Half term help for families with autistic children
29/02/2008

For families who have children with autism, school holidays can be a difficult time.

These children respond best to fixed routines and any change to that routine can trigger frustration and bad behaviour.

Autistic children suffer from an incurable developmental condition, it means they don’t crave a kiss and a cuddle with mum and dad, they don’t seek affection and often they don’t give it. Their inability to cope with and express their inner feelings can lead to them attacking friends and family and even themselves.

So with school holidays looming it can mean parents get very concerned and stressed about maintaining some semblance of normality.

Daisy Chain is based at Norton on the outskirts of Stockton-on-Tees and the charity works with these families across the Tees valley.

Thanks to regular financial support from GoodFund, the charity arm of the People’s Postcode Lottery, they were able to provide a week long series of fun activities. Parents were able to tell their children in advance where they would be going and what they would be doing and everyone says the week went very well.

Carole Walker, whose son Matthew is severely autistic and has Down’s syndrome, said;

“We’ve been able to take him swimming, to the cinema and to an activity day where he got to watch a film and play with a wide variety of fun games. When you have a child with autism you tend to live your life in a bit of a bubble, not letting anybody else inside. But here, everybody is in the same sort of bubble, and everybody has been through the same sort of experience. We had a life before Daisy Chain when there was nothing to look forward to. Now we have days like this.  It’s hard to stress just how much this means for the families involved. ”

Mandy Winter is a regular visitor to Daisy Chain with her daughter Charlotte who is 13-years-old;

“Charlotte can be quite difficult at times. She has next to no speech and she gets very frustrated sometimes. This can lead to her throwing herself on the floor and refusing to move - and she’s quite a big girl now. She will scratch my arms if I try to move her. But she loves coming to these activity days. Once she’s here, even if she’s having a bad day nobody judges her or me, everybody is in the same boat. I don’t know how I would cope without Daisy Chain.”