Kathryn

Hi Karen, good to see you! Ben's problems sound so familiar. Wish I knew the answers! What help does he get at the moment with organisation? K x

Hi Ryansmum If the Note In Lieu was issued within the last 2 months you can appeal to tribunal against the refusal to issue a statement . If it was over 2 months ago you've lost your chance to appeal unfortunately. Your next step would be to ask for another statutory assessment which would start the process again. K x K x

Hi Theresa I remember you . Great to see you! So good to hear about your son- how amazing he's got to this stage! My daughter is at uni too but in her first year . K x

Oh wow that's fantastic, well deserved and well done!! K x

Belated happy birthday to your son Paula! I well remember your posts when you first came here: he was about 13 I think? What a change hey! Is he at college? K x

Still very early days, as you say, he's had a lot of change to cope with recently. My daughter developed severe OCD symptoms when she was out of school and we had no idea what was going to happen in the future. She was on several different meds, the last one she was prescribed was risperidone which seemed to be the most helpful, it's difficult to say whether the symptoms would have gone away on their own anyway as tha was around the time her education was sorted out. I hope you find the right combination of meds and other support for him soon. K x

Hi Julia, Never heard of it before so I googled it. It seems to be the Scottish equivalent of what we have here in England called the Common Assessment or CAF, a miltiagency assessment of all a child's needs including health, social care and education. This link might help to explain more, look at the right hand side of the page for the Child's plan word doc to download. It's quite detailed. http://www.highland.gov.uk/socialwork/servicestochildrenandfamilies/ Hope that helps, K x.

Bensmum that's such a fantastic update! I remember the battle you had to get your son into the school. So glad to hear he's doing so well. K x

No personal experience of this but others might. Just wanted to say it's good to see you back ! How are things with your son? K x

Fantastic Tally, good luck!

The new draft guidance is now out. You can respond until the 17 Feb. It's likely there will be changes to the law from September 2012. Worth a read as it includes interesting new proposals concerning excluded pupils with SEN. It also leaves out a lot of information which is in the current guidance. Would be interested to hear your views, especially if your child has been excluded or is at risk of this. http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1795&external=no&menu=1 K x

That's good to hear, even if it has taken such a long time. K x

Hi Zipner1 and welcome! Just to let you know: the edit notification at the end of your post still showed your original name just now - so I used the edit facility on your post to replace your name with mine. I didn't change anything else in your post! K x

Welcome to the forum I felt guilty about my daughter's late diagnosis at 15 so don't feel too bad - your son is young enough to be able to start his education with the support he needs so you are not too late by any means. Hope the meeting goes ok tomorrow. Plenty of children are unreliably toilet trained at this age so this surely cannot be a first for the nursery. K x

LIke your son, my daughter could not cope with the idea of education for quite a long time while she was at home - even the sight of school books would bring on stress. It took over a year before she was ready to dip a tentative toe back into the water. We tried to pursue a specialist school place but found this repeatedly blocked and we had to give up eventually because my daughter would have been to old for the school by the time the LA stopped messing us around. However she went to the local further education college and spent a long time being supported in the department for students with learning disabilities. At first she could only cope with basic courses well below her level of ability, but she was well looked after most of the time and it enabled her to gradually get her confidence back in a sheltered environment, and also to get ino the routine of going out the house. It wasn't perfect as the college was not geared specifically to supporting academically able students with AS, but it was all she had, and she has just gone from there to university, so it wasn't all bad. So if an alternative school doesn't work out, or it's unlikely he would be able to cope with a school while he's still of school age, don't worry too much as the further education sector may have something suitable when he's ready to return. K x

Sounds good! Not the place to wear your smart work clothes though. Wellies, overalls and a hat would be more appropriate! K x

Brilliant - that's quite an achievement! K x

Guthruncher I'm locking this thread. You've started several topics on this issue and people have taken the trouble to respond with plenty of suggestions. If you really want to continue this discussion, you can do so here. http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/27630-where-can-i-get-help-if-social-services-and-nas-wont-even-reply/page__p__317671#entry317671 Kathryn

Plain black is boring but makes life easier- although have you noticed how many shades of black there are?! I have a solution - those very useful little plastic gadgets you poke the socks through: keeps the blighters together right through the washing/ drying/ sorting process. Couldn't live without them now! K x

Oh loubeeloulou, sounds like life is really tough at the moment, especially getting the texts must be worrying. Yes I can definitely identify with some of what you say, especially about the mess and the constant switching to find the right one. For my daughter, who was 15/16 when similar things happened, it did get better but it took a long time and unfortunately there was no magic solution, she was severely depressed and anxious and we had to ride it out. If you have a good professional, hang on to them and try to hang on to a normal life yourself so you have the energy to deal with your son's problems. We're here if you need a listening ear, K x

Nice one, Quixotic! The panto was good- especially as I went with low expectations. There were lots of good laughs and it was a slick show all round. I'd now like another week off please to recover from Christmas but it's back to work tomorrow! K x

Fiddle toys sound like a good idea! My daughter used to like to chew things- we were lucky it was only her hair and the front of her clothes: at least we could be sure where they had been! Hope you find a solution, K x

Welcome aboard and don't worry, there's no requirement to have a diagnosis in order to post here and you certainly aren't the only one! Hope you find the forum helpful. K x

Welcome back and happy new year! K x

It's a difficult one - I think in the end , after getting as much information as you can about each of the options, you have to go with your gut feeling. Let us know what happens K x