A Salford mum has set up a new group to support parents of children with special educational needs.
Emma Mulhall, the founder of Parent/Carer SEN (special educational needs) Support Group, wants to bring parents together to talk about their children with SEN and give support and a chance for them to share their stories. The group meets at the Emmanuel Centre on Langworthy Road every other Monday.
Her son, Leo, six, was diagnosed with SEN a year ago, and the inspiration for her starting the group, came from her not finding much support in the region.
Emma, 32, said: “I felt it would be great for people to be in an environment where people understand what you’re going through, and you can share advice with each other and help each other.”
“I was having difficulties with judgmental comments being made about Leo.
“So, I thought I would have a conversation with Lynne in the nursery and we just said we’d love for there to be somewhere for mums to go and to vent and discuss things, get help and know what’s out there.”
The group also includes games and colouring books for the children while the parents are talking, which Emma said will entertain them. She explained: “It’ll just be nice and relaxed for the children, because obviously they enjoy it as well, so it’d be great for them.”
Lynne Allwood, 55, is the Deputy Manager of Tinytots Nursery which is also run at the Emmanuel Church and Centre. The nursery initially helped Emma fund the new group.
“When we opened this nursery 12 years ago, you might not have had any children with SEN and slowly it’s increased, and now we could have between 12 and 20 children on a play plan coming through the door.
“Sadly, there are so many children coming through the door with additional needs and we can’t take them all along. We want to signpost them here, so even though we can’t take them on in the nursery just yet, here we can get them into the system or ready.”
As the general population of Salford has been increasing, the amount of people on the learning disability register has also risen by 298 people since 2015.
Lauren Thompstone, 28, came along to the group and is the mother to Nate and Summer, who both have SEN.
Throughout the journey with her children, she has found it hard to be heard. She said: “I’ve had someone also say to me before, is he one of ‘those autistics’.
“If I wasn’t so confident in my own abilities as a parent, then [those comments] could really hurt me. But I don’t, I just laugh it off as it’s a lot of ignorance and a lack of experience that they’ve had.
“That’s also why I think these groups are really helpful because you don’t have any of that. These people are not lacking in that. They’re not going to say, ‘oh, your son’s one of those. They’re also going through it and it’s really good to feel that.”
The group of parents will come together every other Monday at 1:30pm at Emmanuel Church and Centre up until Christmas.
To find out more information about the Parents/Carers SEN Support Group, click here to join their Facebook group.
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