Latest News for Parents & Carers

A former guide dog in Stratford-Upon-Avon will celebrate Mother’s Day with three other generations of her family after becoming a great-grandmother. Connie, 13, produced four litters before retiring from the breeding programme at the charity Guide Dogs in 2017.

“Hearing those words was a huge relief in many ways,” says Graham Spencer, a psychiatric research nurse. Graham was 50 when he was diagnosed with autism but he suspected he was neurodivergent for many years beforehand, so it came as “no great surprise” when he was told.

A severely disabled teenager faces an uncertain future after her mother’s application was rejected by the courts to advocate on her behalf. Ruby was diagnosed with a rare chromosome disorder, Idic 15, at just six months old, and needs round the clock care.

Here is an engaging docufictional experiment, an investigation into autism co-created by a group of young artists on the spectrum called the Neurocultures Collective. The resulting film, The Stimming Pool, is ingenious, funny, intellectually curious – and pregnant with ideas.

“Since we’ve been able to communicate, our bond has become so much stronger”, says mum Tasha of her son TJ. Tasha, from Derby, is now learning to become a Makaton tutor after she mastered the language programme to communicate with TJ, who has Down’s syndrome, is autistic and non-verbal.