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Michael Edge was one of the first children to be diagnosed as autistic, at a time when few in Britain had heard of the disorder. His mother was told to lock him away in an institution. Christopher Stevens, whose own son is autistic, traces Michael’s remarkable and poignant life

In a sunlit garden in Dorset, a middle-aged man is looking at photographs of his life. He pauses on a family group beside a caravan, a faded black-and-white snap stained with streaks of tea, and gently touches his forefinger to the face of a woman, pretty but careworn. She is in her 30s, with her arms around two boys. He says, “Mummy.”

He moves his finger to the man in the group, a stiff-backed, hawk-nosed figure in a suit and Homburg hat: “Grandad!” He flips to the next photo and grins broadly: “Daddy Edge!” The man in the picture, seated on a sea wall, is grinning, too — their faces look almost identical.

The man turns to the next picture and taps it with his forefinger, twice, as though he has remembered someone who, long ago, had been very important to him. It is a school portrait of a boy in a blue pullover, his freckled face a mask of fright and bewilderment. The man says ruminatively, “Michael Edge.”

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The year’s most unlikely festive offering is a thrilling blend of junk-shop retro and hi-tech gadgetry – with uncanny echoes of the riots.

To visit the east London lair where theatre company 1927 hide out and make stuff is to enter a world not a million miles away from the noirish, exquisitely nightmarish cityscapes conjured by their groundbreaking multimedia shows in a drolly inventive welter of music, song, live action and projected animation.
Paul Barritt and Suzanne Andrade lease a modest, scantly furnished room in a down-at-heel warehouse riddled with artists’ studios and artisan workshops. A stone’s throw from Hackney Wick station, the building sits on the edge of the rapidly rising Olympic Park, as though it has only narrowly escaped the wrecking balls. Step into an environment as archaic and atmospheric as this and you begin to grasp something of the genesis of The Animals and Children Took to the Streets.
Their second full-length show since forming the company five years ago has been met with such a rapturous response that, after enjoying a run at the Battersea Arts Centre last Christmas, it has now been picked up as a seasonal offering (fit for almost all ages) by the National Theatre: an exceptional endorsement.

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We answer questions on whether children learn best in silence and why universities offer places on predicted grades.

Q We read that recent research suggests children learn best in silence. Do you have any thoughts on this?
David and Elizabeth Brucknell, Plymouth
A I think this is a part-truth. Children certainly need periods of time when they are working without any outside interference but they also need the stimulation of proper input from those with them. Nothing is more damaging to learning than disruptive and ill-disciplined talking in class but, equally, the most beautiful sound to a teacher’s ears is the hum of children working purposefully together.
A model lesson would include periods of whole-class teaching; periods of small groups (ideally pairs) working quietly together; and times when the pupils do written work on their own in silence.

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Just one in 40 women now gives birth at home, down from one in three 50 years ago, according to figures which also show that the average mother has two children – the highest rate in decades.

In 2010 in England and Wales, 2.5 per cent of women giving birth did so at home, down from 2.7 per cent in 2009 and 2.9 per cent in 2008, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
In 1960, the figure was 33.2 per cent, but it fell after NHS campaigns persuaded women to give birth in hospital because of poor housing. A record low of 0.9 per cent was noted between 1985 and 1988.
Midwives blamed NHS cost-cutting for the recent decline.
Government policy in England is for women to be given a choice over where they give birth. The latest figures show that the South West had the highest percentage of women giving birth at home in 2010 (3.8 per cent) while the North East had the lowest (1.2 per cent).

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His children hate you – and he takes their side. Yours feel betrayed. And his ex-wife? Don’t even go there…

When she married for the second time, Alison Shelton was already all too aware of the reputation of the proverbial wicked stepmother.

So when her 12-year-old stepson Matt rang her husband Bruce a few months after her wedding to say he wanted to move in with them, Alison vowed to defy the stereotype. ‘It was total shock as I got two hours’ warning, but I wanted to make it work,’ says Alison, who has two children — Charlotte, eight, and Chris, 17 — from her first marriage.

‘Of course, I knew all about Cinderella and her wicked stepmother, but I still envisioned a happy, blended family where Matt and my children would get on like a house on fire — and I was the warm, loving matriarch.’

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UK borders staff warned that Theresa May’s controversial secret relaxation of passport checks would “facilitate child trafficking”, a leaked document shows.

Minutes show that at a meeting in September, officials heard some UK Border Agency workers had concerns about the Home Secretary’s instruction not to check children arriving in the UK against a watchlist.
A second leak suggested border staff were pressured to use Mrs May’s relaxed rules in order to get more resources.
The documents emerged as Mrs May faced fresh questions about her handling of Britain’s borders. She denied any wrongdoing and was strongly backed by David Cameron.
In July, the Home Secretary ordered UKBA officials to stop checking biometric chips in European passports and cease checking children against a “warnings index” of people of concern.

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Obese children in the UK would find it easier to lose weight if we didn’t put the clocks back at the end of October, say researchers.

The study, that concluded children are most physically active on longer days, adds evidence in favour of a Daylight Saving Bill.

The Bill would bring the UK into line with Central European Time (CET) for a trial period of three years. Scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that children aged eight to 11 were most active between 5pm and 8pm during lighter evenings. They measured the body movements of 325 children in Hertfordshire in their daily routine for 817 days over the four seasons and found children were most active on days with 14 or more hours of daylight.

The study gives further weight to the argument that longer days could be an effective way of tackling the UK’s obesity epidemic.

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Soaring numbers of children as young as five are being chemically coshed with antipsychotic drugs, an investigation by Channel 4 News has found.

Soaring numbers of children as young as five are being chemically coshed with antipsychotic drugs, an investigation by Channel 4 News has found.

A staggering 15,000 children under the age of 18 were prescribed the medication last year by their GPs – double the number a decade ago.

The drugs, such as Risperdal and Seroquel, are meant for serious mental conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis.

But experts believe they are increasingly used as a chemical cosh to control children’s behaviour, for example to calm youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism.

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It’s news to have children shouting: ‘That’s not fair!’.

The tooth fairy is more generous in some parts of the country than others, a survey has revealed.

Regional variations show some children get up to £5.05 more than others for a lost tooth.The capital comes top, with each child receiving an average of £5.10 – which works out to around £100 for a full set of milk teeth. But children in Hull wake up to an average of only 5p. The poll which was conducted by www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk involved 2,091 parents, each with children aged between four and 12.

Cambridge paid £5, Cardiff £4.75, Liverpool £4.50 and Manchester £4.35.

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Children whose parents frequently read with them in their first year of school are still showing the benefit when they are 15, says an international study.

An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis examined the long-term impact of parental support on literacy.

Discounting social differences, the study found children with early support remained ahead in reading.

It found a strong link between teenage reading skills and early parental help.

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A rhyming picture book about pirate cats has won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which honours humorous books for children.

Cats Ahoy!, written by Peter Bently and illustrated by Jim Field, was named funniest book for children aged six and under.

Liz Pichon’s The Brilliant World of Tom Gates also won the prize in the seven to 14 age category.

Both winners were presented with a £2,500 cash prize at a London ceremony.

“These two books are master classes in how to write and how to draw funny,” said chair of the judges, author Michael Rosen.

“Cats marauding as ghost pirates to steal fishy bounty from lily-livered humans: what more do you want from a funny book?” Rosen said of Cats Ahoy!

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The effect of mother’s depression upon her children is a well-documented area.

But up until now, there has been no formal study on the influence a father’s depression may have on his children.

A study published today is the first step towards redressing the balance of information – and shows that children who live with a father who has mental health problems and depression have higher rates of behavioural and emotional problems themselves.

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American parents have been caught selling chickenpox-infected lollipops to other families who want their children to catch the virus while they are young.

Prosecutors in Tennessee have been forced to issue a warning that sending viruses or diseases by post is illegal, after parcels of the infectious sweets were discovered on sale over the internet.
Wendy Werkit, of Nashville, offered to send other parents a “fresh batch of pox” on lollipops or cotton-buds in return for $50 (£31) via PayPal.
Mrs Werkit told a local television station that she had been inspired to sell the products because parents were frustrated that “they can’t get it the normal way any more”.
Her advertisement was placed on a Facebook page intended to help parents find a “pox party” in their local area, where children can mix and pick up the virus, which can be more dangerous if suffered later.

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A Sikh temple in London is handing control over to children for one day a month.

The idea came from parents who wanted the next generation to be more involved in their place of worship and to modernise the way the temple is run.

Based in West London, the temple is over 100 years old and is the oldest in Europe.

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