Useful Websites

Jumble Aid - Great Way To Help Chartiy

2009-08-11T03:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.jumbleaid.com

Jumble Aid - Reducing Landfill - Supporting Charities

If you have any unwanted items that are too good to go to landfill, now you can use them to raise funds for your chosen charity. JumbleAID lets individuals and businesses post unwanted stuff online and anyone can pledge a donation for an item. It’s FREE, easy to use, and it’s good for the environment too! And, NOT A PENNY OF THE DONATION GOES TO JumbleAID!

Carers Link

2008-10-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.carers.org

This is the link to the Carers Link website. It is full of advice and lots of posts about different things. I've been on it most of the night leaving comments to people who have asked questions. You can even start your own posts too. You need to register but it's free.

Give it a go they are a fantastic organisation and have helped me a lot in the past few weeks since i joined. I got an application form from them today to apply for driving lessons via another organisation. I also heard that once you've registered with them as a carer and have been with them for 6 months they give you £350 to spend on yourself.

I went to a support group at our local carers link today and was told we're all going on a pampering session sometime in December as a treat for us. Kool or what lol. xXx

Blue Tin Roof

2008-10-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.bluetinroof.co.uk/index.html

This is a play centre that from the reading also does respite too for children and young adults with disabilities. I was told about it a few weeks ago when i went to Carers Link to sign up but i forgot about it!!! I have read through the full website and it sounds amazing and just what we need. I have emailed them requesting a home visit for further details

Family Fund

2008-09-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is a brilliant website. Anybody with disabled children can go to this website and fill in an online form or ring up for them to send you one and they give you money for specific things if you qualify. I sent off for an application form a few months ago, filled it all and lost it lol. I have rung them up and they are sending me another one. I got to know about this organisation via some people who was on the early Bird course with us. On the application form you get there are spaces for you to write down your 3 priority things you would like. We put down for a Haven Holiday and Driving Lessons (for me) we're unsure of the 3rd at the moment in time, we're toying with the idea of a lawn mower as our 3rd choice.

It tells you all about on the website, they have teamed up with Haven for people to go on holiday with not just their kids but up to 8 people as that's how many people their caravans cater for. They allocate you x-amount of money (don't know what) and set up an account for you with Haven and you then have 9 months to spend it on either 1 or however many holidays you want that you can get out of that money, if it comes to more then you pay the extra (only fair) For driving lessons they send you BSM vouchers and if you need white goods etc they send you either vouchers or a card with money on it to spend in certain places.

One person who was on the course with us got a new dishwasher, dryer and trampoline with hers and another one didn't go into too much detail but said that Family Fund helped them to move from (i think it was Portsmouth) over here to Accrington so they could be closer to her husbands dad. I don't know how they managed that one, maybe they paid for the hire of the removals van or something, i don't know as i didn't like to ask lol.

The website is: http://www.familyfund.org.uk

National Autistic Society

2008-09-06T07:44:00.001-07:00

NAS is a really good website that's full of all kinds of information. You can also sign up with them for monthly newsletters and information too. I don't know what the price is as it varies for different people but i paid £6 for a years membership.

The website address is: http://www.nas.org.uk

Special Needs Prams

2008-09-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

We searched for almost 8 months for a pram specifically designed for older children with disabilities and couldn't find anything. The when i finally found one on eBay i came across this website. We have got the exact same pram in the picture on this website and it didn't cost half as much as that one does but we were just lucky. These prams are excellent. They are made by Maclaren so they are a well known brand and will take up to 10stone in weight. Taylor is 4 now and weighs around2 n half stone. he is too big and heavy to go into a normal buggy therefore this pram was our next option. He loves it. The pram is reasonably tall, has swivel wheels and is very easy to push and tip to get up pavements etc. I got Dana to sit in it to see how good it was to push with a heavier weight in and it was just as easy. To be honest i don't know how much she weighs but she is 10 in November!!!

http://www.mypushchair.co.uk/special-needs-pushchairs.php

The Transporters

2008-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

You have seriously got to check this website out and if you haven't already got it, get the DVD. It's an excellent DVD specifically aimed at children/young adults with Autism and i swear by it. Taylor's speech and emotional responses improved about 60% in the short space of a few weeks just by watching this DVD (he obsessed on watching it over and over and over again) We got a copy free via his EYSEN Teacher while he was at Nursery and it is amazing to see those results in such a short space of time. I have recommended it to almost everybody i know, even to people who's children are 'OK' as i think it's really educational and could help other children to learn and understand emotions from an early age. Even when Taylor has grown out of watching this DVD i will still have it on a shelf in my bedroom ready for the grand kids (if we ever get any lol) It is narrated by Stephen Fry and he's just perfect the role. You can watch mini clips and play games on the website. GO AND HAVE A LOOK!!!

The website link is: http://www.thetransporters.com

Early Support

2008-09-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent website where you can send off for loads of information booklets and a folder (all free) to keep all your information about your child and their disability in one place for all to see at them all important and never ending meetings. You just take along your Early Support folder with all your info in and give it them to read through so you don't have to keep repeating yourself the whole time. There are also pages on the website that you can print off, write in and add to your folder or you can click on a link on the website to download the 'Word File' where you can type all your information onto the pages then print them off to make it look a lot tidier (if in my case you're handwriting is unreadable to others lol)

All you do is click the link below, then click Materials and go to Family Pack (read all about it) then click Family File and the rest is up to you. It usually takes about 3 weeks to come. It comes in a big box (depending on which booklets you decide you want) and I'm not sure if it's changed or not but you can also request up to 4 of everything. I got 2 of everything so that i could keep a Family File at mums house in case i forgot mine at any time.

The link is: http://www.earlysupport.org.uk

Coping With Autism

2008-09-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

This Blog really helped me when we first got our diagnosis as not everything you read on the net is what you want to hear. This woman's upbeat attitude to every day situations and dealings with her two Autistic sons is so inspiring. It's what made me start this website.

http://copingwithautism.blogspot.com