By Howard Graham
April 19 2010

Quins Academy Coach - Howard Graham Running the London Marathon for 'Celebrate the Children'

With a couple of notable, very painful exceptions I've spent most of my life trying to run no more than 50 metres at a time. However I have been promising for a number of years that I would do something to support the charity that is very close to my heart and when a late opportunity came up for an entry in to the London Marathon, stupidly, I knew I had to do it!

Celebrate the Children helps support children with Autism and their families. My nephew, Edward is autistic and he and those close to him are very much involved in the charity and its excellent work. Please have a read of the paragraph below to gain an understanding of the help that is needed and available to both the parents and children living with Autism.

Now for the easy bit....you hit a few keys to make a donation and I'll try and run this ridiculously long way in under 4 hours....

Many thanks

You can donate at http://www.justgiving.com/HowardGraham

Celebrate the Children - Programme Philosophy

Children with difficulties in communicating and relating often possess sensory processing difficulties(SPD). This causes them to experience the world differently than most people. Most people are able to integrate sensory information without even thinking about it. People who have difficulty processing sensory information see, hear, feel, smell, and taste information at both higher and lower intensities than people without these processing problems. Because we receive all information though our senses, these processing difficulties often lead to misperceptions of information, under or overstimulation, disregulation and sometimes, anxiety. These difficulties make organizing ones self and interacting with the world very challenging. People with these difficulties prefer predictable activities and interactions because they are easier to process. Chaotic or new places, new events, objects or activities require a high level of processing and can cause anxiety. Other people, especially peers, are very unpredictable and therein lies the challenge of interacting with others. For these children it is easier to tune out painfully stimulating situations, such as social interactions, than to have to deal with them. This results in self absorption and minimal, if any, observational learning. Instead, many of these children will engage in self stimulatory activities as a way of coping with their anxiety, attempting to regulate themselves. In the most severe cases we are left with a child who appears to be very odd and completely separated from the world around him. Additionally, the disorganization that these children experience inside often inhibits them from developing the natural rhythm and timing needed to interact successfully with others.

In summary our philosophy is to celebrate the children for who they are. We don't try to change them into a different person. We let them know we respect and love who they are, but want to give them the tools to cope and survive in our society. There must be mutual respect. Relationships between all people, including our children, should be give and take from both sides. We let these children know we respect what is important to them, enjoy some of their world with them. When we do this we are delighted at what they give in return, how quickly they learn, how happy they (and we) are....