World Down Symposium - Dublin

What a wonderful event. People came half way across the world to exhibit posters and tell people of their research experiences. There were experts from every corner of the earth sharing knowledge.
I went with Caroline Newton from Orston and Marie Nicholson from Flintham. They head up the Nottinghamshire Down Support Group and are co workers in speech and language therapy with Symbol UK. Together we put in The Listening training Programme with nine Down children and saw them all improve in speech, listening and communication. We went to disseminate that information to other parents so their children could benefit. There is no cash benefit in doing this for any of us but, it helps the children, so we wanted to get it out there to people and a lot of people showed interest.
Early intervention in all areas, medical, speech and language, motor skills plus and so many people are working to bring this about. They are looking to realise the potential of these children because lifespan has increased to 66 years plus. The message was clear that these children have potential but, it takes more effort for them to realise it.
Most of the people there had connection or family with Down Syndrome so they think in terms of this group but, I deal with all children and I found so much which was applicable to children generally if they are to go on to achieve what they should.
One lecture I was especially keen to get to was that of David Hingsburger, an extra included by request, on Bullying. This is a problem throughout schools and our strategies do not seem to work even if we pretend that they do. We tell children to ignore bullies and quote the old adage 'sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me' but words do hurt and damage the recepient. He advocated honouring children who came with their tales of bullying and giving some little insight into a personal experience of their own, so children did not see it as just an attack on them due to their disability . He then got them to chant and clap a saying 'I am OK , they are mean' as a way of coping with the experience so they were not damaged by it inside themselves. He is working on strategies to help with this. This man describes himself as 'a fat guy in a wheelchair' but he speaks with passion , in down to earth terms, dealing with problems that most shy away from. It is a pity his lecture is not a compulsory constituent of teacher television because no words from me can adequately convey his message.
I met so many wonderful people out there , who are working to benefit children so they can cope in the outside world. One had a kinaesthetic method for children to use with mathematics and another had a solution to handling cash. All good to know about.
The UN are bringing out a policy to outlaw discrimation against the intellectually disabled and apparently the UK has already signed up for this. Ways have to be found so that we are a more inclusive society to improve the quality of life all round. Personally I took the son of one of my colleagues to a pub for chicken nuggetes and chips. They wanted us to go in the lounge but he wanted to be by the TV screen so they let us be in the bar with the screen. They were just ordinary guys out for a pint at their local but they could not have been kinder. They gave him a drink with ice but as soon as they realised he did not want ice it was gone. They came over to chat with him and asked about the football gear he was wearing. All of the men there were attentive to him. There are a lot of good people about.

Glad to have people coming to conference 'Children matter' from as far away as Edinburgh, Southport, Swansea, London, Bournemouth. Leicestershire is sending quite a number including mentor for Early Years. The conference was arranged to enable people from this area to benefit too. Hopefully there will be a surge of interest in the neighbourhood in next few days.

Signed up in support of Gary McKinnon. Why did it take publicity of case for recognition to be gained of his Asperger syndrome. It has been around since 1944. Illustrates the time lag between knowledge gained and actually incorporating it in the system
I deal with all children with or without labels.
I've seen developmental problems escalate in last few years amongs my 11+ candidates. 25% are on developmental programmes to address difficulties which make them too slow to pass. One of my earlier students with problems, that meant before intervention he might only do 50% of test paper, is now top of his year at grammar school. One from an independent, selective prep school, struggling to cope, has just won the academic award as top of his class. These children are just as special as those labelled but in the system they are not even picked up.
I aim for excellence for all. Do wish I was not on my own.

Altruism is something I was brought up with - you take some but you give back a lot more.
I've seen developmental delay increase exponentially over last few years. Parents have come up with ideas- pressure in pregnancy over future, early start to nursery, increase of mobile phone use. One has connected increase in delay with increase of breast cancer in younger women. I have no idea which is right. However developmental programmes can help children whatever cause.
I am funding a conference in September so schools and other services can be aware of ways to bridge the gap. It is to spread information.No one involved is going to make money out of it. This may be hard to understand but reducing difficulties in learning makes for less anti social activity later on and, so builds a better world for everyone to enjoy. Who can have a problem with that?

Just watched DVD of educational changes announced by Ed Balls. Look at the black guy at the end. Whatever he is achieving could be improved upon. Obvious developmental delay. Poor lad cannot hold a pen correctly - note pressure applied , see knuckles. Too close to paper- developmental problems. If we addressed such issues across population we would see improvements in individual performance, less adverse behaviours, more contented children. Such programmes exist and research has been paid for by education bodies. Why do we not use what is known? We can put in individual reading programmes but it reaches only a very few and is expensive. We could get the same improvement for a much larger number by early developmental intervention.

Just back from seeing brother . He and his wife are back from Thailand for a couple of months. He is going on Mongolia Charity rally July 11th with long time friend Meurig Jones. Hope to see them off from London. Good luck to them both.

Good to hear from past EASIE trainees and to know that the programme is helping them help children. Especially glad that children who have had a poor start in life can be helped. All children deserve the best chance to succeed.