As a mother of an 18 year old vulnerable adult with Moderate Autism and a number of other disabilities, it’s been a long journey, he was diagnosed at 2 years 10 months and from there education has been a long winded battle. From nursery to a specialist language unit, getting bounced back into main stream, finally having to be homeschooled from a traumatic Y4 experience. During the home schooling days I took the Local Authority to Tribunal to get him into an Autism Specific Private School, eventually the placement was granted and boy oh boy what an experience that was, he ended up changing schools after a close to two years after escaping unnoticed once and finding his way home with another student and scaling a 12ft fence and escaping again. He finally settled in a smaller school created by 2 parents who couldnt find a placement for their children with Special Educational Needs. Here he slowly came out of his shell and whilst it certainly wasnt smooth running, he was able to make friends, and become a valued part of the school community, thanks to his curriculum being adjusted to his strengths and the fact the school had a strong focus on music and drama.

Here he fine tuned a number of his musical talents, such as playing the guitar, drums and piano, singing and drama. Eventually, he was able to do 1:1 LAMDA lessons and was also a valued member of a local drama group who really brought him out of his shell that little bit more.

With support and good people anything is possible. He managed to achieve LAMDA Solo Level 3 and at school he left with the equivalent of an english GCSE. Amazing, I couldnt have been prouder.

After going to a renowned and very local Music College his first year and first diploma went by swimmingly with a minimum of issues. Then, a new Special Needs Professional arrived, my goodness, what a negative experience this has been, I know that they often get a bad wrap but my my my, wow and oh boy what an experience, it feels like you are constantly being lied to, you aren’t allowed to speak to your young persons support person and get told that your young person has to attend things he had proviously been exempt from attending for an impressive 6 years due to high levels of anxieties around a number of things that are talked about during these sessions.

Then they decided to talk him into giving an interview and recorded it. Hellooooo?????? Vulnerable Young Adult????? Zero accountability when questioned about this.

There are other issues but ah it feels good to share. I can only hope the next 2 years fly by and that some form of music production job appears. Thanks for reading.