Left Brain Right Brain

Apparently in the version of WordPress I’m using, the ability to easily pass the category_id to the index page is broken. This is a shame because I needed it to display an icon for the category each post belongs to. A little judicious searching reveals the

get_the_category()

function, which you can extract the category_id from easily. This is how I did it:

So, we basically treat the function as an array and extract the appropriate key – in this case

category_id

From this point on, because I have a fixed number of categories that I know will never change, I compare the values and set a variable called

$headclass

which I then use in my tag attribute like so:

<h1 class="" >Some Heading

So, its now a simple matter to assign a style declaration for each possible category icon:

If you wanted to make this more dynamic (if you regularly added and removed categories for example) you could rename your images and classes for each category id number.

As is usual when I’ve not updated the blog for awhile, I’m just going to ramble in a general way to get everything updated.

So, Meggy’s been at school for nearly 6 weeks now. Just to refresh your collective memories she’s in a mainstream school with full time 1-to-1 support.

It started very brightly indeed. She loves going to school, of that there’s no doubt. As soon as you get her school uniform out her face lights up and she tries to get you to hurry the whole dressing/hair brushing process along as quickly as possible.

The first two weeks went brilliantly, she settled and met all her IEP targets. However, towards the end of week 2 we were growing a little concerned that the school weren’t ‘cracking down’ on her. That sounds awful but let me explain.

A lot of people with autism really need the structure of a rigid system of rules. It makes them feel much happier and settled. Without it, behaviour and comfort can both degenerate. Therefore we always try and let Meggy know that there are strict rules in place and she knows that Naomi and I are the ‘law-enforcers’. This isn’t to say we’re overly strict but the structure is there and is adhered to.

Anyway, weeks 3 and 4 confirmed our fears. Megans behaviour first at school, then later (and to a much lesser extent) at home started to degenrate. She pinched, scratched and hit her support worker and started on us, particularly me. Her sleep also became badly affected again at this time.

Now, we have a number of factors all coming into play here. Firstly we have the fact that Megan is in an entirely new environment, secondly we have the fact that she’s growing up and we have also have the fact that the rules in this new environment aren’t being rigorously enforced. As a behavioural specialist we spoke to (who is autistic himself) said, each new environment for an autistic person requires a new persona – how many times have you heard it said “He’s like a different person at school/work/wherever!”? Well, for autistic people thats literaly true.

We had a meeting with the school a week ago where we explained that Megan needs the rules and needs to know who the ‘rule enforcer’ is at all times and since then they have started to give her less leeway. The were only acting in what they thought was Megans best interests by cutting her some slack at first so this isn’t an issue of blame, rather lack of knowledge.

Megans behaviour has marginally improved over the last fortnight (you must remember to amply reward the good behaviour and even the abscence of bad behaviour “Well done for not having a tantrum! Good behaviour!”) but it will take some time before she’s comfortable and accepts the rules. The continued scratching is her ‘pushing the boundries’ to see if the rules will definitely be applied – remember she’s hoping that they will, she needs that reassurance.

We’re also tweaking her Homeopathy and its beginning slowly but surely to work. Her sleep pattern is still disrupted but better than last week.

We (well, her Nan at our asking) got her a large outside trampoline for her to bounce on when she gets home. I thoroughly recommend this to the parent of any autistic child!

In other news we’ve started giving her increased amounts of Vitamin B as it is apparently beneficial to people with autism. This is quite a new thing so we’re unsure as to its impact just yet….

Far too infrequently a book comes along that offers something both highly original and is well executed. In the field of fantasy/sci-fi/horror this is particularly true. For every Peter Straub or Frank Herbert there are a thousand Simon Clarkes and Shaun Hustons.

Jonathan Strange… is one of those books that offers something unlike anything else. In terms of style its most similar to Dickens or maybe Jane Austen, in terms of its genre its maybe closest to my other favourite ‘what if’ books, the Flashman series.

I’m not going to tell you anything about the plot as its something best discovered by a reader for themselves but rest assured that this is no Harry Potter borefest, its a traditional English story of magic, best read when there’s a snow storm howling outside and you’re curled up in your favourite chair with the TV off.

The book meanders around its tale, never hurried and consequently never being forced into false climaxes. One of the plot devices is the judicious use of footnotes and each of these adds another little nugget to the overall lore the book builds. Its a book crying out for a whole series and I hope it gets one. This is fiction as it should be – a great tale, told fantastically well.