NEV

Thank you all so much for your responses, i took them all on board and spoke to the other SENCO at the school with your suggestions. She observed him during lunch and has spoken to him about what is upsetting him. She noted that he does seem to have a problem and is going to work with him to help him, she is going to keep an eye on the situation. To be honest, I dont want him seperated at lunchtime because he already has a feeling of being 'different' and has low self esteem, I worry that by segregating him, however much it helps in the short term, will only make him become more isolated in the long term. The SENCO i spoke to first is head of special needs and yes, as has been suggested, she doesnt really know my son, only what is in his file, she tends to see him as a child with 'behavioural problems' rather than a child wih any particular needs. Frustrating, but unfortunately one of the problems with attending a large state primary I think. I am going to look at getting his ocd looked at seperately, we havent yet addressed individual issues, it has been a struggle to get as far as we have with our MH services stretched to their limits and feel we are still at he start of helping him. Thank you again, you were all extrememly helpful and I feel there has been real progress here.

Hi, I have a son 9 recently diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, who will not eat his packed lunch at school, Im at a loss as what to try so would appreciate any ideas? The reason he is giving me is that whereas during the summer the children all eat outside, during the autumn and winter terms they eat in the hall. This didnt seem to cause such a problem last year, but this year he is complaining about his food getting 'germs' on due to the close proximity of other children. He first explained that too many children around him were eating yoghurt which makes his feel nauseous, this is a well established fact, it does, but now he is complaining that children talking are 'spitting' when they talk, which then ends up on his food. He said that 'outside, the germs have more space to go, indoors they dont.' I have tried reasoning with him that his food is safe, Ive tried wrapping food individually inside his little box, to 'protect' it, but it is not working. He is an extremely picky eater normally and only has specific lunch items he will eat, now he will not eat these because they cannot be 'protected', he will wait until after school and then eat his entire lunch as soon as we get home. He does suffer with high anxiety, even at home saliva contamination is one, but not to this extent. He did have an incident at infant school 2 years ago where he was forced by a teaching assistant to eat something he felt was 'contaminated' by spit, but despite the stress and upset at the time this didnt raise his anxieties about food, could this be now affecting him after all this time? Im not sure he even remembers the incident. I spoke to the SENCO at the school, who suggested he ask for an end seat on the bench. He will not ask for an end seat as he says it will make no difference as there will be someone opposite him, beside him...he would rather not eat. I dont think going hungry is helping his behaviour at school, he has had two detentions in the past two weeks and poor bahaviour marks. When I spoke to his teacher last week she was finding him hard work. The school SENCO is uninterested, in a phone conversation with her she said he was 'not top on my list of priorities, in fact not on my list at all'. Please any suggestions on how to tackle this paricular anxiety would be greatly appreciated!