Andy

Many thanks for the suggestions. The ratio seems to be 2, sometimes 3 staff members to the 6 children. DS cannot change classes as this is a small centre that caters for ASD children within a mainstream primary. The only way they could be separated would be if one of them were to be successfully integrated into the mainstream class. At present, DS has real difficulty controlling his volume and would be too disruptive for mainstream classes. I hope to take some of the helpful pointers from here: What are the consequences when a child strikes another child. etc. We have never been asked to sign an accident or incident book, so i would like to know that these incidents are being recorded. I need also to convey that the incidents are making DS very anxious about going to school. Thanks everyone!

DS (6) has been on EYE Q for 8 or 9 weeks now. 6 capsules day now down to 3. Haven't really notcied any difference, but pleased that DS will take them anyway becuase of their other health benefits. His getting to sleep at night is actaully worse.

We have a lovely natured 6 year old boy. He has an ASD diag, and attends an ASD centre within a mainstream primary. e shared his ASD class with another 5 children. He can be loud, often hyper, but he has never lashed out or struck anyone(only himself ina a total meltdown when he was younger). The problem is that he is coming home with bruises, cuts and scratches more and more often. Just last week we had three separate incidents across three days. The first was unwitnessed by the teachers, but he had scratches in his ear and down the side of his face. The second incdident, the school phoned to say that DS had been kicked in the face, by another boy who had a meltdown. The third incident happened the very next day, we dropped DS into his classroom, the other boy ran over and in front of us and the teachers and hit DS hard in the face. He is in a class with 6 other ASD children. The school are always extremely apologetic, and i pleased with the education that DS receives. Now, i appreciate we are lucky that we have a place in an ASD centre, and that these young children are all trying to deal with the frustrations in different ways, but how can i make sure that DS has more protection in school? We have an annual review coming up and i need to raise this. It is not fair that he keeps getting hit kicked or scratched. It does seem to be one child in particular. I don't want to rant, and i appreciate that my child and others all deal with things differently, that their emotional skills are not mature and that certain allowances and made in a great deal of areas every day. But surely when another child is physically hurt three times in a week somthing has to be done? I do not know how to raise this without upsetting anyone. When we raised it before we told, "yes, but it doesn't happen very often does it?". Well thats not the case anymore, and personally i would think being kicked or hit in the face even once was too much. Thanks

Very Good! I really like the navigation menu at the top, it made finding my way round the site really easy. He wasn't keen on the Spinnaker in Pompey then? For a 13 yr old, thats a very good understanding of web design and layout.

Many thanks everyone. I am so glad that these feelings aren't as odd as i first imagined. There is something about the vunerability and innocence of an ASD child, that has turned me into this over-protective Dad, which i need to work on. Chilling out and relaxing is the best advice until the next hurdle presents! t/y all!

The Shack - Willaim P Young The Shack I was intrigued by this book, because it had so many postive reviews on amazon, yet i was undecided because it seemed to be in a religious vein, which i didn't think i would enjoy. Well it was a brilliant read, it hasn't converted me, but it has answered some questions, and made me look at many things (forgiveness especailly) in a whole new way.

We knew Ds had some differences, and as soon as he started Nursery, and watching him interact as party's we knew we these differences were starting to become difficulties. I had a role; my job was to fight, and fight hard that DS would recieve all the support he was entitled to. We would all go to every meeting. We would read up, print off and attend every meeting well-informed and with printed evidence. I researched this site, and that re-inforced the need to be assertive, and not be fobbed off. My main goal was that DS would enter a school suited to his needs, with a statement, and at a pace that was right for him. The preparation was tiring and stressful, and i had never really imagined what would happen once we had succeeded. DS is now at an ASD centre school with a statement, he started in sept doing mornings and has progressed to 4 whole days p/week already! We were so relieved and so pleased that he would get the appropraite support for his needs. But now, i feel slighlty lost. All this time i has this focus, this goal. I never really thought about the long term future. In my mind i think i somehow imagined that DS's difficulties would dissapear, as long as i did x,y and z. I suppose this is the acceptance stage for me. Its very difficult. The 'fighting' made me this stronger more positive person, whereas the reality has somewhat burst that bubble. I hope i don't appear as ungrateful, i am still thrilled that DS has been accepted into a ASD school. I just never prepared myself for the handover

Something else suprised me when i was looking into primary placement; The headteacher of one primary we viewed explained to us that even though our child had a statement, the primary school accepting our son would still have to pay a percentage of the costs of the support offered on his statement. I am not sure whether this is true, or whether i have been incredibly niave, but surely making primary schools absorb some of the support costs of taking on ASD children, when their budgets are already ridiculously low, will only contribute futher negativity to any HT views on accepting ASD children.

I work in a school and have a DS of nearly 5 diagnosed with Autism about 1 year ago. Working in a school, special needs is often discussed throughout the day, however one lady (unaware of my childs disabilities) see the very mention of special needs, as an opportunity to impersonate and make fun of a sterotypical disabled child, with voice and co-ordination issues to boot, which her colleages seem to find slightly amusing. I feel the anger rise in me every time, and pretend to look busy. I don't have to work with this woman very often, and she is a very likeable lady in other ways. Am i being over sensitive? I feel really angry about it, but don't know how to approach it without being classed as 'touchy'. Should i say something? or maybe write an anonymous letter? I am worried that the longer i ignore this the more likely it is i will oneday snap!

Just finished 'The Kite Runner' - which i thought was fantastic, and not a style i would usually go for. I have never read a a book like this, -that takes your emotions on such a roller-coaster.

Hi all, Have been lurking for a while now, but decided to post and introduce ourselves. I am Andy, i have a partner called Kim and we have two beautiful children; Ben who is 4 diag Autistic about 12 months ago, and baby Ellie who is just 6 weeks old. Ben is currently going through the statementing process, he has been referred to as high functioing autistic. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a sympathetic educational placement and provision, but thats not to say i haven't been spending the past 8 months honing my appeal skills and arguments!

Many thanks all. Have arranged a phone meeting to discuss the proposal today, and they did confirm that they do not name the school on the proposal as they like the parents to name their preferred school then try to meet it, - which makes sense, but doesn't reflect experiences we have had thus far. I also didnt realise that the proposed statement is then forwarded to the proposed school for them to 'approve'. Another hurdle. Ah well ,....Fingers crossed Thanks Again, Andy PS. Sally44, thank you for such a fantastically detailed reply.

Hello all, I have been lurking for about 6 months now and find this site a fantastic wealth of resources and info. We have a DS aged 5 this september, diagnosed Autistic between his 3rd and 4th birthday. We have been fighting to get his school placement at the local autism centre which is attached to a mainstream primary. I knew DS's case was being discussed by the LEA last Tuesday and rang at 4pm to get information. We nearly passed out when we heard that county had agreed (verbally) that he would go to the autistic centre and not directly into mainstream school, - finally something was going our way. But here is our dilemma; The proposed statement arrived, with no mention of the school, and section 3 has lots of vague terms like 'opportunities' 'regular' 'frequent' and 'encouragement'. There is no mention of directed time at all. On the one hand, we don't want to jepordise this (verbally) promised placement. On the other hand this statement is woefully vague should DS be placed in a mainstream school. The whole diag/SEN Statementing process has taught us to 'cross every T, & dot every i' - if the worst can happen it usally will I have nothing in writing to confirm this SEN school placement. Are we being too paranoid? Would you challenge the statement in this case, or just be thrilled to have secured a place at specialist school and try to deal with the details later? Many thanks