National Autistic Society: Cambridge Branch

A new session for families of children with additional needs:

Sensory Saturdays

Saturdays 2.00pm-3.30pm
Fortnightly from 14th January 2012
at Soham Children's Centre

A free chill and play session for families of children with additional needs.

Places are limited so please book by calling Soham Children's Centre on
01353 727188 or email sohamchildrenscentre@cambridgeshire.gov.uk  

'The principles of unconditional parenting' with Neil Davies (a PPS event) - 30 November

Following the success of a recent Parent Partnership Service (PPS) event for parents/carers in Wisbech, with Educational Psychologist Neil Davies, some parents requested another opportunity to meet Neil to explore further some of the issues he raised. Neil will now lead a session called “The principles of unconditional parenting” and it's open to all parents (regardless of whether you attended the first session).

The event will provide:

NICE guidelines on diagnosis of autism in children published!

On Wednesday September 28th, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published new guidelines on the recognition, referral and diagnosis of autism (all conditions on the autism spectrum, including Asperger syndrome) in children and young people. These guidelines will be used by health and social care commissioners in developing their services, and recommend much more joined-up working between all local services, along with parents and the voluntary sector.

Family Talk is a 6 week practical course for parents/carers of children aged 2- 5 years. It was developed by the Speech and Language Therapy Department at the Bristol Royal Hospital for children.

It follows a flexible programme of activities and discussion, during which adults get together to explore ways of making communication and play with their children fun and rewarding.

Each week families will receive a Chattersack toy bag to take home to borrow. Sessions include:

This summer you can book your child into FREE Activities to get them active during the summer holidays. All sessions are led by qualified, CRB’d instructors. It’s a great opportunity to have fun and try new sports like basketball, tag rugby, dance, boxercise, quick cricket and a variety of other sports!

Open to all children aged 5 - 11years

At: Manor Community College Sports Hall.

Arbury Road, Cambridge, CB4 2JF

Dates: Monday 25th July - Friday 29th July 2011,

The support group meetings for parents of children and adults with an ASD are:   

• September 12   
• October 3
• November 7
• December 5

7.30-9.30pm at the Meadows Community Centre, 1 St Catharine's Road, Cambridge CB4 3XJ (contact number for the Meadows Centre is 01223 508140).

Parent Partnership Service Road Show

Seminars for Parents

Date:         Tuesday 5 July 2011 Venue : March Youth and Community Centre, 34 Station Road, March, PE15 8LE

Cost:         FREE to Parents - including refreshments - Professionals £5.00

 Times:         9:30am - 12:30pm Seminars from 9:45 to 10:45am and 11:15am to 12:15pm

Information about the Great Expectations campaign

Why are we launching the campaign now?

The Government has published proposals to reform the SEND system (the SEND Green Paper).   These reforms, which are out for public consultation until June 30^th, include proposals to:

Young man (19) - mild Aspergers Syndrome - seeks support worker for social activities

Seeking male or female support worker with experience of people with ASD to help pleasant and friendly young man with AS to organise and take part in social activities, eg cinema visits, bowling, karting, evening classes, local amateur dramatics (maybe?) or singing groups.

Ideally you will be aged 18-25 and living in or local to Cambridge all year round, including college/university holidays, and able to commit to one or two afternoons or evenings a week.

'It's All About Us!' DVD was launched on the 31th of January 2011 at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge with a great success. This film (containing 5 short stories) is about people with wide range of disabilities who are self-directing their social care support.