage my work in Qatar had been, and how special needs brings together parents in a way that maybe nothing else can.

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/childcare/providers/childcarepublications/horizons/horizons-issue-15/portage-training-popeye.htm

Just landed on this site, and thought the title of the course was brilliant. Also an endorsement of the Portage training materials and their continuing usefulness within the EYFS framework.

 What a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to make sure Portage services throughout the country are well served. Many of the board are volunteers, and all are Portage enthusiasts, giving their time freely over many years to bring a quality service to families with very young children with special needs. The NPA only moved into these fine offices last year, and already they are a thriving place where the NPA chair stuffs envelopes one minute, and chairs a vital meeting the next! Thanks Chris for  your dedication to families who need Portage. For more see www.portage.org.uk and keep looking, because the website is soon to be revamped.

The photos are from last week's Training and Monitoring committee meeting.

Teaching a small group of year 9s with poor literacy skills and strong reluctance to read, I was delighted when one lad volunteered that he had a book in his bag that his gran had given him. When I asked him if he would be willing to read a page or two, to my delight he said he would. I gave the others in the group the task of composing questions on the text to ask him  when he stopped reading. When he took out the book from his school bag, I discovered that it was a Secret Seven by Enid Blyton. As an enthusiastic reader of most of her books as a child myself, I have never lost my loyalty despite vast public disapproval of both her style and content. However, I was rather tentative as the lad proceeded to stumble his way through the opening couple of pages. I wondered what questions would be forthcoming. My fears were unfounded.  "Miss, what's a satchel?" My answer led to his "oh, a satchel is just like what we call a school bag then." So, ideas, philosophies, and language change. A useful lesson emerged on the changing use of words, and the disappearance of others. Now is that a reflection of political correctness? Next week, it's the Owl and the Pussycat.

Just reading my mum's old Saga magazines and came across an article
comparing indolence with laziness. As many of my pupils with learning
difficulties receive the title of 'lazy' I read on. The author
suggested that whereas laziness is absence of effort, indolence
concentrates the mind. He used a quote by Oscar Wilde to illustrate
his theory - when asked what sort of a day he'd had at work, Oscar
replied "Good thanks. In the morning I added a comma to my new poem.
In the afternoon I removed it."

This is the advice recommended by Dr Michael Fitzpatrick in his book "Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion". For an interesting discussion of his views,

 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/6045/

'He shows us that our children are indeed being helped tremendously, not by unscientific autism treatments that falsely promise cure or recovery, but by educators, scientists, evidence-based therapies, and new understandings of what it means to be human, and different, in the twenty-first century.'

The news today that around a third of all secondary schools in England have SENCOs who are not qualified teachers is interesting. If parents are the child's first teacher, as I believe, then parents have a teaching qualification by default. Almost all the special needs classroom assistants I have met are parents themselves. Being able to establish a relationship based on  trust is the primary qualification required for all effective teachers in a secondary special needs department. Does a teaching qualification take precedence over parenting in this regard?

Here are a few photos from my recent trip to Beirut. I was privelaged to speak at the second Arab conference on autism. My theme for my keynote speech was the need for parents and professionals to work together to identify the individual needs of each child. My talk on the second day centred around my work using Portage in the Gulf  and the UK.