HOW IT GOT STARTED

Our Story

Hi there! I am Tania and am a single mum to three beautiful children - two boys L aged 9 and N aged 5, and T a 7 year old girl. The last 5 years have been a challenge to say the least. My SEND journey started the day my eldest began Reception at an international school whilst living abroad. It was an absolute disaster! It set us on a long road that involved returning to the UK in February 2017, moving to Devon whilst my then husband commuted between London and Devon, and the long wait to get L’s ASD diagnosis.

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Knowing that I could not put L back into a mainstream education system, that had already caused so much trauma, I home educated L and his younger brother and sister while we waited 2 years for his ADOS. Not long after we moved to Devon my husband I separated, but remained amicable and he continued to come back to the family home on weekends to see the children. These years were challenging to say the least, and I will give more detail on these through blog posts. It was at this point that L decided he was no longer a human. In fact, he was actually a Wildebeest - that had come from another planet called Animalia. He had travelled here to find out more about the ‘evil poachers’ (humans) that are not allowed to come into Animalia. His name is Quark-Quark, and he is 51 years old. I have so many stories about my adventures with Quark-Quark but my favourite is when he went to get weighed at the Doctor’s and the nurse asked him to step on the scales that had footprints on them. He turned and shouted at her “How do you expect me to step on these, where are the hooves?!?” The nurse was quite confused - which I think was the point!

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During this time I came across the autism profile of PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance). As many, this was a lightbulb moment for me, as although he fit an awful lot of the ASD characteristics, it never quite seemed quite right. But boy did PDA! It was picked up in his ADOS as well after he refused to do what his assessor said and pretended to be a crocodile. Once we had the diagnosis, we had another six months wait for his EHCP and then his placement in June 2019 at an Independent Special Needs School.

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L was finally getting the education he needed and deserved up until March 2020 - when a little virus started sweeping the globe and life as we knew it suddenly changed. I have been listed as one of those ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ to Covid-19, and have been asked to ‘Shield’ until goodness knows when….a vaccine?!? Fortunately (or maybe not), my ex-husband decided to quarantine with us.

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So here we are... back homeschooling three young children, one with ASD/PDA, unable to leave the house, with no end in sight, plus an ex-husband. What could go wrong?

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Tania

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Please note: In respect for my children’s privacy I have chosen not to use their names or  show their faces in any photographs.