purplehaze

My son use to go to an academy and he failed and they couldn't meet his needs even with a statement-they excluded him all the time and even tried to break the law until my PP lady told them otherwise!!! Parents in my area have been rallying together to stop other schools becoming academies!!!

Mainstream at first then started to fail in secondary & is now achieving in an individual outreach group from a special school and is staying on in 6th form

Hello & welcome to the site, I work in a pre-school with some children who have autism and I am the SENCO. This is what should happen: 1.the pre-school should discuss their concenrs with you and talk about early years action & early years action plus & statutory assessment etc 2. during this meeting/discussion you all should agree on some targets to go on a individual educational plan-putting your son at early years action 3. the pre-school will carryout the different activities etc for the targets 4you should have a review meeting to discuss how the targets have been going etc (we usually do one every 6 weeks ish) 5. make new targets etc & review or diecide to get other professionals involved (SALT, OT, EP, Area SENCO/children's & young peoples services etc)-which makes it early years action plus. 6. all involved may decide that getting your son assessed at your local child development centre in the hospital-they will usually offer a 2 day assessment & your son will be seen by various professionals mostly the ones I have said above etc. 7. if all this action doesn't support your son appropriately then a RSA (request for statutory assessment) which means your asking for your son to be assessed to find out if he is in the percentage of children that need a statement to lay out what support your son need whcih is legal & the pre-school/schools have to be able to meet the needs that is laid out on the statement. Sorry I have rushed this but I haven't much time at the mo-but ask me anything & I will try to help! Good luck xxx Edited to say-the child development centre usually diagnose if they feel it is appropriate & the pre-school can't just say to you that they think that they are not qualified to diagnose autism & your son should be working on targets already before anything like this is mentioned anyway!

He is a striking looking boy though (and thats not just me being a biased parent . This is very interesting because people say this about my son and the children I work with just have something about them that is just so gorgeous! When I was writing my dissertation on autism I came across some research that suggested that a lot of children with autism are handsome which makes/helps people to want to socialise with them or try to break into their world! I'm not sure what I think about it but it was interesting!

This is very interesting as someone has just mentioned a few weeks ago-I work with children with autism and my son has it-as my son goes to a outreach school group from a special school he often comes into work to be picked up and one of the parents said to me (when we were talking about autism in general) that she thinks children with autism have a specific look about them and she turned to me and said "I'm not being rude but your son has this blank look about his face like most children with autism" like he is in another world! I have never realy thought about it or even noticed TBH but I supose I kind of know what she is saying-he isn't that interested in anyone at work so kind of looks like he is somewhere else or looking through them IYKWIM!

Welcome to the site UtterDoclector, My 16 year old son is like you and wanting to blend in and be normal-but I always tell him he is normal, everyone is normal in their own individual way-imagine what the world would be like if everyone was the same! Saying that I also understand how hard it can be for my son and has been for you to understand all the social situations etc. Although you have moved around or changed schools it sounds like you are settled now and it's great that your at college and doing something you are really interested in-I think it is very wise for you to 'chase a job you really want to do' rather than spending years on benefits you have been very proactive-so welldone It can be hard to find a person that you can be you with and be relaxed and happy-but there are people out there that have loving relationships with people who have autism or aspergers (my children's dad has aspergers-so I know)-but try not to worry about it and continue to make friends-try to enjoy going out to the cinema (watching horrors ) or out for a meal etc-we never know when we are going to find a special person who we can love and be loved back-but while we are waiting we can continue to enjoy our friends & family! Keep asking questions or just chatting on here-it's really nice to hear from people of your age! XXX edited to change my terrible spelling!

I've just bought this book-haven't started it yet but hopefully I will find the time soon!

thanks scienceGeek

Hi My son had a college interview-infact he had to have 3 & he had support from his teacher who went with him and the teacher answered most of the questions! I have also recently had a meeting and asked my sons connextions lady about what would happen if/when my son wants to get a job or has to have an interview independently & she said they offer support for things like that to prepare teenagers up to 25 yrs old! So this might be an option for your son! X

Hi everyone-I just wanted to say that the LA have said that they will pay for my son to stay on with the outreach group from the SEN school until yr 13 if thats what he wants-So I don't need to worry about college and stuff any more. I am so pleased

This is what I do-my son blocks our toilet all the time with tissue-I've only ever had to delve in myself once- & it was YUKKY I scooped out as much as I could & them my hand had to go in for the rest YUK YUK YUK!

Thanks guys-deffinately makes sense and was explained very well

Hello Michael, welcome to the site, I agree with others who have commented-try not to worry about it until your finals are over-I know easier said than done! When you are ready go and talk to your GP, parents, family member, friend or someone you feel comfortable with for some support to talk about what your options are. Good luck and keep chatting on here there are some great people who can give you some good advice or support. xxx

So ScienceGeek did you have Gordan Brown, Nick Clegg & David Cameron etc for your choices??????? I only had my local MP's! Some people in other areas have had their local MP's and Gordan Brown, Nick Clegg & David Cameron etc which ment 2 ballot papers!!!!! Some only had Gordan Brown, Nick Clegg & David Cameron etc So how come I only had my local???????? Sorry if I sound dim

Hi, I work with children and some have autism and I have often used video to capture the children doing different things and edited it with music etc so the parents can see during reviews-so may be something like that could be done if the SALT thinks you need to observe?????????

How comes some people have had 2 ballot papers and voted twice-locally & general???????

Hi I watched it your son is a very good dancer & WOW at how high he can kick his legs!

I'm confused???????? When I voted it only let me vote locally there was no choices for the general candidates?????????? Does anyone know why?

Hi, just try phoning the SEN school you would like your son to go to and see if they offer dual placement-it would then be a foot in the door so to speak-it's worth a try to see if they could offer anything or even give you some advice!!! Taking him out of lessons and or sending him home is the school not coping or meeting his needs-my sons old mainstream school use to do this and yes as a parent you understand but it's so frustrating because your child is failing and the LA should be doing something about it!!!! Who has documented this can't you use this evidence to back your claim that he isn't capable of coping in mainstream????? Didn't realise they had a crystal ball Try phoning SEN schools I have always found them really understanding about the children that don't seem to fit any where-let me know how you get on!!!

Hi Ben's mum2 I can remember feeling similar to this when my son was in mainstream school he had/has a statement for 22hrs and was failing in every way possible. My parent partnership lady told me to look around special schools as I wanted him out as quick as possible (the LA had also said my son should be in mainstream) I really liked a SEN school when I visited and they told me they had dual placements with a few children from the local mainstream schools. So I called an interim review and we all talked about it-the autism manager from the SEN school came to back me up and my son's children's disability social worker. We all decided he should go for 1 lesson-which he did and it took months and months (he would just wait by the door for me & they didn't push him) and then a miracle happened he went into the lesson (DT) and started to do things-it was fantastic. We then talked about increasing it and the head of the SEN school told me about their outreach group they have. The next week the head teacher from the outreach took me and my son to look around and explained what he would/could do and things have been rosey since My son joined their outreach in September and we haven't looked back since-he has an individual programme like the rest of the 8 children that go. I didn't know anythoing about things like this it was just chance that I decided to ask the head of the SEN school what they suggested or could offer. So you should look into whether the SEN schools in your area do anything like dual placement or outreach. My son is still on role at the mainstream school as it would have taken too long to sort it ouut and he needed to leave ASAP-the mainstream school knew they couldn't meet his needs and the LA knew I wasn't going to have none of them messing about as I had professionals saying the mainstream was hopeless with him! I know the feeling of dispair when you know you are going to have to send your child into a school that are not meeting their needs. Let me know how you get on and what the SEN school say!!! Just one point it does involve money-like everything in education. The mainstream school will need to pay the SEN school!

Hi my son has had a bowel condition for years and has similar problems as well as really bad pain-he hates going to the Doctors as well but he does have tablets for it particulalry when painful. He was also tested by the autism research unit and they found it was proberly gluten intolerance so you could also look into that. Not sure how you can encourage him to go to the Doctors-it is so difficult when they reach a certain age-I'm dredding it! Sorry not much help XXX

Hiya, I'm not sure about this but when my sons school first put in for a RSA it was turned down because the school didn't have enough info and hadn't done enough with him either but the LA phoned me to say hold on and we will sort it out & they did they went into school to see what was going on and why they hadn't put in enough support before requesting the statutory assessment and 6mths later the school put in for it again and my son got a statement for 22hrs which he has had since! If I was you I would phone the LA & ask them what's going on explain that the school have said they sent info in etc and see what they say! It doesn't make sense I think the LA would contact the school and ask why they haven't had any info! Edited to say I think the time scale will carry on once the LA get the info you shouldn't have to wait 6 weeks again!

Hello welcome to the site! Has your son got a statement-if he does the school should fill in a transition plan during his review at age 14-this should let your son, you and professionals make a plan for the future. I must say though not all schools have or do this appropriately! There is more info here from the NAS http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=528&a=4412 DLA continues until the person doesn't need the care/support any more! Sorry I have only answered quickly-I haven't much time but I'm sure others will be along soon. XXX

Hi Sam, my son was similar to you and just really struggled in mainstream school. I found out that although he didn't want to go full time to a special school he could do joint role at 2 schools. So he started to do 1 lesson at a special school-which after a long time he began to enjoy. Then the special school offered him a place on their outreach group-which is an individual time table for about 8 children. Maybe you and your parents could see if you could do something like that. The outreach lets my son do a variety of practical things from learning to drive & fix cars, cooking and entry level maths and English-he isn't doing any GCSE's but if you could get on something like this the lessons would involve things you like doing and the GCSE's you want to do. If you have a statement you and your parents can call an interim review to try to plan what can be done to support you. X

Hi Sam, welcome to the site. I have a son who is 16 and has autism.