Radio Rental- I must be Crazy!

This is the life! Home education at it's best!

A few days ago an email popped up in my  inbox inviting me to participate in a discussion about Autism with Radio Cumbria.It was totally out the blue and it suddenly brought to mind the power of blogging. If the truth be known this blog started out as a record to remind me how far my son has come since his days at school.  It was a memory jogger when preparing his educational report and an encouragement on bad days. Now it was being used to educate people about autism! I was overwhelmed but knew I couldn't let a chance like this pass me by.
There was a flurry of emails. a telephone call and ,because it's not easy for me to leave the house and I didn't have a baby sitter.we arranged a telephone interview at home for this morning. The local NAS support group as usual were right behind me (I wouldn't be without them) and one of their representatives volunteered to join in!
So this morning at 9am  on the dot the phone went and off we went. My son was on dog duty downstairs as I was terrified they would bark and that people would think they were listening to 'One man and his dog'! He did brilliantly ,leaving me in peace for a full hour whilst the programme progressed.I had imagined it would be a few minutes but the producer had other ideas. If I'd known I would have asked for my name to be in lights and for a large fee to be paid!
All in all I think it went well.The NAS representative was superb and we expelled a few myths about Autism between us. If  it hadn't been for Home education and this blog the opportunity to advocate for my son and others like him would never have occurred. It's also something new to add to the Home education notes. Not many little boys get the chance to be featured on radio!
Afterwards when the phones went down and I was shaking like a jelly my son asked me what I had said - he said he was glad that I was talking about sensory problems and the difficulties at school. "People need to learn" he said!

You can find the interview over the next few days on BBC iplayer on this link :http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013shzt