Being diagnosed with ASD at 27; Parlour songs; Child protection conferences
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2020
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We heard earlier in the pandemic that in-person meetings for vulnerable children had become mostly impossible. But now child protection professionals feel that face-to-face conferences are unlikely to ever resume. So what does that mean for the children in question? And what is missed as a result?
Journalist Marianne Eloise was recently diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, aged 27. She says it finally gives her an explanation of why she has found it difficult to simply exist; from experiencing extreme sensory overload in situations others find normal, to never being able to make small talk. Marianne joins Jane to talk about her personal breakthrough and why she believes it’s harder for women and girls to be diagnosed as autistic.
The mezzo-soprano Patricia Hammond is celebrating the parlour song. Composed by women, these domestic songs of the Victorian era have largely been marginalised or forgotten. In her new book and CD, She Wrote the Songs, she tells us about the women behind the songs and their importance to musical history.
Listener Prue wrote to us about a recent discovery that’s made her question her past. For her seventieth birthday, Prue, a family history buff, got a DNA kit from her nieces. There were no surprises with the results about her geographical origins. Then she realised could also find people with matched DNA, and she was shocked to find out her late dad was not her biological father. Since then Prue’s been trying to find out who her father was- with the help of people she’s met online. Jo Morris met with Prue at her home.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello, this is Jane Garvey. It's the Woman's Our Podcasts from... podcasts. Today we look at parlour songs and we'll talk about the women who wrote the big hits of their day and guess what didn't get the credit they richly deserve. |
| 0:59.0 | Also this morning what it means to get a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder and another |
| 1:05.3 | really intriguing family secret for you on the program today. Now earlier this year we |
| 1:10.4 | talked about the problems social workers were having, trying to assess children |
| 1:14.8 | who might be at risk, trying to do assessments via FaceTime for example. |
| 1:20.4 | Now, Child Protection professionals feel that face-to-face child protection conferences |
| 1:26.2 | may never happen again. |
| 1:28.8 | Is this something we all ought to be concerned about? |
| 1:31.6 | Lisa Harker is from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. |
| 1:35.5 | Lisa, tell us about that first of all, what does that do? Well the Observatory is an |
| 1:40.4 | organisation which seeks to improve outcomes for children and families |
| 1:45.0 | by making sure that all the professionals who are involved in child protection |
| 1:49.0 | and the family courts, so social workers, judges, barristers and solicitors, receive good information |
| 1:57.3 | from research and data about what matters for children. |
... |
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