mossgrove

Bid It is certainly true that if are childs parents are middle-class, well educated assertive and well-informed he/she is likely to get much more help than children whose parents are poor or less well informed. It shouldn't be that way, but if a child has a parent who is unable to 'work the system' thay have an inbuilt disadvantage. As a country, we do not do a good job of ensuring that ALL children get the help they are entitled to. Simon

Money. The LEA say the school was not economically viable, what they mean is we are no longer prepared to pay for it. Sadly there seem to be very few incentives for LEA's to keep Special Schools open, there now is a real crisis in provision for children with Autism in the 11-18 age range almost everywhere. Simon

As far as I know there is no evidence to suggest that Autism is more prevelant in ay particular race or class. There is some indication that genetic factors can come into play, so I would expect that parents of AS children are more likely to have AS traits, and there is quite a lot of anecdotal eveidence to support this, for example many of the parents here have recognised Aspie traits in themselves. Simon

Sallya Wrote: It shows that it's not true that Autistic children have no imgaination! Must have been a bit of a pain at the time, but I'm quite impressed! Simon

Hi The incident that I originally posted about was resolved by a letter to the school demanding they take action. Sadly, the school seem to be in denial still. One child (NT) was fine when dropped off in the morning and had a black eye when picjked up in the afternoon and was met with "it couln't have happened in school" when she complained. Many parents are voting with thir feet, the child in question is now at another school, our two start at special school in September and we know of 8 other children who will be going to other mainstream schhols after the summer. Quite why the school are adopting this policy of denail is baffling as they are running into severe problems due to falling rolls and their approach to bullying is making things worse. Simon

You can get Adult tricycles which are good for people with balance problems. We hired on at CenterParcs for our 7 year old when we went on holiday there (He's very big for his age), and it was wonderful to see him whizzing round with confidence on his trike. He managed because he could concerntrate on pedalling and steering and not have to worry about balancing which is still a big problem area. Maybe when the rest comes more naturally we will be able to think about a two-wheeled bike. We would like to buy him one but they are about �700 new, so we are on the lookout for a second-hand one. Simon

Just driven into work with the sunroof and window wide open with AC/DC playing loud, in a vain attmpt to recapture my mis-spent youth. Simon

I suspect that he may not have wanted to count the lego, he just needed a time out and that is what came into his mind to say. The school were more obsessed with the fact he needed to conform, hence an explosion. The school should have some sort of time out area where he can go when it all gets too much so things don't go too far. It's something to get written into a statement if tyou get that far. Simon

Our son 7, Aspergers is very clumsy indeed. This is not at all uncommon for children with Aspergers. I think thay are calling it Dyspraxic traits at the moment rather than dyspraxia but it comes down to the same thing for practical persons. His gross and fine motor skills were asessed as being below the 1st percentile. It is wort making sure that Occupational Therapy is inclused as part the special educational needs section of the staement if it is preventing hi getting full access to education. He is a big lad for his age, he is overweight and several inches taller than his classmates, so he cn cause havoc without meaning to. I am incredibly clumsy too, so there may be some genetic involved. Our 5 year old (ASD, ADHD) is incredibly agile, so it shows that you can have one without the other. Simon

To be fair the Stephen Spielberg he is nothing to do with Star Wars, George Lucas is the man in the frame.... Simon

<'> <'> <'> <'> I'm delighted for both of you.Hopefully the headmaster will be called in a told a few home truths! The full-time education should be better for both of you. You may even get a little time to yourself during the day! Simon

Denise Nice to see you back. I know exactly what you mean. I go from posting loads in a day to lurking only and posting very little or not at all depending on how things are. Loraine I know what you mean abot the books, but I still find some of them helpful, especially some of the personal experience based books like 'Mulitcolored Mayhem' by Jaquii Jackson of "George and Sam:Autism in the Fanily" by Charlotte Moore because they are both upbeat postive books about parenting autistic children and it sometimes useful to have a little help in staying posititve. Simon

There are people out there who do get help from SS. Because SS are so overloaded most of the time, they have atendency to resist making such provision until pushed into a corner. If you are polite, firm and quote the relevant legislation there is a good chance of getting somehwere. If the SS asesss that you have needs but do not provide anything to meet them, you may also be able to claim direct payments for the cost of buying in the provision you need. I know of one case where the parents have been able to get SS to pay for their child to spend a night at their child's school which is residential for out of area children, but their child lives locally so does not normally stay overnight. The school will accomodate overnight for an additional fee but this would normally be paid for by the parents and it isn't cheap. I believe SS are paying for one night a term, which isn't much but can make a big difference if you never get any respite. Simon

You have a legal right to be asessed by social services under the Childrens act. See: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=305&a=4322 The relevant extract is below: If you click on the 'Appendices' link at the bottom of the page you will find a sample letter to modify for your own uses (Perhaps listing the difficulties that you experience on a day-to-day bassis as well as mentioining the level of DLA received). You will also find a pre-drafted formal complaint letter incase they fail to respond properly! I hope this helps. Simon

Lesley I understand where you are coming from. Our 5 year old has a diagnosis of ASD and had major speech and language delays. His school have never accepted that he has any difficulties at all, and believe he is developing normally. This is despite the fact that after 9 months he only knew the name of one other person in his class, would run away or burst into tears when anyone asked him to play with them, was frequently to be found in the corner of the classroom with his hands over his ears, had meltdowns every day before and after schools and never at any stage lasted more than 2.5 hours there. Many professionals visited the schhol and confirmed he was not coping or behaving normally. He is currently not in school. The school response was to refer us to social services for refusing to send our child to school full time, and to inform anyone that would listen that his limited bad behaviours were caused by his parents refusal to send him to school full time, disregarding his ASD diagnosis, the opinions of two educational psychologists, a clinical pschologist, a Pediatric Conultant, his GP, his portage worker, the CAMHS support staff, the head of the Educational Psychology service at the LEA and two speech therpists, the self-harming behavious and the fact it was impossible to get him into school without using physical force. They also suggested that we might wish to consider parenting classes as he was compliant at school and had meldowns at home which meant we were evidently not as skilled as them at mangaing his behaviour. As a teacher in a special school you will understand just how ignorant that comment was! There was MUCH more but I won't continue as I have made my point! The only reason I am telling you all this is to say that there is light at the end of the tunnel. You will find much ignorance, intransigence, contrariness and refusal to listen as you progress through the system. But there are also some wonderful professionals out there who will give you time, patience, insight and support, and iff you can find even one professional like that it can make all the difference. There is also much to be gained from other people who have been through it both locally and on this discussion board. Ultimately the schools opinions were disregarded by the statementing panel and he will be starting special school in september along with our 7 year old (Aspergers) who did have more support from the school for the simple reason he was disruptive and could not be ignored. We are sill at the beginning of a long journey with our children, but I just wanted to say that if you hang in there it will be tough at times but there is light at the end of the tunnel and it can work out OK in the end. Coming here often is a vital part of finding that motivation to keep going. Simon

HH If you do decise LEA areas, it is worth seaking to someone IPSEA to find out where you stand about transferring the staement provision. I know on couple who were eventually able to transfer their provision from one are to another, but they had to have a massive run-in with their new LEA who wanted to repeat the decision to asess/statemeting process right from the beginning. Might be worth speaking to your prospective new LEA too. Good luck with whatever you decide. Simon

I can relate to that. Our 5 yo has equally little empathy. One thing I have noticed is that he will often laugh at completely inappropriate times, Ithink it is because he doesn't know how to react to certain situations. I think this is quite commin. Simon

Bid I agree with the others. It's not the letting out that's a problem, it's the holding in. I hope you are feeling better today. Simon

Canopus I think you are falling into the same trap that LEA's etc do when it comes to Aspergers Syndrome, that it a mild form of Autism that causes relatively fewer diffficulties. Many people with AS are far more acutely aware of their social difficulties in a way that people with apparently more severe difficulties are not. In many cases social and other support is needed in adulthood just as much as in ealier life but is not often forthcoming because people make assumptions. I agree with most scientific and expert opinion that Aspergers is a form of autism, I would be interested to know why you are so sure that it is not. Simon

Bearing in mind the seriousness of the situation if they had gone ahead and excluded, victories don't get much bigger than this. I am delighted for you. It is a scary though but many politicians are arguing that parents should lose their right of appeal against inclusions as they feel appeals undermine the schools right to manage. Simon

I'm glad you got the result you wanted. Simon

Congratulations! Getting either of our two autistic boys into a hairdresseer has proved impossible, and been a complete disaster whenever we have tried. Well done for managing it with Lewis, I bet he looks really smart now! Simon

Ipsea are a wondeful source of support, I have heard many good things about them. You may wish to consider joing a local support group as these things can be much less scary if you can link up with other parents who understand. You might want to consider writing to your MP as well. It doesnt always do any good, but they can make people back down sometimes. Who is suggesting that he goes to mainstream school? How you approach it will depend on who is pushing inclusion into mainstream in the first place. Simon

Welcome Mandy, Liz and Alison. You have definitely come to the right place, there are loads of people here who understand what you are all going through, and you will find plenty of support and advice. I look forward to talking to you all. Simon

Double Bump!