Christmas TV

Was it just me, or was the TV even more rubbish than usual this year? We watched very little apart from programmes like CSI Miami which we would have watched anyway.

I was a little surprised to see the drama 'After Thomas' screened on Boxing Day. I have no idea whether it was good or not, as we chose not to watch it. I am all for awareness raising, and from what I have read about this drama, which was based on a true life case, it sounds as though it probably did take a realistic approach to living with autism. But for me this wasn't an entertaining festive subject and anyway it clashed with CSI Miami!

There is a current fashion in the publishing world for 'misery memoirs' about dysfunctional childhood and family life. Having a child with any sort of special needs obviously affects the whole family and recent figures from the National Autistic Society suggest that about 1 child in 110 is now diagnosed as being somewhere on the autistic spectrum. However, every child is very much an individual in the way they experience and respond to their particular challenges.

Like so many other families we live with the effects of autism every day, so we really don't need to watch it dramatised on TV at Christmas time....but if they repeat the programme I may well take a sneaky look....