Kate's Story
We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has been really tough on families with children with learning disabilities, read Kate’s story where she talks more about how her family have been coping. Kate’s two sons go to Leeds Mencap’s Youth Clubs, her daughter attends the Sibling Group and Kate goes to our PACES group, a group where parents can get together and share concerns.
Kate says:
The COVID lockdown has been really hard on our family. At first, it was difficult to explain the situation to the kids and hard to work out what we were going to do without school and without our usual routine. My husband Dave also lost his job so it was very worrying. As time went on, we found fun things to do together as a family and we had great support from Leeds Mencap.
The kids really enjoyed playing with the activity packs and we made play dough monsters, crafts and colouring in and also had lots of fun playing ping pong! I also did the online PACES group and the kids did the Zoom sessions with their clubs. They loved seeing the other kids on screen.
During lockdown and after a bit of time, the experience brought us all together as a family and we had lots of fun together, we all became closer. Overall though, lockdown has been difficult, particularly as we can’t see my mum.
Going back to school was a bit daunting for my boys, but my daughter was excited.
Over the last few weeks, the kids really enjoyed dressing up at the Halloween party at Leeds Mencap.
Leeds Mencap is a remarkable service both to my children and to us as a whole family. The support during lockdown has been amazing. It’s so good to know that there is a place where you can reach out if you are stuck.
We hugely appreciate the help and support that we get from Leeds Mencap - without it, we’d be lost.
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