A Year of Advocacy, Collaboration and Inclusion

What have we achieved? What have we learned?

The highs, the lows, the collaborations and challenges that made, or nearly broke us. 

Where will the next year take us? 
Who knows. But here are just a few of the moments from 2014 that have shaped our campaigning and advocacy.

The highs and lows of 2014 for Downs Side Up

Anti-bullying Week: Fighting the Statistics with Love

Last week was anti-bullying week 

#antibullyingweek

Mia joins in Lindsy Atkins' @liliesarelike anti-bullying week campaign
with a hand-crafted poster

Have you ever been bullied? 

I have.

Apart from the online trolls that cross my path every once in a while, I remember a more traditional bout of bullying only too well, even though it happened around 40 years ago. 

Shortlisted in Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards

I cannot thank you all enough for nominating Downs Side Up for the Brilliance in Blogging Awards #BiBs, hosted by Britmums, for whom I am proud to be the SEN Editor of a Round-up each month.

The shortlists were announced yesterday* and amid a flurry of excited tweets, I realised that our Down's Syndrome blog was listed in two categories. Well 3 if you count being part of the Special Needs Jungle team as well. (Eeeek!)

* scroll to bottom of page for link to vote now

Would you like more readers for your SEN blog? Join us here.

My poor blog is feeling a little neglected. It's just going to have to get used to it...

because I've been asked to write columns, articles and edit round-ups for some rather large and very well respected organisations (Shhh, don't tell it, you might hurt it's feelings). 

It's such an honour and wonderful opportunity to bring our voices together, learn more about SEN from others, gather support for parents and create real change for our children.

So if you write a blog about your family or child with a disability or SEN, do join in one of the linkys below.

Britmums - We're talking about sensitive subjects, such as writing wills, staring and losing a precious child, as well as reading the wonderful words of adults with a learning disability writing about their own full lives with friends, jobs and campaigns this month in Tricky Taboos and This Is Me.

Mumsnet - asked me to guest edit their This Is My Child round-up this November. It's still open so tell us what makes your child so unique and wonderful here. We've had a lovely response so far.

Photography by Andra Alexander

Special Needs Jungle - Tania has asked me to join her team of esteemed columnists on her one-stop-SEN-shop site. This month we're talking about the Uniqueness of the SEN Parent and how expecting too much of each other might not be the best form of support. We are as individual as our children after all. 

Last but not least, you might also like to read a little article published on the famous What to Expect When You're Expecting website this week. 
It's entitled Expect the Unexpected: 9 Lesson I Learned from Having 2 Beautiful Daughters (one with Down syndrome) and came about when they asked if I would mind hosting a post for them. My mind whirred and I flipped the offer around, suggesting instead to write a piece on Expecting the Unexpected for them. I was delighted when they said yes! (Little old me, a contributor to the world's most famous parenting guide. Sorry blog).

Miscarriage, breach birth, home birth, an unexpected diagnosis, a spell in NICU and months of breastmilk expressing are stirred together with a healthy dose of wit here.

Insensitive comments that bely the Down's syndrome myths: The truth

I was so proud when the authors of my most respected blog, Special Needs Jungle, asked me to contribute a regular column to their site. This is the site I always refer to when I want to understand issues about statementing, education or changes in SEN law. Tania and Debs really know their stuff and are movers and shakers in the political arena of SEN.

For my first column I thought I might focus on what Down’s Syndrome isn’t. 

And what it is. 

Posters and leaflets dispelling common myths and setting out facts about Down’s Syndrome are often created wonderfully by charities to distribute to new families. So rather than reinventing the wheel, I thought I’d highlight a few insensitive comments that had been said to me over the years, discuss the myths going on behind them and set a few truths straight. I always find the first of anything difficult to write and this time I wanted to gain the interest of the audience and encourage them to discuss their own experiences of the topic at hand. 

I guess writing for someone else felt liberating, because I found myself being a little more outspoken than I usually am on my own blog and the response has been overwhelming, with so many from all over the world throwing similar experiences into the ring.

Read Exposing quotes that reinforce Down's syndrome myths: The truth on the 

Special Needs Jungle site here.

Of course, once it was published I thought of many more incidences that I should have included, such as the time I was standing in a queue taking Mia into Pre-school. A mother in her 40s was in front of me, heavily pregnant with her 5th child. I asked how she was feeling and she replied, 

"I've demanded all the tests, I wouldn't have time for one like that." 

as she stared down at baby Natty in a pushchair.

That kind of comment leaves you in stunned silence and gets blocked from your mind over time. My answer of course should have been that if you don't have time for a baby like Natty, then you don't have time for a baby at all.

How do you deal with insensitive comments about your child?