joybed

Both of my boys gave difficulty dressing themself, Piers has not got the concentration, on a weekend i leave his clothes for him but 9 times out of ten he just doesn,t do it and is still in his PJs till quite late when i have to intervene. On a schoolday I do physically dress him as we are on a tight deadline this will be the next thing we tackle after sleeping. Marcus is 14 and I can,t remeber at what age he started to get himself dressed but I do know he still has problems, I leave his clothes out for him on the banister and he can then dress independently but if I forget something he cannot find it despite knowing where his things are kept and what he needs, he just becomes very anxious and says i have ruined his day. We are working on this by encouragiung him to get his own uniform ready on a night when he has more time and therefore not stressed, this is slowly coming together. If not a schoolday Marcus will choose very innapropriate clothing if left to his own devices, shorts when snowing, uncoordinated clothing once dressed he will not undressed too much hassle for him. He has no pride in his appearnace at all and ofetn leaves the house looking like a tramp. Piers clothing choice is very much decided by his current interest at the miment if it is ben 10 or spiderman he will wear it. My daughter also is very bad at getting ready for school on a weekend she can change her clothes 5 times and leave them strewn all over the house but it is impossible for her to put on her uniform. I would second the picture schedule works really well although the pictures tend to dissapear in our house. Marcus also claims he is too old for a visual timetable and flatly refuses to use lists or reminders of any type even though he knows they help him.

Hi and thankyou all for your concern and advice it really means a lot. I did go to work on Friday and Saturday (feeling guilty about my colleagues and not putting my health first) but it really was a bad idea. Coped on Friday but fell asleep at my mums, was on a late Saturday so had a lay in and then got up felt shocking by 12pm but too late to ring by then so went, my colleagues were really good noticed straight away I was ill and gave me very little work to do even so I found it really hard and rang in sick for the next day. I still feel really bad but there is no way i can work at the moment and i have realised that if i am not well then everyone suffers so my health has to be a priority at the moment. I have finished the meds now but can,t sleep despite being shattered. I am going back to see the GP on Thursday don,t know what they will do because all my blood test results are normal. I still have weakness to my face but thankfully not noticeable unless you look closely but my speach is slightly slurry and my face feels numb and tingly. They say everything happens for a reason and this has made me slow down and prioritise a bit, it has also made DH see i am not super woman and cannot go for 2 days without sleep and still function as I have done in the past. He has finally agreed to only work around my shifts and no matter how much we need the money if it means I will miss out on sleep he will turn down extra work.

Hi Piers is 5 has a diagnosis of ASD and possible ADHD and has just been referred to occupational therapy for ?? sensory integration disorder/ dyspraxia. His LSA had written in his home school diary that he was rubbing his eyes a lot when he needed to focus for a period of time and they were concerned he would hurt his eyes. I commented i had noticed him rubbing his eyes but wasn,t sure what the reason was. The following day the comment was they had tried getting him to put his hands in his lap but he just put his head to his lap and rubbed his eyes instead becoming anxious when they made him stop. On friday his teacher said it was becoming worse as he was really pulling at his eyelids and then appeared to go into a trance like he was attempting to focus really hard but then had zoned out, she commented she had no concerns regarding his vision but said it is difficult to rouse him from this trance like state. On Saturday he was playing his nintendo when I noted him really tugging at his eyelids fingers right underrneath the eyelids and puling them out a fair distance, he was then opening his eyes really wide as if he was trying to focus and then rubbing his eyes. When asked about this he said his eyes feel blurry and hurt him. This only occurs when he is watching TV, on the DS or looking at the interactive whiteboard at school, it appears to be associated with bright lights. I am wondering is this is a SID thing and what to do about it, there is quite a wait for OT in our area and i am concerned he will damage his eye. I was also wondering if the coloured lenses may help with this. Anyone got any tips or can shed any light on this. He is sleeping better just lately as we have put into place a reward system and this appears to be working, I say this because his LSA says he appears tired but Piers can pretend to be tired when he doesn,t want to do something.

Thanks for the concern thats what I love about this forum. To be honest I do feel like cr*p just picking the kids up from school was really hard work. The trouble is another midwife at our place had bells palsy and she was off for ages nobody said anything to her but her palsy was and still is pretty severe there is nothing really to see on me at all (I hope) so I feel a bit of a fraud. The last time i was off sick with depression my manager called me in and basically told me to get my lazy ass back to work overuling the doctors note i had. I have had no sickness for 4 months now and can,t face everyone talking about me I know they will because they heard them about another colleague the other day. The doc in A+E said i was OK to work but from reading the BP forum most people have time off work. So as I said bit of a dilemma.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes it means a lot. I am still debating what to do about work but will probably still go to be honest. You literally have to be dead at our place to get any sympathay and i can,t face them ringing me every 2 minutes. I will go on friday and see how it goes if it is too hard i will have to rethink. So far the paralysis hasn,t got any worse but it feels so strange. MY lips and left side of face are numb as is my tongue so i have to be careful what I eat but so far speach is unnafected and no one has noticed my husband says my face looks normal but from what i have read this is not unusual and it can increase in severity over 48hrs not quite been 24 yet so fingers crossed.

Hi all just wanted to let you all know i ended up in A+E with last night and have been diagnosed with Bells Palsy. I have felt very run down for a number of weeks and just assumed it was lack of sleep/stress. I had a chest infection at christmas, a cold last week and woke with what I thought was sinusitis yesterday morning. I felt exhausted all day and assumed i was anaemic, DH persuaded me to go to the GP. She ordered a load of blood tests and referred for a colonoscopy as i have severe IBS. I put the kids to bed and came downstairs collapsing into a chair, I then thought the TV looked blurry rubbed my eyes and noticed the side of my face felt numb. After 5 minutes I could feel my mouth on the left side starting to droop. DH whisked me to A+E, the doc their made me smile and said it was Bells Palsy brought on by a virus and probably stress/exhaustion. It was so scary on the way to the hospital I was convinced i would never see the kids again and was panicking about how they would cope without me. I have been prescribed steroids and acyclovir tablets and have been ordered to rest (fat chance). This morning the paralysis to my face is no worse but I am exhausted, look deathly pale, have a wonky smile and am finding it difficult to eat. I am waiting to see how bad it will get but worst case scenario is full facial paralysis to the left side of my face and being unable to close my eye. It could take anything from 3 weeks to 18 months to rectify itself. Feeling very emotional and sorry for myself, going to try and sleep now.

His routine is completely different at his Nannas because he has no school. They stay up later and then watch a DVD in bed he never falls asleep alone even though he is 14. He is also allowed to sleep as long as he wants in the morning, actually he does what he likes all the time. AT home he has school and is put to bed has a story and then left to sleep. Without melatonin he would become very distressed and lay awake for ages and then wake shorly after falling to sleep. As I have such a busy life and have loads to do after the kids go to bed I was exhausted as i would spend my time answering repeated requests for things but the real problem was that Marcus was exhausted and not functioning at school this impacted on his behaviour. The other 2 don,t sleep either andi have tried every bedtime routine under the sun, reward charts, night lights, heated bears to sleep with, IPOD pillows to try to keep there head on the pillow nothing works. I think the problem with them is that they are twins and wind each other up, they have there own rooms but tend to sleep together and short of locking them in there room (which obviously I don,t do) I can,t keep them apart. I can cope with anything but them constantly shouting downstarirs and running around is really challenging especially when I have had a hard day at work.

Melatonin was prescribed to Marcus by a paediatrician and then our GP prescribes it. It is a special order med so you need to give the pharmacist a bit of warning but we have had no problems. Marcus happily takes tablets but one night said he thought he could manage without it after 3 hours he finally gave in and took it, he has never refused it again. He has a break at his Nanna because she doesn,t approve of "drugging" a child to make them sleep no amount of reasoning will make her see sense. We have capsules that easily dissolve in a drink and are undetectable.

We went sledging yesterday and Piers found a power ranger toy lying in the snow, it had a broken arm and leg and was headless but he had to have it for his collection he said it would be lonely and sad. DH took it from him and threw it away he coped well with this but needed to know where it had gone so he could say goodbye.

Both of my boys and myself have been tested for fragile X and Marcus and i both have markers at the upper limit of normal for this condition, we are awaiting piers results. We go back to the geneticist on tuesday for these. We are taking part in a research study by Cambrifge university to attempt to find a genetic cause for autism. They will require more blood from Marcus on tuesday (they think he may have another genetic condition which they didn,t know about at the time of his Dx)which i am dreading he hates them and at 14 he is a big lad and although I feel the tests are important I can,t force him.

Both my boys are very different as far as food goes. When marcus was weaned early (14 weeks) because he was a hungry baby, he refused everything and spat it all out. I think in hindsite this was partly because he was too young and partly because of food issues. When he did eventually eat something it was strawberry yoghurt powder mix which was disgusting and virtually only that for a long while. As he has got older he prefers meat and veg and sausages chicken nuggets etc and of course chips. He gags just seeing a baked bean or cheese and refuses to sit to the table if someone is eating food he doesn,t like. He is overweight and has a tendency to overeat and does no exercise, i have tried everything to get him to eat healthier and exercise to no avail. He recently tried pasta (very proud of him) and now eats this once a week but complains bitterly about it. He won,t try rice. HE gets enough and eats a balanced diet with plenty of fruit. Piers on the other hand weaned at 17 weeks and ate everything. His favourite foods are mussels, squid, snails and olives. He prefers highly flavoured food and will try anything. He often eats his own meal and then eats everyone elses as well. At times he eats loads and other days eats next to nothing. The other strange thing about him is somtimes he likes really spicy foods and other times complains very loudly about even mildly spicy food. Once i found him eating a raw chilli and he said it was yummy the next day i gave a pasta sauce with half a dried chilli in it and he kicked off, I have put this down to sensory differences on certain days. The food he has most problems with are cottage pie he says it is baby food and doesn,t like the texture but does eat it. He says he wants to be a chef when he gets older like Jamie Oliver and run his own pub, he loves helping me cook and try new recipes and likes watching cookery programmes Jamie and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall being his favourites. Marcus wont help in the kitchen because of sensory issues with flour, raw egg etc. Piers unlike his brother is underweight and very small for his age. I suppose what i am trying to say is child is an individaul ASD or not. I have far more food problems with my NT daughter than either of the boys, She hates all meat and most vegetables, hard fruit hurt her teeth, she mainly lives on yoghurt ,although like Piers she also was good eater so hopefully she will come around and we are not making it an issue.

Hi i looked at this before but didn,t have time to reply. In a nutshell they analyse urine to see if you have a problem with gluten and casein. there is a thought that in some people with autism gluten and casein are processed by the body diferently and turn into morphine like substances which give the child a high (like morphine ) followed by a sudden crash and a craving for more gluten/ morphine. This is it in very basic terms. ASD people also tend to have a problem with aspartame and monosodium glutamate as well. A lot of children with ASD have a history of severe colic and/or lactose intolerance both my boys included. I have found them to be helpful at Sunderland, Paul Shattock is very approachable. The diet doesn,t work for everyone and is strict but once you get into the swing of things not so bad. We had Marcus urine analsed in 2007 and he was found to have a problem with gluten but we gave up both anyway, i did notice a change in him but unfortunately he spends a lot of time at his grandparents and they wouldn,t stick to the diet so he would come back from them high and it would take a few days to get him back to normal and then he would go to them again. Once we stopped the diet his bahaviour rapidly deteriorated and we had a really bad year but he wouldn,t go back on the diet because his Nanna said it was stupid and he was missing out on nice food . I recently spoke to Paul again as my youngest boy was severely lactose intolerant as a baby and toddler and still has incedents of this and bouts of eczema he spent a long time explaining why he thought Piers had a problem with casein instead of lactose and discussed family history. Following this discussion i had food intolerance testing as he sugggested i probably had a problem too and was found to be intolerant to gluten, eggs and dairy products. DH isn,t keen to try the diet with Piers so for the moment we are holding off but may be something we will try in the future. The test costs £60 and includes you sending a urine sample and a detailed medical and family history. Hope this helps.

All of my children sit like this the two boys are ASD and the girl isn,t . The ed psychologist noted in her assessment of Piers that both of my twins are unaturally flexible, they can both W sit and lean forward so their body is parallel with and touching the floor they both say this position is comfortable. Marcus has very flexible joints also. As a child i could wrap both of my legs around my neck at the same time and i have a cousin who is very double jointed. I think is related to ASD but for us could be hereditory as well.

Both of my ASD boys refuse to get rid of things when they are broken, i have to take them when they are not looking and then they don,t miss them. Marcus will often say you are not throwing that away are you and become upset if i say yes. He also has a recylcling obsession and gets upset about certain things being in the bin together. He hates baked beans and becomes upset if they are thrown in a bin as they will "contaminate" everything. So in my opinion it is probably ASD related.

I too have suffered from IBS/ oesophagitis most of life and also felt lethargic and dizzy as well as many other health problems. After many years of feeling ill all the time i was tested for coeliac disease, it came back negative but I was sure there was a food intolerance of some kind. I went on to pay for food intolerance testing . I was found to be intolerant to loads of stuff including gluten, eggs and dairy and cut these out of my diet. After about a week I felt so much better and had more energy than i had had my whole life (I also lost 16 lbs in weight ). I recently ate some dairy by accident (in a restaurant) and the old symptoms reoccured. It is difficult to cut all these things from your diet but the benefits for me far outweigh the negatives.

Hi been having a good time so far with both boys but for last week have been really struggling to deal with Piers behaviour. He is diagnosed HFA probably aspergers and is being assessed for ADHD also. He is very hyperactive and aggressive and when he gets in one of his moods their is no reasoning qith him or getting through to him. I appreciate it is the school holidays back tomorrow but these are a few of the incedents. 1, Had an argument with his big brother also ASD and started swearing was told of for swearing and became even more wound up. Incedent ended with me finding him with a steak knife (he was going to kill Marcus ) he was running upstairs with knife ( he would have hurt him had he got their) I literally had to wrestle him to the ground. 2, Argument wth sister punched her in the face and split her lip. 3, When i intervene he scratches me, kicks, punches bites pulls hair anything to get away. 4, Today has been Ms birthday we went for a meal spoiled by Piers who ran round restaurant screaming, played with knives and was generally disruptive, behaved in cinema but talked loudly all the time. As we left cinema he passed urine in the street in full view of everyone then got upset because Lydia sat in the car seat he wanted, again punched her then ran away without his coat on shouted i was an idiot took 20 minutes to get him in the car and i leiterally had to wrestle him in the car seat. 5, Didn,t want to eat breakfast wanted sweets I refused to give sweets he spent the next 1 hour lining up boxes of cereal and screaming at me. After this incedent Lydia was found hiding in her room sucking her thumb and looking terrified. When he gets like this he completely loses the plot you can,t reason with him and he appears to not be with you any more. He is tiny for his age but very strong and i physically cannot do anything with him. I am worried about the future I am sure at some point he will be in trouble with the police. I can,t wait to see his paediatrician again although he has said even if ADHD is diagnosed he would be reluctant to prescribe medication due to his short stature. I am struggling to cope especially as at times he is a very sweet loving little boy who has the most wicked sense of humour and a keen interest in all kinds of things. Any tips, he wont stay on the naughty step, is beyond reasoning with and everything else has failed. My mum suggests a good smack A, I don,t agree with this and B the odd time i have smacked him he hits me back so I am just teaching him violence is OK. HELP

Hi all I have done most of my shopping but need one more thing for Piers. The thing is i have no idea what to get him. He is really into Ben 10, power rangers etc but has most of this stuff all ready or is getting it for christmas. My Mum has bought him a kids camera and he has loads of dress up stuff (a passion of his). He really wanted a screature interactive dinosaur, this years must have toy and sold out and i refuse to pay ebays prices. All the other interactive dinosaur stuff ie Pleo/ spike etc are too expensive. We looked at the imaginext space shuttle but feel it will be another thing that sits in the corner due to lack of imagination to play with it. Any ideas around the fourty pound mark. After seeing a thread on here I am off to investigate playmobile. Thanks in advance.

Had the meating with the LEA she was very fair and listened to my concerns agreed they hadn,t dealt with his concentration and focus difficulties. the school said they were happy with the 12.5 hours and were thrilled to get that as a lot of children had been refused statments. I calmly but across my point and the LEA agreed to put in an extra 2.5 hours as well as staing he has SALT, an assessment by an OT and extra help at playtime/ lunchtime an addition to his hours. So 15 hours all together. I am pleased with this and now feel it meets Piers needs. The SENCO came to me yesterday and congratulated me saying he couldn,t believe what i had achieved. I was floating on air, early christmas present. His 12.5 hours started last week and his teacher said he has done more in a week than he has all term. Lets hope it continues. Thankyou for all so much your help and advice. I have Marcus review next week so will probably be posting again.

Hi thought i would keep you all up to date. Following my email to the LEA they contacted me to say that a meeting needs to be arranged with school, myself and the LEA a date has been fixed for thursday. We have had another rough week with Piers not wanting to go to school, although he seems to have resigned himself to the fact he is going and walks fairly calmly but says he hates it. When I collect him he is very anxious hyperactive and aggressive for the first couple of hours with lots of meltdowns. He tells me some of the things that occur at school. Ihavn,t seen his teacher all week she seems to make herself scarce at home time but the headteacher approached me the other day. He said that he was aware i had turned down Piers statement but that he had contacted the LEA and asked if they could start the 12.5 hours anyway prior to the meeting as it was unlikely they would reduce the hours and he would make up the shortfall when the true hours were decided. I read into this that school are not coping and really need some support. The LSA assigned to him has ASD and EYFS training but she worked with my friends son and they didn,t always seem eye to eye, friends DS now in special school. When i told Piers he was to have help at school he had a meltdown saying he didn,t need help. I also found out over the weekend that the other child with ASD in Piers class has been refused a statement and his mum is OK with this. I now feel like I am being greedy asking for more hours but Piers obviously needs them. Will let you know outcome of meeting.

I have done very little so far. I was dreading it as Marcus couldn,t decide what he wanted and was getting himself in a flap about it, everything he did want was either too expensive or just too rubbishy. He has now decided so I can now relax. Lydia is easy could buy 20 times over as long as it is either pink, high school musical or hannah montana I am on to a winner. Piers don,t have a clue he doesn,t know and has very few interests unless you couldn,t fighting and jumping around like a mad thing. Will be doing mine on line also due to little time with work etc. I have got advent calenders and ordered my dairy free chocs today so I am sorted at least. It will be quiet this year for us (welll except for the kids) as in laws are not coming this year MIL has dementia and gets very anxious out of the house. Hope it all comes together soon.

Hi sending you lots of <'> <'> <'> I know exactly how you feel. When my 1st boy got his diagnosis it never really hit me we just kind of muddled along and i didn,t consider the future just accepted this was our life. as he got older though and his difficulties became more obvious it really started to get me down and i suffered from depression. Then DS2 was also diagnosed, initially I was very relieved as it had been a struggle to get anyone to acknowledge his problems but then i started to get the why me moods. I really struggled to do anything and function on a day to day basis, my weight went up and I stopped dying my hair wearing make up etc (claiming I didn,t have time for that) which made me even more miserable and I found it hard to see the funny side of anything. I had a lot of sick time and went through a phase of hating work and everyone there, it was horrible. As far as i was concerned the whole world was against me. I don,t know what happened to make me snap out of it, I refused antidepressants again and decided instead to go to the gym and lose weight. I was very cynical that this could work but it did and i am now back to my usual self. Life is still extremely hard and i have times when i think I just want to stay in bed and not face the world at all but i am genuinely more positive. I think just being a mother you worry about the future for your children but this is made worse when they have a disability. I worry daily what Marcus will do when he leaves school and if he can possibly function in the real world. I worry Piers will get suspended from school for his aggressive behaviour and I also worry he wont make it to the end of one day beacuase of his total lack of awareness of danger. I also worry about the effect of all this madness on Lydia and my DH because he struggles to cope with the boys. I am fortunate enough to have very supportive friends a number of which have children with ASD and my best friend who is a health visitor and always their with a shoulder to cry on. The boys consultant is also the most wonderful man I have ever met he is supportive and understanding and cares about the whole family, so too are the people at CAMHS and the ASD team. The greatest advice that was given to me was to be kind to yourself and take each day as it comes. Make time to do what you like to do (and I can here you say I have no time but you have to) you have to if you are to survive for your family. Tell someone you trust how you feel they will probably not be shocked. If you have noone you can trust the samaritans are great and make you feel better about yourself. You are on the right track telling us how you feel as i am sure we have all been there. You GP can prescribe counselling and the NAS can give you practicle advice on dealing with your son, I am doing the NAS early bird plus course at the moment and even though I have lived with ASD for the past 9 years I have learnt loads and it is great to talk to others in the same boat. Hope you have better day tomorrow. Take care.

The LEA didn,t send a proposed statement although they say it was posted but we never received it. We got the final statement on the 5 nov and after reading were not happy. We have had advice from IPSEA and are in the process of negotiating with the LEA. Email sent the other day awaiting reply. According to IPSEA the LEA must treat the final statement as proposed because we didn,t recieve the proposed, hopefully they will or it will go to tribunal. I really do feel for the teacher as she has 2 with ASD, 1 ? ASD, 2 born very prematurally and this little boy with problems in her class of 22, must be hard but then i want what is best for Piers so must fight for him. Will keep you posted.

Hi all this is more of a rant really. Piers is 5, in mainstream school but repeating reception. He has a diagnosis of ASD and ? ADHD. He is repeating reception because he was so far behind the rest of the class he was not able to cope with moving to year 1 so he is repeating EYFS. We were offered a statement of 12.5 hours which dealt mainly with his social communication problems but hardly mentioned his educational difficulties for this reason we have asked for the statement to be looked at again stating why we didn,t feel it met his needs. We have sought advice from IPSEA. This week Piers has had a cold and this always affects his behaviour as i am sure we will all appreciate. There is a little boy in his class who is very similar to Piers in temperament and they bounce of one another i am afraid. This little boy has his own problems which his mum has been very open about and between us we are very open and discuss any incedemts that occur. On Monday i picked Piers up and he was very distressed saying he hated school and wasn,t going again, in between sobs it took a long time to get to the real reason (gave various little reasons before getting to the biggy). Apparently this boy had twisted Piers arm hard and then prevented him going to the teacher, according to Piers he was blaimless in the whole incedent. After speaking to this boys Mum Piers had been repeatedly touching this little boys arm who was in a bad mood anyway and after repeatedly asking Piers not to bother him he had snapped. I can see both sides here, Piers wouldn,t realise he was annoying the boy or that he was angry anyway and the boy just wanted to be left alone. Last night piers came home upset saying he had been to the head teachers office who had told him off, according to Piers he had hit somebody because the boy had told him to, when i asked him why he said he was just doing as he was told, I told him he needs to make up his own mind whether that is the right thing to do and he said he doesn,t know how (obviously). Today is a sponsored event at school and Piers said he isn,t allowed to take part because of the incedent yesterday, i questioned this today as the TA had made a big fuss of how good piers was going to be bouncing on the trampoline, she asked the class teacher about it who shouted across the class that due to a number of incedents that week Piers wasn,t doing the event as a punishment. I am upset about this for a number of reasons, 1, i don,t like the way the teacher said this in front of all his class he already has low self esteem and is bullied. 2, I havn,t been informed by school of any incedents so not giving me a chance to try and nip this in the bud before it got really bad. 3, i don,t feel they have taken into consideration the fact that he is ASD and unsupported and he has difficulty reading social situations. I have just spoken to the headteacher and said to him that i agree that Piers should be punished for his bad behaviour but i am not happy with the way the situation has been dealt with, IE not been told about incedents, the teachers tellingme in front of the other children. He apologised for the breakdown in communication and i have again asked for a home school diary. I have been telling them from day 1 that Piers has a tendency to be aggressive but they have always said he is passive and not even taken this into consideration. Apparently yesterday he had been rough with some girls in the role play area interfering with what they were doing (not unusual behaviour for Piers) the head had witnessed this and discussed his behaviour with him and then in the afternoon he had wanted something someone else had and had punched them. I don,t condone this behaviour but he needs to be taught appropriate ways to deal with these situations. I have found with Piers that if you are negative towards a behaviour it occurs all the more you have to be very cunning in dealing with him. Therfore by banning him from something he really wanted to do he will give up and not even bother to try. He is only just starting to take part in school and i am worried this is the slippery slope back to not learning again. The head was apologetic for lack of communication (gave various excuses) and he was positive to what i had to say and listened to my concerns. Sorry for the long rant but feel better now. What i am now worried about is have I overreacted and alienated the school would you have done it any differently. I was polite and expressed my concerns calmly but i did complain about the teachers lack of discretion and he said he would speak to her about this.

Hi thanks for your replies i have been busy at work so only just had time to reply after reading the statement through again. In part 2 it states that Piers will get funding to be able to recieve additional help from a learning support assistant for a total of 12.5 hours per week. this suport may be offered on an individual or small group basis and is allocated to the interventions below 5 hours to support Piers in developing appropriate social skills, communication and interaction. 5 hours for encouragement to engage Piers in activities not of his own choosing 2.5 hours to provide reinforcement of instructions through visual resources. The school will provide information to staff about Piers SEN to ensure a consistent approach. additonal learning support as detailed above additional help from LSA to aid comprehension and develop basic skills opportunities to extend social and communication skills through adult led and supported group work and activities Close supervision during break and lunchtimes, to include support to enable Piers to remain safe and to interact and play with his peers and prevent him becoming isolated, anxious or distressed in a free play environment. Opportunities to suceed and receive recognition for his success and to chart his own progress in order to build his self confidence and self esteem. a system to enable close liaison between home and school School to maintain an IEP. Does this sound like the close supervision at breaks is in addtion to LSA support in class. i read it as he would recieve 12.5 hours of classsroom suppprt and the rest in addition. He already gets an IEP every term and has the supprt of the NTAs in the class although this is shared with the rest of the class. The class teacher is really good and does bring to my attention any concerns she has, i have asked for a home/ school diary. He takes part in a group SALT group with other ASD children (there are 12 of them in the school). There is another boy in the class with ASD and he and Piers get more support than the rest of them in the form of an NTA keeping them focused during transition times. On the whole school are quite knowledgable as they have now had a number of ASD children, my oldest boy being the very first and the SENCO is an amazing man. Piers is doing much better this year partly because he is repeating reception and so the work is being duplicated, he knows more already than he did at the end of last school year and is genuinely proud of his own achievements. But I can see already that some of the children are already at the same standard as him and don,t know how he will kepp cope in year one (long way ahead i know). For the past few weeks he has been very aggressive and hyperactive for the first couple of hours after school and his teacher said he was very tearfull yesterday all day and not engaging with his work. He is asking to do more and more after school clubs and i don,t know whether he is just doing this because he wants to please us. I feel he is trying really hard at school and then losing it at home, (as i have seen happen so many times with Marcus). Today I feel as if I just want to keep them all at home and protect them from the big bad world and am fighting the urge to go collect them. I am going to phone IPSEA to discuss this also. Thanks again.

It took about 5 months all together maybe slightly less.