SEND - PARENTING - BALANCE

My daughter, Emily, aged 14 (nearly 15) with AuDHD transformed from a girl who would people please to the point of social anxiety, would have social panic attacks, compare herself to others, have low self esteem, mask and reach burnout from trying to fit in with others to a girl who is her authentic, confident, unmasked self. How did we do it? Over 12 months with lots of small strategies in which I share in this podcast. Come along for the journey as we uncover masking, mistakes, people pleasing, boundaries, social groups, trusting intuitions, whether we feel clever and how to find ourselves in a mainstream society that values conformity and people pleasing.

In todays podcast we look at mainstream schools, local authorities, early help hub practitioners, social working agencies and NHS staff and the restrictions within theses systems that has the outcome of failing our neuro diverse children. Policy, funding, time and training means that at every level our neuro diverse children go without the support and understanding required. The whole system needs an overhaul because just changing one of these aspects won't cut it, we need an overhaul of staff training, policy, available time and funding. With this understanding of the system (and its discriminatory restrictions) we can now empower ourselves in how we advocate for our children's needs to be met ensuring that we gain something a little more than only stress, burnout, anxiety and trauma from a broken mainstream system.

****Feature length Podcast! Protect yourself from mainstream trauma! This feature length podcast uncovers the three routes to trauma that parents and carers of neurodiverse children can experience multiple times per day. It uncovers a second layer of trauma that we can experience in response to these three routes to trauma. We dive into how we can protect ourselves and our beautiful families from this trauma but how we can also empower ourselves moving forwards. Services mentioned in this podcast can be found at www.send-parenting-balance.com and you can empower yourself today!

In today's podcast we brainstorm different ways forward, working towards, keeping our children safe online. If our children have Autism/ADHD/PDA this can prove extra challenging and so how can we approach the world of online safety?

In today's podcast we discuss whether an EHCP is really an answer to all of our children's support needs when in a mainstream school and how we should manage our own EHCP expectations. Along the way, as always, I will share some personal experiences to highlight areas in which EHCP's are great and areas in which EHCP's may not be so helpful.

Come and have some fun with me, what a fun topic. I can't share with you all the right things to do but I can share all my own epic fails that highlight what our expectations should be when also parenting neuro-spicy children. When should I tell my date about the children's needs? What should my expectations be in blending, moving forward?What should my boundaries be, after all they are MY children? There's so much I cant do, I have little time!

We should be learning to dance in the rain, to live life amongst the chaos of neuro-spicy needs and stress. We shouldn't be waiting for phase after phase to pass us by in the hope things will get better, or somehow life will improve. We could be making memories today. Making small tweaks to our lives to lessen the stress and increase the happiness. Hear my personal story of awaiting 4 plus years for each neuro-spicy stage to improve and get better. Waiting for the EHCP, waiting for the diagnosis, waiting for school interventions to improve attendance. However, realising that I could have released the trauma and stress much earlier if I had leant into a new way of living, rather than forcing us into a mainstream world that was not fit for purpose.

This podcast is dedicated to all the listeners and social media followers that have many questions the past two weeks. When is the right time to pull your child out of school? When is enough, enough?`How is Harry's EHCP journey progressing?What are the rules around reduced timetables and not doing non academic classes at school?How is your relationship with Emily so good?How do you get to a level of acceptance? What to look for in a mainstream setting when your child is SEND? Let's dive in!Any more questions? Reach me at [email protected]

"I'm not really even in the world" Katie Walker, 2025Life as a parent of a child with ASD/ADHD/PDA can be lonely and isolating. It can be rare we get the opportunity to speak or see other adults. Our social circles can be small or even all virtual. The way in which we communicate within these rare opportunities can effect how we feel, it can effect ruminating thoughts, anxiety and depression. We can use these experiences to fill our own cups, even with no babysitter, no time for that spa weekend and little energy left. I will share with you how.

How are you?What do you need? These are frequent questions I found hard to answer because I was too busy caring for my three neuro-spicy children and far too detached from myself. For positive mental health, a start point to achieving happiness and feeling grounded it is important to know who we are, who our authentic selves are. This podcast will take you on a brief journey into finding out how to find your authentic self, even amongst the restrictions of caring responsibilities to a child/children with AUTISM/ADHD/PDA.

Let me challenge you with a controversial discussion on behaviour, discipline, rewards and consequences. I don't discipline my children! I don't reward my children! True Story! I was forced into this approach when my children didn't respond well to discipline and now I wouldn't want it any other way. What happens is something much better! Let me share why that is...

What options do we have when our children are suffering with school attendance difficulties?What happens when the EBSA approach no longer works?What should I do if the school are being supportive but the interventions they are offering do not work? I want to view another school but how do I know this will be better for my child?

Feeling overwhelmed about home education?Not home educating yet but have it as a plan B in your back pocket? This podcast discusses why and how we started home education. I discuss the negative environment of being on a mainstream school roll but not attending school due to anxiety and how this can impact negatively on children, also, how I prioritised my daughters mental health over and above education.

Do you have a child with PDA, AUTISM / PDA? Have you ever felt stuck between a rock and a hard place when choosing from a limited pool of options for support? Usually with none of the options being preferable?Do you find that one intervention for ADHD/AUTISM/PDA may irritate another need linked to ADHD/AUTISM/PDA therefore, not really wanting to choose either option of support or intervention? Yes its complex, so lets get stuck in and unpick this with some likely examples of eating disorders, sleep disorders, school anxiety and toothbrushing!

Does your child have autism, ADHD, anxiety or PDA? Help my child has too much control is something I have whispered from time to time! An attachment phase with a PDA streak that felt isolating and tricky to control as a parent. From whether or not I wore certain clothes, to whether or not I spoke to a friend in the community, to whether or not I left the house where all questionable. If this resonates with you then this podcast is for you!

Children with ADHD/AUTISM/PDA can have difficulties in finding their own self identity in comparison to the world around them and others. In this podcast we start to unbox the reasons why, how different environments matter and how as parents we can help to increase self worth, self belief, self esteem, self confidence and improve body image.

With 18 years of personal and professional experience with ARFID I felt sharing my journey may help others along with theirs. I personally have two children aged 18 years and 7 years with ARFID and am able to talk about ARFID at different stages of a child's life.

In this podcast I talk about a recent TikTok I have seen regarding connections with people and places and how being a parent/carer to a child with mental or physical health needs can hinder the process of connection.

Whichever intervention you put in place for Autism with inevitably irritate the ADHD and vice versa! So how do we ease the clash between the two? Surely it's impossible?

The mental load of any parent is one thing but the mental load of a parent or carer with a child who has AUTISM/ADHD/PDA is a whole new level of ridiculous! How can I stop my mind from being so busy all the time? How can I shhhhh the mind?

There are 8 sensory variables. Children with Autism can also have SPD with means they can have hyper or hypo sensitive sensory reactions. What are these senses? Does my child have SPD? How can I help SPD?

Do you ever feel like life is happening to you? Do you ever feel that life is full of meetings, phone calls and emails and yet you have no voice? Then this podcast is for you!Start to take back control with professionals and within professional meetings. Start to take back control with your Childs care needs and how they will be facilitated. Start to take back control by boundary setting when going to others peoples houses.Start to take back control (in just a few minutes) with your own well being.Start to feel like you have a part to play in life; Rather than life happening to you.

Parents / carers of children with AUTISM/ADHD/PDA will know the feeling of burnout. They will know the feeling of exhaustion and they will know the feeling of continuing to pour from an empty cup. This podcast throws light on the five different types of exhaustion and considers how to creatively fill our cup back up.

What is PDA?What behaviours display when your child has PDA? How do you parent a child with PDA?Can school help?Where do I get more support? How do I get PDA acknowledged? The all in one place podcast for everything PDA.

It is not your fault, although, society may have you thinking or questioning otherwise! Perhaps your child may have autism/ADHD/PDA...Perhaps you may have autism / ADHD/ PDA...Perhaps you have your child so that they don't need to struggle as much as you did when you were a child...Perhaps you will change their story because of your understanding and experience.

Why does my child suffer with emotional based school avoidance? What reasonable adjustments can I request at school to help get them back to school?This is a different take on emotional based school avoidance and discusses topics that may not have been considered. The outlook I share may shed a little more light on the internal struggles children with Autism/ADHD/PDA and Anxiety can suffer with.

Having children with needs and completing the interventions for those needs can sometimes be overwhelming! The stress is literally running through my soul, yet, on goes that mask in front of the children. Happy on the outside, overwhelmed on the inside. How to achieve a little more balance via self acceptance and my own expectations.