We were much the same, postcards were the main method of contact (though not preaddressed or stamped, sadly!) and we were pretty good at sending them - I still have them all 😊

I remember that we blithely listed the central post office in downtown Johannesburg as a poste restante location for my birthday post and...safe to say, we never actually collected it since no one would take us there!

Ha! Yep, postcards here too, usually arriving 2-3 weeks after we sent them 😆 This was pre-internet, so we were supposed to either phone or fax once every two weeks, but were often nowhere near either a phone or a fax, so didn't. Our poor parents!

I sometimes think about the fact that my friend and I, both extremely naïve 18 year olds from Norfolk, set off travelling in Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and S. Africa with NO WAY for our parents to contact us, except via a) poste restante or b) fax, if we knew where we would be (we never did)

Autism assessment frogs the last thing autistics see before they die, scientists confirm A groundbreaking study has reportedly discovered that the flying frogs from the ADOS assessment appear to autistic people before they die. The study found that the frogs from the book Tuesday, used…

The study found that the frogs from the book Tuesday, used in the standard autism assessment, appear to autistic people in their final moments. In these visions, they seemingly explain the story, allowing autistics to pass to the other side finally at peace.

Anyone working in Disability Services in #UKHE will have a wry smile at this one...

We are looking at a painting of St Liphardus - a 6th-century lawyer, hermit and abbot in Meung-sur-Loire near Orléans, France. He is wearing bishops clothing including a surplus and mitre and is holding a crook. On a lead is a small knee high green and blue dragon.

We’re very sorry sir but you cannot bring your emotional support dragon in here.

Also, side note, but idioms such as these are also frequently confusing for some neurodivergent people and people who acquired and use language differently (e.g. D/deaf sign language users). And I'd imagine using plain English is especially important in the realm of giving healthcare...

In my case I'm dyscalculic AND hyperlexic, which is quite the combination! But I do wish I'd known at school (was diagnosed in my 20s)

But I'd imagine teachers don't have the time to teach the basics in several different ways until something sticks for different kids. And you can't pause and replay a teacher in class!

The only time I had breakthrough was when my kids were learning things like long division and there were so many videos online of different techniques for doing it, and all visual and step by step, and being able to choose the one which clicked meant I could finally understand(ish)

Yes the maths anxiety is a thing, but for me (as a dyscalculic), I'm not exactly anxious about maths, I just...can't engage with it at all. It's totally alien. The anxiety comes from being put on the spot to 'perform maths'. I had good teachers and (very) bad, neither made much difference

A snip from social media which reads: Dyscalculia? When did that appear? I taught for many years and never heard of it, although I hated maths when I was young, perhaps I had it! Always labels, get on with it

I see the recent BBC article about 'maths dyslexia' (ugh) aka dyscalculia is bringing out tiresome old chestnuts such as this

Ha! That's true! StudyTech so more likely than with Capita!

Definitely better doing it now than at any point after early August! Or maybe they just connected the surname and thought 'oh sh*t' 😆

Eldest's DSA application was approved in 2 days, which just shows that all our Disability Practitioner advice about applying early is spot on! I'm finding in fascinating watching this side of proceedings...

And the woman did speak unto the hound, saying, What do you mean, normal men, and the hound answered the woman, saying, We are just innocent men. And great was her emotion

(Also, she planned this massive mural out when she was still a student at the Royal Academy - she was 24)

Description from https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-procession-of-the-hours-344614 The 'Hours' are the seasons here represented by a series of women each representing the twelve months of the year. The dark colours of the garments of the figures representing January (on the left), February and March give way to more colourful, bright Spring and Summer months before the Autumnal colours lead back to dark Winter ones once again. Each month is surrounded by seasonal flowers and the figures have appropriate emblems – February, for example, holds a snowdrop and September a Lyre. They stand on the banks of a stream.

Here's one of Florence's fine works, The Procession of the Hours, which hangs at Guy's & St Thomas' in London

Pooh in pencil: sketches for original Winnie-the-Pooh book shared for first time E H Shepard drawings go on display for book’s centenary, showing how he brought AA Milne’s character to life

This is lovely ❤️ (Also, small fact that EH Shepard is my great, great uncle - he married Florence Chaplin, my great, great aunt, and a pretty fine artist in her own right)
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I posted more about my experiences of being dyscalculic here bsky.app/profile/harr...

It's not just the obvious maths skills that are needed to function in daily life, it's also things like not being able to enter codes for online banking correctly, or always getting two factor authentication codes wrong, or not being able to write down phone numbers, or failing to assess time

We also need to get away from thinking that dyscalculia is a thing that just affects school children, and only in relation to maths skills, because it's a whole lot bigger than that, and has a lifelong impact

Children with dyscalculia are set up to fail, says Yorkshire mum Often referred to as the

Not a big fan of calling dyscalculia 'maths dyslexia', but this article does do a good job of explaining how dyscalculia is largely ignored in education and other settings, and is certainly not viewed on a par with dyslexia (I say this as a proud dyscalculic!) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My daughter tutors kids preparing for the 11+ and other entrance exams at various schools around the country - she tutors kids as young as 3. She tutors one 6 year old for 8 hours a week, online. I can't imagine trying to engage kids that young, especially online!

There are plenty of kids travelling from Oldham and Leeds, as well as a few from Manchester. One of the two grammars is not anywhere near the town centre, so travel pretty much has to be by car and it's grim at rush hour.

This is so true. We're a mile away from what was, until very recently, one of the worst secondary schools in the country. We're 2.5 miles away from a selective state grammar school. Our 3 kids go to the grammar school.

I didn’t know this, did you? Amazing!

I've just seen what happened, I'm so sorry. This happened to my cat before Christmas - he was very lucky but it was a close shave. It's terrifying how quickly it can happen xx

Oh Karen, what on earth happened? (you don't actually have to tell me, I'm just expressing so much shock and sadness). I'm so so sorry, poor Loki, most handsome boy, and poor you. Sending much love xx