SEND Round-up: The unknown & unrecognised

Sometimes it seems that there is so much we don’t know when it comes to our special educational needs children. As they say, knowledge is power, but often it’s just not possible to know something or it’s simply difficult to recognise it in our kids, or even in ourselves.

What could seem more unknown than #undiagnosed? The end of April was Undiagnosed Children’s Day and there are many posts about it from our SEND bloggers. This year the focuses is on the impact that being undiagnosed has on the child and why this makes them superheroes!  

The World of Gorgeous Grace gives an ode to her three superheroes that’s very informative. Undiagnosed children and their siblings have to cope with more than most on a regular basis.   The Long Chain in particular tells us about Captain Endurance and the Imperturbable Girls.  This post highlights a lot of their lives with a SWAN (a Syndrome Without A Name). Rainbow Dust too shows how each swan child deals with their own daily battles. 

Sometimes a condition is known about – but it’s sometimes not recognised or not yet in common practice to diagnose it. PDA or Pathological Demand Avoidance is becoming more recognised as a distinct profile of autism. The middle of May brought PDA Action Day which was highlighted by Steph’s Two Girls who really champions it’s awareness. The day was shared with this year’s MPS Awareness Day which also had a superhero theme ‘My MPS Hero’.  MPS II or Hunter syndrome is a rare condition affecting only 1 in 100,000 male births.  A Hunter’s Life writes a great piece for the day sharing information through an interview with an MPS sibling.

More common than people might think is the impact of being a SEND parent on mental health.  Mental Health Awareness Week was at the end of May. Although around 1 in 5 people are diagnosed with a mental health issue, it’s thought that the number are undiagnosed. SEND parents are particularly at risk. On The Motherhand talks about ‘Parent Carers: The Hidden Stress Epidemic That No-One Is Talking About‘ which is well worth every word.  

Ultimately as a group though, SEND Bloggers are extremely supportive of each other, offering advice and simply listening (or reading should I say) when others need too.  And this support gets us through many of our unknowns. 

Please feel free to add any posts about the above topics in the comments below for people to read, or add posts for inclusion for next month’s round-up too.