It's snowing in the hills

Took Mr 7 to his speech appointment this morning and there was snow as far down as Macedon Rd overpass on the Calder Freeway. Heavy snow on Black Forest Rd and surrounding areas.. we spent 40 minutes and most of his speech appointment time in car whilst one car at a time was allowed to enter the down slope to Woodend. It was lovely and white and peaceful and apart from the wait and calls to his speechie, we had a good time and even got out to have a look about. After 1/2 and a talk with the local police officer on traffic duty, I decided it was not worth waiting god knows how long to get to a late appointment, so turn around and drove back. It was a laugh to watch the guy in a Territory pass me and lose it on a bend a travel sideways to the other side of the road..a word to the unskilled, drive slow in low gear on slopes not fast just because you have 4 WD on you car somewhere LOL

Footy as it used to be..........

Many know I despise footy, I do believe that this sort of spirit truly personifies sport in the true sense. During the WW2, two teams joined to form one and played a grand final, then separated to become part of a larger league. Years later, some one thought to celebrate that melding of men and created the Bell Challenge they also thought to celebrate the teams members and their contribution to the sport in that amalgamation of players. My dad was one of the players( him and half his bloody relos) and is one of the players still about t. He was very proud to have been recognized in this way....Go Da!!!

School Hunker down days

Well, school hols are upon us again and it's wet (yah) and cold( hmm, ok). After school reports interviews last week ( total waste of time really) it was time for a break from school, speech, swimming and all thing time controlled. Monday, we were just going to stay in and do some stuff. Mr 7 and 4 have a new Lego Stars Wars PS2 game I picked up cheep at the JB HiFi sale. Miss 10, well, what can I say...she was one of 25 national winners of a Nancy Drew prize pack which included 4 free tickets to the movie, a t shirt, stickers, and 6 books so she's pretty set for the long haul. SO Monday, Miss 10 was making truffles and a friend dropped by and stayed for 4 hours so there went that day and the truffles. Tuesday, 2IC was home so we went to look at a Holden Captiva as we are looking at a new car, I still like the Misubishi Outlander but 2IC is not convinced about the 2.4 engine yet, the 3.2 is available in the US but no one here seems to have one available for a test drive yet. So Tuesday cruised on by. Yesterday, Miss 10's friend who moved out of town last year arrived for a sleep over and her mum is taking them to the movies today. Miss 10 is utilising two of her freebie tickets today and taking T to the movies and later next week will take her other bestie, K , to the movies.


Which brings us to the two male children in the lounge playing Lego Star Wars after a brief respite for lunch ...do I stop a good thing ( good for me) and risk the wrath of the junior male ego? Or do I do what the books and know all tell me and make them finish the game for fear they will enter society with Lego created saber swords cutting a swath of "ouches" and leaving a trail of Lego parts? I know which I worry about more..................

It was long ago and far away, until today.....

Today I was returning to my car after placing some books on lay by for Santa ( he appreciates the help. Oh ;and by the by, Dymocks don't do layby but will "hold" books for you, BIG HELP)
Anywho, I was returning to my car when some one called my name, my full name......with my maiden name not married name, them they called me by my nickname from school. I looked about and saw a woman waving crazily at me from a car I'd just passed. I vaguely knew the face but the name escaped me for a second...then it dawned on me. It was L, a girl I'd gone to school with and studied drama and dance with. She was ecstatic to see me and I wondered if a) she were on drugs or b) she had my name mixed up with some one else. But no, it was me she remembered, which was strange I recall her as one of those girls who wore make up, smoked, swore and went out weeknights; not in my group, nor me of her clique. We were only ever together during dance or drama and I think she was in an English and Legal class as I recall her and her friend ridiculing people at times. I played sport, she smoked behind the convent; I read a lot and I dunno what she did. Turns out ,she admired me and would've like have been better friends but stuck with the group she was with because I was a "goody". ( IF only they knew, I was just good enough never to get caught!!!LMAO).Turns out, she always thought I was smarter than some of the teachers and she recalled a time I challenged a teacher to prove the existence of God; this was a Catholic school and the teacher was a nun. Turns out she and I attended uni at the some of the same places and she bypassed teaching to after qualifying. Funny how life comes about...
Oh, and how did she recognise me..apparently I "still look like I did when I was 17". Hey, compliments I'll take them as I get them.

What do our kids teach us?

We are supposed to be the teachers of our children, their mentors, their life guides but it bodes well if we can sit back and look at what they can teach us. Like how to laugh at ourselves, children do it so well or laugh at an embarrassing/bad situation. For example, last night at dinner Mr 7 was getting by Dad about something or other( he was in trouble and I can't even recall what for). Mid lambasting Mr 7 states;in a matter of fact tone.. " I farted" and well, no one could have kept a straight face after that. 2IC was hiding behind his hands and I was choking on my drink. What can you do? Laughing in the face of being told off for a misdeed..what an ace.
It made me wonder if I'd have the patience and knowledge I do ( in fact the whole family do) if Mr 7 did not had additional needs. Sure, there are drawbacks and I would love for him not to have to struggle but for what we have gained from it as a family I could not begin to list.


AS for Miss10, well "out of the mouths of babes" they say. She has one of the wickedest senses of humour I have seen in a child her age. Together with her "whatever Major loser" completed with hand signs..it takes a lot to try and be serious. Her little ad lib impersonations of teachers,friends, personalities in her own scenarios. Well, they are imaginative.


Then there's my baby, Mr 4 who's "cutie boy face" could make you forgive him
anything and whose idea of non physical retaliation is to tell his brother or sister that they are not his brother or sister anymore. If only disowning ones family members was so simple, I'd have undertaken this mantra several times over.
What your children teach you takes time and reflection to realise, I think. It's something you need to look for ,like a child who is read to a lot does not realise they are formulating their sight vocabulary for later education. I enjoy learning what they teach me.

Who the F*%# do they think they are?

I truly have to wonder about the ideals of some people pontificating to be so called educators, they must think all and sundry are stupid or that the vast bastions of the religious education system will protect them as it does other dalliances and illegal activities. I cite this as I was relayed a most disturbing story about a special needs child who was funded by the Catholic Education Office who's family either owned school fees or Thanksgiving monies ( read: membership dues)or whatever. Allegedly; the principal WITHDREW the child's aide from the classroom with the comment to the aide that the family does not support the school financially. Now, this is not Mr 7, let me make that abundantly clear, nor is it anyone I know personally...it is one of many episodes of bullying and totalitarianism I have heard tell of this school and its principal. To add further fuel to the fire, the child was told that his aide was removed because he was a naughty boy and would not work for his aide. WTF!!! Now this is bullying not only of the family but of the child also. This person needs a solid lesson in why Catholic schools were originally created...hello....they were set up to educate the poor and those who could not afford to attend school. Now we have a leap of history to make non secular schools unobtainable for the average person? Not only that we have megalomaniacs such as this person who believe they are above the law, above Department of Education guidelines, and a law unto themselves removing "State funded assistance" from a child who qualified for it because the the child family allegedly does not support the school financially. We also have this same principal, allegedly,telling another parent of a special needs child that the school could not possibly have that child in the school for five days a week but suggested a split between that school and the special school. Somewhere an investigation needs to be undertaken, too many times I have heard the local Catholic schools attempts to coerce parents of special needs or additional needs children into not enrolling in the school, too many tales of a "they'd be better off elsewhere " and "we'd not get any funding" which seems to being rumored into the common knowledge that the Catholic schools don't want additional needs kids. This investigation needs to be carried out by and external party not the CEO, it's needs to encompass the employment of aides, their duties and the vast amounts of monies these schools receive for such children, and what they do with it. Accountability and transparency, regardless of it being a non Government school...it's taxpayers money and our kids.

This past month.....

Nowhere, really. just doing the same old, same old.
Have been to coach/umpire at Miss10's Winter Round Robin Sports last week..that was fun and entertaining. Would've been nice if some other schools had bothered to familairise themselves with the rules first. A ball outside the foul line is a "Dead ball" and those on the bases move only one base...not run three home runs whilst the ball is retrieved!!!! The kids had a ball, I had the mixed team and they were great. A bunch of kids who just enjoyed the game for what it was...a game. The girls team won all their games, the mixed lost all theirs( I think, I had to miss the 2nd match as I had to collect Mr 4 from kinder) but they tried really hard and talked in the field. Get them some more speed and distance in their decisions and throwing and they will be a force to reckon with come summer softball. I hope to be able to help with their batting work in the lead up to the Summer Round Robin.
Mr 7 has been to speech therapy still and his speechie is happy with his progress, helps when he has an aide who wants his speech book after each session and copies stuff from it to work with him. That's an hour a week on top of the four or five I do with him. He has actually gone up TWO levels in readers in a month and that was after I found he was seeing the literacy recovery teacher but only for assessment. Apparently, the other Gr 1's are at a higher standard of reading than expected level for Gr 1, so on paper he is behind, but for benchmark levels he is on par...go figure.
Mr 4 is having a ball at kindy and we have had our obligatory interview for school next year. He's a given for acceptance under the sibling rule. He's happy at kinder which make a nice change after the year from hell Mr 7 had. Fund raising at the kinder is going well and we hope to have plenty of money so the kinder can buy some big ticket items the staff want.

I opted out of the herding workshop that is on this weekend, one was I felt a bit frivolous spending money on myself ( I don't do that well) and two was it was a two day thing and I would travel back each evening and have the car all weekend. Would've loved to go but I think Lawson needs some more work offlead...he has selective hearing if he's on a chase, not a bad trait if you are a working dog of experience but not ideal when you are still on your "L"s.

My friend, A who had a stroke like episode last year, now has someone looking into her and her older sisters similar episodes. A had her stroke like incident at 40, her older sister, D, at 41 and recently A and D's younger sister, K had a similar incident at 39. K's was diagnosed as hematologic migraine but with seizure/unconsciousness and now all three of their medical records have been seconded so the specialists can look into why it has affected all three of them in their 40's. Hope some one can shed some light on it for them as it was scary enough when it happened to D but when it happened to A last year but no one cared enough to listen about it happening to D also, it was bad but now they are interested because it has occurred x3.

FIDO....Run in front of a truck maybe

It takes an complete non entity to launch into diatribes not related to a subject, the sign of a truly challenged person. Attempting to foist their issues and insecurities; via so called public awareness and pretend political star jumps; onto others. Prove them wrong on a point of fact, they resort to personal attacks, prove them wrong on a point of law; they pretend the question was never raised, prove them wrong on logic and common sense, they travel off topic...seeing a pattern here. Great debaters need small outlets to practise against those not as proficient in the art of debate and counter argument, because those who have no skills whatsoever in this realm resort to such "tactics" in an effort continue an already lost cause thereby giving seasoned professionals the added comedy of not only factually, intellectually and logically proving a valid point but the added extra of showing the invalidity of the argument and cause. Game,Set and Match FIDO.
Incidental.....

(ba) publishing on the Internet or by an e-mail or other electronic communication to any person a statement or other material—

(i) relating to the victim or any other person;

Crimes Act, 1958, S21a,subsection (ba)

According to some........

THIS IS ME AND I AM STUNNING!!!

I'm not going to say it................

BUT I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!

The system of funding and the Government withdrawal of funding for kids with SLDs was wrong, misconceived and was implemented for all the wrong reasons. The withdrawal of SLD ( severe language disorder) came about at the commencement of the 2005 school year, children who had previously been funded under this criteria were no longer funded, kids who were starting school that year with expected funding, were without. Their parents in a quagmire of bureaucratic BS, the schools at a loss and the teachers expected to become a quasi speech therapists in class time. The current system was conceived by John Munro ( Melb U) who himself touts that

To foster effective learning, we need to
• understand how learners learn
• implement teaching that fosters effective learning.

So it appears that the system a so called, educator of educators, helped put into place and develop, does not do as he claims effective learning should. In fact it has "serious shortcomings" "particularly for children with the language disorder program". I have claimed this from the onset and despite my misgivings with regard to funding in the non State system, I was savvy enough to fight for funding under the guise of alternative criteria. I think it is harder to do so within the Government school system as staff at many school directly and indirectly run interference when you are trying to get funding for your child. I know this first hand from my friends experience in trying to have her childs autism tutor allowed into the school ( who will not fund the child) to observe and see the child in her school environment so to create adaptive therapies and learning modes. So much for Prof. Munro's fostering of effective learning.

I can only hope that other parents take to heart to the fight that has been put before them by Rebekah's brave family and argue for their child's right to have a full education regardless of the adaptive measures, individual learning programs and extra aide time required. They have a voice and have a right to be heard, if not their own then we need to be their voice for them.

I love this icon..what the heck l love all these...

Just plain scary, no wonder some people aren't "cat people"

Oooooopsies, Dougal whaere's yur undies??

Mothers Day

Mothers Day was yesterday and despite its commercialism and consumer orientated spin, I quite enjoy seeing what my kids have made/done. I do it for the kids as if I had my way, I would not celebrate it as it is too hard a reminder; after over 20 years; of the person who is not about to see my kids and family...my mum.
My kids did the inevitable mothers day stall at school, Mr 4 made something at kinder, 2IC took them out shopping for gifts Saturday at 4.00PM...but only Mr 4 wanted to go along. * SIGH*
I guess its the thought that counts but no one was really thinking LOL
Looking at POST SECRET made for interesting Mothers Day reading and for those who are at odds with their mum..

If you have a mother, treasure her with care, because you'll never know the sorrow of when she isn't there

Miss 10's been at camp for the past three days and every day the boys ask if she's coming home. They say they miss her and if I know anything they will be all over her this afternoon when we collect her from school but she will be so tired and cranky, it"ll all be a big fight. Optimistic aren't I? Hope she sleeps on the bus on the return trip is all. For some one who a few weeks ago did not want to go and was crying most nights about it...I'm glad her teachers generous offer of allowing her to call home if she felt homesick was not taken up. I know one child who was allowed to call home after he found the stash of choccie biccies in his PJs with a note for his mum to have a good time. MEMO TO SELF: Do not write note with goodies stash EVER. Mr 7 has announced that he loves his sister, she is his favourite sister....out of who? He only has one hahahaha. Mr 4 really does not care but he and Mr 7 are playing together more.

I have been upsetting the apple cart at the kinder committee ( what's new?) I am the fundraising committee and had submitted TWO timetables for discussion and decisions of prospective fundraising activities for the whole year on a term by term timeline. I missed the last two meetings because 2IC was OS. No one had bothered to get back to me about the next fundraiser...Mothers Day Raffle and chocolate drive. Then I discover that a major office bearer had not only decided which supplier to use but what product we were ordering and how many...all without consulting committee or putting it to a vote. Now, I am all for iniative but a committee is representative of the parent body and needs to be transparent and equitable in their decision making. How we were to justify this decision on any level I do not know. Not only was it not tabled correctly but it was not voted upon either. I bought the matter up a tthe last meeting and whilst I agree that the new secretary had only just taken her guidance from the previous meeting notes that we were running the meetings a la casual , I have requested that the motions be correctly tabled and items discussed fully and voted upon...other wise why have a committee? I always seem to be pissing of kinder committees, either the ones I am on or the ones who are a joke. Thank goodness, I did not accept the request to be treasurer of the PFTA at school when asked this week. I did not even attend the PFTA meeting but got hunted down and asked to take on the office. To many things on right now.

I received an special invite to a herding workshop in June and I think I may go as I really want to see if the traits Lawson is showing now are true to his breed. Also, it will give his sires owner a chance to see if his dogs offspring are multi skilled. If Lawson and I can pull this off, he'll be one a a few who work in obedience and herding. If he shows potential, I start working him in both. This is were he was always heading multiple disciplines, he has the ability and brains to be able to do both. Here's hoping I can do his sires owner and ancestry proud, not to mention my mentors.

Hard yards for a backyard paradise

It rained over the weekend and late Friday night, so the grass seed we had sown has commenced to germinate. 2IC has been re designing the back yard as it is built on a slope with the slope enhanced so now it is all level and rises in stages. It was a tacky lay out which was the lazy gardeners answer to greenery and flora..AGAPANTHUS...YEEEECH along every fence line. Over the past two years we have removed over 100 plants along approximately 80metres of fence line, put in two kitchen vegetable gardens, removed the slope in the entire yard, created new garden beds, replaced most of a lawn pop up sprinkler system with drippers along the fence line and int the beds, and mulched the most of the lawn area ( read dust and now mud) with sugar cane mulch. ALL the soil removal and reassigning was done by hand by 2IC! We planted out some natives along some of the fence line before Christmas and put drippers in place, these are going well. The back fence line needs to have about 50 plus aggies removed and the beds shaped and natives planted, them another 30 plus of them to be removed from under the fruit trees and the beds there shaped also. The tiered area to the children's playground..also built by 2IC will have a retaining wall of rock so over the weekend we jammed in rock hunts on our usual trips about the place.

I like gardens, I enjoy being in them and working in them. Last night, rocks were being placed for stepping steps-cum-bed border near the kids playground and spring onions, oregano and parsley were being planted in the veggie patch for winter fare. I have a mix of cottage garden seed I got and whilst I have tried these before at the old place it was not the most ideal spot for them...so today or tomorrow I will prepare the bed for them and see where it takes us. The kids enjoy the garden to and both Mr 4 and 7 like to help Dad. Eventually it will be what we want.

Tiny town tid bits

Life's rife with funny moments that unless you live in the area or have some insight into that lifestyle, it could be something you are totally unaware of. A sort of "had to be there" moment except on a larger scale. There is a local on line forum in my locale that is inhabited by some very intelligent,informative people and infested by some very limited minds. It is funny to read the posts and contribute when it suits especially if the posts are blatant crapola and full of rhetorical bull dust. Some of the ongoing issues are the supposed lack of numbers at the local police station which one poster assumes to be the advocate and know all and be all of this issue. Not being a member of the police force themselves, they have ass-umed the role of a mini me Paul Mullet to extol the virtuousness of the local force and the lack of support they receive in man hours. How they acquire such supposed "information"? Well, they either make it up as they go along or some associated member of the local station are feeding the CONFIDENTIAL information to them. Such tit bits include, that members with upcoming retirements are taking unused sick leave, that the district command are deaf to the needs of the area...stuff that could only be fairy tales or someone telling tales out of school. Like much of what is spread about little towns and shires; it is like the stuff that paddock pizzas are made of.

Telstra SUXS....multi call centre ring around

Now I need to vent and vent I will, for as the proverbial steam needs to rise from it enclosure so does my anger with this telecommunications maze. I have recently switched my mobile carrier to T from another inept carrier who shall remain nameless, my bill due date was the 15th monthly which suited my accounting needs. Apart from forgetting the promised rebate of $50 for ordering a new phone on line and the promised $40 for leaving my existing carrier a week before the contract ended, I have not had much need to contact them. Until now......
in April my bill for March was due the 13th instead of the 15th, this DID not suit my needs or accounting timetable, so I called to request that the DUE DATE be made 15th MONTHLY and the billing cycle revise to reflect this. Now, if you work in a department called , BILLING, I think you'd know the difference between a BILLING DATE and a DUE DATE. But no, not the undoubtedly blond "Who Weekly" subscriber I had the misfortune of encountering. So today I received another bill 6 days after I paid the last one!!!!!!!!!! The doffus had placed the 16th as the BILLING DATE. I rang Telstra AGAIN to rectify the problem, so after talking to the inept voice recognition program and then getting to speak to a real person, then identifying myself, she then told me I had to go to another section and transferred me , where I again had to identify myself and go thorough the whole spiel again. What ever happened to phone courtesy, you know ; if you transfer a call you identify the caller to the other person and then tell the caller you are transferring them to Sally/ Jane/ Bob or Bill. Meanwhile the power went out and so did the phone, so ends that call.
So I call from my trusty mobile, again I enjoy the illustrious and welcoming timber of the electronic voice answering service, again I tell it my required section, again I am transferred to a real person and for the third time I identify myself and state my reason for calling, AGAIN I need to be transferred and so on and so forth, you get the picture. Telstra suxs chunks and the sooner they sort themselves out the better. I cannot say I am for the sale but their level of customer service has reached the depths of ineptness.

And now for something a little different

I am always in awe of blogfolk who change and swap about their templates on a whim, but I crumbled and had some spare time ( I have no life) and switched to the new,improved templates. I must say it was easy to swap the links and all over and just as I was mastering my href'ing and HTML'ing. So for any one who's thinking about it, it took me all of 65minutes to do.

Happy Birthday Miss 10

The former Miss 9 is now officially Miss 10 , double figures, never again to be a single digit age!!!!!

2IC flew back from OS after a 3+ week absence on her birthday: YAH, YAH, YAH and that's not just the kids LOL. Apart from attempting to buy part of her birthday present with Mr 4 in tow..."No I did not buy you a fish tank, he must be remembering when we went to the Aquarium to get fish food". Trying to hide the said non existent fish tank: " Stay out of my wardrobe, I do not have the Spiderman outfit in there" and organising to collect a bookcase I got on eBay for her room after I asked the seller if she'd hold it till the weekend of the 31st for me, then having her pull rank and dictate that it'd have to be collected Saturday as she was out Sunday...( NOTE TO SELF: Never send money in advance on CO Pick UP item as a gesture of good will to hold as it WILL back fire) I was tearing my hair out come Saturday. All went well and Miss 10 got her much coverted The Dragon's Eye book, the new Clarice Bean book, and her much wanted Jebo tank for her room. ( Are three fish tanks over doing it a tad???)
During the afternoon, 2IC, in between jet lag snoozes and PS2 games with the boys; helped Miss 10 re arrange her room ( seems adolescent impulse arrives with the tween age)I left on a intrepid road trip to the eastern suburbs ( may well have been the eastern states) with my pal, B to collect the eBay bargain bookcase. Given my past interlude with travelling across town, I'm glad for her coming and and the use of her Catholic school bus Tarago to cart the bookcase back in. We had a wonderful time chatting on the way over but I AGAIN used WHEREISIT and it again tells you to turn LEFT from Manningham Rd to get to the Eastern Freeway, which we AGAIN followed and AGAIN got lost. Never the less ,we arrived at our destination not 51/2 hours later but 15 minutes after we said we would be there, not too bad but B is a much better navigator and has a better sense of direction then I . So we arrived back with Miss 10's other birthday gift in tow, a solid wood bookcase, 61/2 foot high painted mauve and blue, which cost me all of $42 and nice trip across town with a good friend.LOL It was worth it to make her 10th something special. I'm not big on parties as they tend to turn into little power games and "I invited you to mine" scenarios. We might still make a special trip to the piccies with a few select friends, one of the blessings of birthdays near the school holidays...no one really ever finds out if there was a party at all!!!!LMAO!!!!

Once upon a decade gone..........

Ten years ago our lives changed here at Supamum Central, the concept of Supamum commenced. I became a mum, that is I carried and gave birth and all that stuff but in so much as instantaneously was bestowed the mantle of a mother....Uh Uh Nah. I was confused, felt awkward, and later felt imprisoned by the needs of whom is now, Miss 10. It was months before I even conquered the ideal of going out WITH baby to get milk or such, let alone go out. I gave up the breastfeeding deal before it killed me as I was trying every thing under the sun to for fill this much maligned; yet oft ill advised; function to early life. I ran to the GP at the slightest change in temperature, behaviour or appetite ( as do most of us with 1st bubs) I smiled back benignly at the older mums who smirked knowingly at me with a wailing child in arms as I stood at the supermarket checkout. What did they know any how?? Now a decade on and three children wiser, I too, am one of the smirking brigade for I no longer have a wailing, inconsolable babe permanently attached to my breast or hip; but I don't smirk, I smile, offer my place in the queue and tell them it gets better. Which it certainly does, thank you Miss 10 for being the test case and hoping you have not suffered to harshly for it. Love you Pumpkin Bum

Of little words and bigger dreams

I was interested and aghast at the parallels and oft unfounded assumptions made in such articles as this.
Which were equalised somewhat by these articles.
My point being that despite what all and sundry assume, guess, speculate, or blame. No one person can categorically tell or diagnose why a child has speech issues which limit their expressive/ receptive speech, their syntax, their irregular patterns of pronunciation has such problems. I abhor placing children ( or adults) in the diagnostic boxes created societies need to categorise and label. This is further enforced by Government red tape and sub agencies ( yes, Centrelink, Education Department and Health funds, I am looking at you!!!). There are more children being diagnosed earlier with speech delays but because of positive actions like more maternal child welfare resources, associated welfare and children programs at community health centres,more funded early intervention programs, recognition of possible developmental delays in relation to premature births ( of which the success rate has increased allowing many more premature bubs to survive and thrive), proactive monitoring of premmies by MCHN's and GPs so early onset of any delays are actioned and therapy commenced where appropriate.

As recently as 2005, the Victorian Department Of Education recognised severe language disorders (SLD) as a a genuine issue requiring funding for assistance in schools. This was withdrawn in the 2005 school year leaving many parents without speech therapy or assistance for their barely verbal and often non verbal children in schools. The World Health Organisation accepted level for speech ability in children WORLDWIDE is a score of 71, in Australia we accept 67. Now in perspective a score of 67 is relative to the comprehension ( receptive) skills of a 3.5 year old- 3year old with little or no knowledge of opposites , prepositions, common nouns, syntax, sentence structure. A score of 67 in expressive language would mean pronunciation of words would be disembodied, mixed and often showing no real pattern in the mispronunciation( dyspraxia) THIS is the benchmark we allow bureaucrats to place before our children as the acceptable level of achievement to attain, this is the line in the sand for having an aide in the classroom or not for your barely understandable child.

I challenge anyone who claims TV, PCs or any other of the theorems sprouted by the uninitiated to our world of mumbles, signs and frustrations; to spend a day with any of our children in their school and home environment and then try and justify the theory in a relative matter to what they see. Parents strive for all these children's needs to be addressed so they may be able to learn, work and undertake a role in society. We are poleaxed by red tape, funding issues, bias,unknowledgable guesses, and unkind theories. We stand united by the ideal that our children , although often silent or unintelligible, have a right to a voice and those voices sound long, loud and clear as a warning bell in a silent bay.