Michelle Tant

My 4 year old son starts school in September and of course in any family this is big news. My baby boy is growing up, leaving nursery and joining big school with his big brother and his baby sister is taking his place at nursery. Part of the normal cycle of family life. For us though, this has been anything but normal. When I think back to when number one son started school, my feelings couldn't have been more different. I was confident about his ability to fit in, to progress, to get the most out of school. I took it absolutely for granted that this next step in his life would go smoothly, that after a couple of (expected) tears at the classroom door, that he would be flying. And he has... he is happy, popular, well behaved, progressing academically and apparently a pleasure to have in the class. My second son is a sociable, beautiful character with a delightful sense of humour. He has brilliant rythym and loves music. He is a speed demon on his scooter and he will bounce happ...

I found this link in a forum (www.studentmidwife.net) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_n21053626/ If you, like me, have a day to day, ongoing battle with the idea of normal and how it applies to your life then you may very well find it interesting. 'Extra' needs of an SEN child aside, I still do take exception even with the term 'normal'. My son falls outside of the range of normal in a few ways but does that mean by default that he is then 'ABnormal'? Of course not. And then of course we are left with instead 'Outside of the range of normal', which when dissected actually still means abnormal. I'm not saying that there is any solution here, its just an observation I have as a mother of a child who dances to his own tune. Beautifully I might add.