BusyLizzie100
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Posts posted by BusyLizzie100
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Is this the annual review brought forward, if so make sure a rep from your LA is there, so your issues are made aware to them.I,d look at alternatives in the area, is there a HS with a resource, my son had had all those measures in place for him that you mentioned your boy has not recieved however he attends a resource at HS.Like you I would be very unhappy , if pos could a rep from camhs also come to your meeting they need to reiterate his emotional needs.When you fill out the PARENTAL PAPERWORK for annual review I,d be very explicit and suggest a more specialist environment is needed...it may make everyone sit up and take notice, good luck, suzex.
Thank you Suze. Sorry, I was a bit ranty, missed out too many facts!
The original statement was finalised in May 2009, we appealed and LA accepted our rewritten Statement, all based on the Advice in the appendices that the LA had missed out.
AR was held in May 2010, we were very lucky in that psychologist who was then working with DS1 on his anxiety came to the meeting. The week before the AR, the senior EP had attended a meeting at school to raise awareness of DS1's issues, but apparently school had used the meeting to try to persuade her she was wrong... most bizarre!
The AR was a successful meeting in that school started to see the extent of DS1's anxiety and some strategies were recommended, but in actual fact the statement wasn't reviewed. Two months later, nothing had been done and DS1 was struggling and required an urgent psychiatric appt. We mentioned non-compliance and a meeting was planned the week before the end of term, with the SEN officer and her manager, the advisory teacher and her manager, the senior EP, Head of Y7 and outgoing SENCO. This is the point at which discussions became a bit more useful and strategies agreed. The SEN manager herself suggested an EArly REview for November, at which point the effectiveness of the agreed strategies could be checked...
And here we are! The same people will be attending the Early Review, tho it will be the new SENCO. She has obviously had to get up to speed; I wrote to her explaining the situation in the first week of term and have since met her twice, though she obviously forgot about the Early Review - when I spoke to her last week she was a bit surprised to hear it was taking place next month! She 'gets' the issue re DS1's anxiety, having seen it at her first-hand, but still... nothing seems to happen!!!
Unfortunately there is no other provision in our LA. It's mainstream or nothing, unless a child has additional learning difficulties (ie MLD or SLD) - that's why my second son is now being educated out of county in a specialist independent school!!!
I suppose the only other alternative would be a smaller school with smaller classes etc, which would mean independent. (All mainstream secondaries round here have about 1,200 pupils and classes of 30.) But what a battle that would be!!! On the face of things, his current school should be able to meet his needs, but it just isn't, it's just not doing anything that's even slightly autism-aware.
yes, I do need to make everyone sit up and take notice (again!), but I really want is action and I don't know how that'll happen...
Lizzie
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I'm so frustrated!!! How can we get school/LA to actually do what the Statement says????
It's like the Statement isn't even there.
DS1 is in Y8 at mainstream secondary and has Asperger's and massive anxieties. He's been on anti-depressants for 2 years, has had input from CAMHS for 4 yrs and got the statement at the very end of y6. His principle issues are social and emotional, and he is actually very academically able. He tends to bottle up his anxiety and has learnt how to hide it at school for fear of getting in to trouble because of it.
We have a new SENCO this year, who I'm liking so far and an autism advisory teacher who talks more sense than last year's, but the strategies just never get past the talking stage.
At the end of y7, in July this year, we were on the verge of making a case re non-compliance, but school seemed to switch on at the last minute and started talking usefully about putting strategies in place. An Early Statement Review was planned for November (only three weeks away now!!!).
Then of course, Y8 starts, with new SENCO, and although she is more switched on, still nothing happens. Is it the school itself, is it just lacking in basic autism awareness?? What does it take to get photos of each of his teachers and TAs with their names, so he knows who's who (cos he can't remember one day to the next)? These are not huge things, quite little things in fact but so hugely important to him!
He is supposed to have one session a week to work through study skills, social stories, any outstanding issues re anxiety etc with a person trained in AS, but it has never happened... mainly, I think, because the school just doesn't have the resources to put this into place (we have delegated funding in this LA).
Meanwhile he struggles on, of course he does, but it's at huge emotional cost to him and to his mental health and his reactions are getting more severe - eg banging his head on a metal pole and making it bleed when anxiety got the better of him...
I just don't know what to with the review just 3 weeks ago - on the one hand we are now talking about bits and pieces that could help (eg he missed the instructions on what ingredients to bring to food tech so the advisory teacher suggests someone emailing him the ingredients), but on the other hand it all feels like we are playing catch-up and then these things never happen, anyway! It's just not joined-up.
So should I 'go with the flow' and see what happens, if and when these strategies are in place, or since this an early review because things weren't going well, should I come down hard and say it's not good enough? I think the latter, but I'm interested to hear what others think!
Lizzie x
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I definitely agree that he needs to learn social skills, I just don't like the implication that "you must feel this under these circumstances". An exterior view of this helps a lot. The changes suggested are very helpful. "brainwashing" was a bit over-dramatic, I must admit. I guess the main thing I struggle with is the statement that he will be happy if he makes others happy. I think we'll review them to find something we're happy with and discuss with the school.
Thanks everyone who has replied so far.
Yes I agree that the wording is not quite right. It's impossible to dictate how a child with ASD should feel, or even try to define what they are feeling, and certainly not in a social story, which is about providing guidance on certain specific situations.
There are in fact specific guidelines to how a social story should be structured - see Carol Gray's books since she is the 'inventor'. However, the term 'social story' can become a catch-all description for any kind of written instruction or guidance in the end, if it works for the child. For example, my 12-yr-old was given a 'social story' prior to a recent geography trip, but really it was simply a detailed, written timetable of what was going to happen and what he could expect - it wasn't designed to alter his social behaviour but it gave him all the information he needed before going on the trip and he didn't get too anxious about it (at the end it said he would get back to school at xx time, which would give him time to go to the toilet, wash his hands and go to lunch - very useful information!).
As already mentioned, I think it's OK to say that others will be pleased, and what any possible reward may be, but ultimately we can't tell these kids what they should or should not like - they may not even understand what 'playing with other children' actually is, or they may be trying to play but not very successfully, so need more support in doing so...
It sounds like the school are trying though, so I'd imagine that simple rewording would help.
godd lkuck,
Lizzie
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Hi everyone,
0)
i have a 6 year old son with ASD. He is mainstream school (p2). Let me give you a bit of whats going on first....
S was dx just over a year ago with ASD, however he was a happy relaxed loving little boy who was thriving (way ahead of his peers in maths and reading) in a mainstream setting with no support needed. Then came summer holidays...
My once loving, happy child turned into an angry, uncooperative child. We now have regular meltdown, where he either shuts down and becomes non responsive or becomes extremely violet. He seems to be in a constant state of stress and irritation.
He's not been happy at school either. He's been refusing to communicate with his teacher, refusing to go into class, and sometimes even refusing to go into school in the morning, he's coming out of school stressed and very angry every single day,and he's wet himself a few times(which really isn't like him). I've had a meeting with the school and they were going to put an o.t. referral in for him as there are a lot of sensory things upsetting him, noise, class size etc, but of course its taking forever. I had parents evening the other night where i was told that he's been refusing point blank to put pen to paper, and the teacher can't put any pressure on him to do it or he has an episode (stops responding, closes eyes, won't walk or talk). His school work is obviously suffering as is his state of mind.
I had an appointment with the paediatric consultant i see for his autism, and she believes everything that's going on, even at home, is a result of him being so stressed out about school. His class is very cluttered and cramped, and he now has to manage stairs, which he hates, and there are more children in this class than there was last year etc etc. I am going to get an appointment with his outreach worker to discuss what we can do within the mainstream setting to help him, but I am really starting to wonder if its worth looking the the few autism units around me. I was told that because he is a bright boy that we won't be able to get him into a unit like this?
Suppose I'm looking for any advice, similar stories, and your experiences of autism units as supposed to main stream?
Really at my wits end, worried sick about him and the state of mind he is obviously in, but kinda feel that (on the short term) i'm helpless to help him. Any advice would be great.
Lisa xxx
Wow, it's weird to read your post because it sounds like something I could've written!! My youngest is a bit older than yours, aged 8 and in Y3, but he sounds a lot like your son. Things have deteriorated rapidly since starting y3 in September. He is so angry all the time and it is getting increasingly more worrying. he is refusing to go into class in the morning and tells me things like it makes him feel better to get under the table and bang his head...
I'm starting to think that we need outside input, eg psychologist or EP. He already has counselling once a week in school but this is very much his own space to vent.
Problem is I'm very familiar with the way things work round here and I know support for him will be minimal, largely because he is so bright and otherwise able. My eldest was in a similar situation, although at age 8 he was obviously anxious rather than angry - after constant battling he eventually got a Statement at the end of Y6 and is now in Y8 at a mainstream secondary, altho we are now having issues with compliance...
I feel really blue at the thought that we're going to have to go through the whole thing again with my youngest, although at least I know the system better now. And also, the way he's going it's looking like he may become more and more disruptive, which is often more of a catalyst for action than anxiety or passive behaviours...
I'll be watching this post with interest; let us know how you get on, Lisa.
Lizzie x
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hi, i am big problems with my 8yr old son who has AS, he has never liked going to school but has tolerated it,the problem is that we had the school holidays then went on holiday for 2 1/2 weeks, and ever since we came back he has refused it go anywhere without me,and going to school is a nightmare, every day he always has something wrong with him which we know is put on, itis just a ploy to get out of school, then when we get to school it takes at least 10 mins to get him out of the car, once we have acheived this we get to his classroom which he is like a clamp round my waist and has to be prised off me,all the time he is crying. as you can guess this is very disressing for both my son and me, we have tried all tactics being nice ,calm and resonable to being really hard on him, briberary, charts you name it we have tried it,
we were just wondering if anybody out there could give us some advice on where to go next
thanks
Denise
Hi Denise,
Firstly, does your son have a Statement? Does he have input from autism outreach? ~(In my area we have autism adivsory teachers that visit mainstream schools to give schools advice on individual pupils).
I would hazard a guess - and it can only be a guess, because I don't know your son - that he is experiencing a good deal of anxiety and that this is one of his ways of expressing it. I think you probably need some effective professional advice, eg from a child pyschologist, as to what is causing his anxiety and how best to help him with it. My son has experienced separation anxiety and it is, as you say, distressing for everyone.
Have you ever had input from CAMHS? They can differ wildly from area to area but a good CAMHS should have some expertise on children with AS/ASD. Another alternative is to ask for the Educational Psychologist to visit your son, if he/she hasn't already; if he/she already knows your son, it could helpful to ask for her continuing advice. I think the important thing is to find out what is making your son so anxious, which isn't always easy to identify, and he may not even know that himself.
Has the school tried social stories, eg explaining the process for coming in to school and perhaps another for describing what your son can do when he feels anxious (ie what strategies he can use or be supported with). This is where autism outreach could help, and fine tune the strategies to suit your son's individual need. It's probably going to be best to address the anxiety when he is calm, so at some other time during the day rather than first thing. What's he like when he comes out of school?
I don't think being hard on him when he is anxious will help him. My son, now nearly 13, tells me that it really doesn't help either when people tell him to calm down - he wants to be calm but doesn't know how to do it, what he needs is to be told HOW to do it!!!
My youngest son (also with AS) is currently having difficulty going in to school too, but instead of being anxious he is massively angry with everyone and everything. School has given him the strategy of going to the senco's room to read quietly for 5 mins before joining the lesson and I'm hoping to talk to the SENCO next week to see what else we can do. Sometimes giving the reluctant a special job to do first thing can help, like switching on the computers or something, not necessarily in his own classroom.
Sorry, have read this back and it sounds rather scatty - I am typing and fending off 3 kids at the same time - obviously my time is up!!!
hope that helps.
Lizzie x
Hi again, just editing to add: identifying if there are other things making him anxious (apart from separating from you), then giving him support at those other times may well have a knock-on effect on this particular situation. If you imagine that a typical person has anxiety levels that are knee-high, and that shoulder-high is the top limit, then your son's anxiety levels are probably already near shoulder-high so that when he is additionally anxious, ie when separating to go into school, he has no room left on the scale to deal with it. Whereas the typical person would still have space to deal with the additional anxiety. If his overall anxiety levels can be decreased, then he may be able to cope with the separation better too. Gawd, does that make any sense!!!!
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Can anyone tell me. As the AR's have so far been in Feburary. If we go to appeal and the Statement is amended in June, when will our next AR be. Will it still be in the following February?
The AR should be in February, or before. It has to be within 12 months of the last review, so if it's held in June it'll be overdue. The date of the review is not the date of the meeting or the headteacher's report, but the date that the LA writes to you with its decision following the review.
Lizzie x
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What happens if Part 2 of a statement says, for example, 'refer to the reports attached for details about X's speech and language difficulties', ie without listing all the needs in the actual Statement - is that illegal? Or is it just bad form?
And if the actual needs aren't listed in Part 2 in this way, can the LA then get out of makingn provision in Part 3?
DS2's statement says this and, although it's not been a problem because he's getting proper SALT at his specialist school, I'm curious.
Lizzie x
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The CofP 5:72 has some info on phase transfer.
The CofP also says that the HT must send the review report to the LA within 10 days. If they had not received it, I cannot see why they would not have chased the school for it long ago.
...But that would mean the LA would have to be proactive!!!!
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Hi,
Actually I'd also be quite interested to know when the proposed is due.
With regard to the AR Year 5, what were the recommendations at the review? In theory there are no time limits for them to issue an amendment notice, BUT in order to do so, there should have been a significant change or development in order to justify changing the statement and this should have been discussed at the AR itself. Also, although there are no legal time limits; if they are to be seen to act 'reasonably' and by that I mean a legal 'reasonably', then it should be a matter of weeks and not months that an amendment notice should appear at your door.
I have heard that January is normally the time for proposed statements to be issued, but I too would like to know what the legal minimum is i.e. if the Final Statement has to be issued Feb 15th latest and parents have 15 days (I think) to respond to a proposed statement, does that mean Jan 31st is the latest that a parent should receive a proposed?
And actually, a parent can ask for a meeting on the last day of those 15 days and the period would then get extended, and when you factor in postage time, surely that would mean something like the beginning/middle of Jan latest for the proposed to allow for everything?
Grace/x
Hi Grace. I've found out that existing statements HAVE to be amended, by law, when a child is within 12 months of a transfer between phases ( ie primary to secondary, primary to middle, middle to secondary) so that before 15 Feb in the year of transfer the statement names the school the child will transfer to in September (ie it has to be finalised by 15 Feb). Presumably this gives time to appeal before September.
DS2's school goes through to 19 and it's obvious from the Review report in July that they expect him to stay on; there are no significant changes and he's doing well.
There isn't any legislation about time limits on concluding a review that i can find, but a statement must be reviewed at least within 12months of it being finalised or of the previous review. and the 'Review' is not the date of the meeting, it;s the date that the LA makes its decision following the Review meeting. If it's not done in that time, then it's overdue and, I presume, reason to complain.
Which raises an interesting point re DS2 - his previous annual Review took place during a re-assessment of his needs, at which point the school said it could no longer meet his needs. The school prepared a review report, but it seems to have been subsumed into the re-assessment ( actually they tried their hardest to ignore it at the time), so that although an amended statement was produced with a new school in Part 4, there was in fact no conclusion of the annual review... amendment of a statement doesn't start a fresh 12month cycle and the review is still due within 12 months of the previous Review - this was certainly the case for my eldest son, whose statement was finalised in May 2009, amended after appeal in Nov 2009, and reviewed in May 2010.
So technically speaking, DS2 is overdue his annual review from 2008-09, let alone 2009-10! Blimey, I think I've argued myself into a total mess!!!!!
And to top it all, my friend's son moved schools in spring this year but his statement still names the previous school... and that's the second time it's happened to her because he was at a mainstream school previous to that...
Is my LA pants, or what?!
Lizzie x
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Hi,
Can anyone help me with this? DS2's AR was in July 2010 at the end of Y5. He's in a specialist out of county placement that goes up to 19. LA has said this is a transition review as he will be going into Keystage3.
I was just wondering what the timings should be? I'm thinking we should get a proposed new statement soon, which gives us time to get it amended if necessary before it's finalised in February - is that right?
I do not trust my LA an inch and know that they are trying to reduce out of county replacements, so I am a little nervous that they may spring something on me...
Things are going really well at the current school. I've written to the SEN officer to say I want him to stay there.
It has been suggested that if all is well, there may be no need to rewrite the statement, but to say no changes are necessary, as per a regular AR. His statement is quite new, only finalised in July 2009.
Since he is in an out of county placement, and we want him to stay there, is there any need to fill out the LA's secondary application form for a local school?
Thanks folks
<'> Lizzie x
Edited to add: I spoke to the LA today who say that, according to the computer, they have not received the school's Review report. I got my copy through the post in July and school assures me they sent a copy to the LA promptly too. I don't doubt them because being a specialist school they have at least 100 reviews a year and know what they have to do!
I know that one of the SEN officers has been off sick for a long time - I'm wondering if the school's report is sitting on her desk...? Is there any guidance or law on how soon after the Review meeting takes place that the review process has to conclude?
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Did you get the special independent placement at tribunal?
And if so did you get independent reports?
Did you go alone to tribunal or did you have expert witnesses or a solicitor or someone from the NAS/IPSEA.
Our first appeal was initially over DS2's placement. we got independent reports, but the independent EP said she wasn't convinced at that time that he should leave mainstream. However on the back of her report the LA agreed to amend the Statement, bumping up the provision hugely, and we withdrew the appeal.
However the school found it almost impossible to put all the provision in place (not the 1:1, but the strategies and teaching that he required). DS2 began to disengage rapidly, by this time he was in Y4. We asked for an Early Review but were told no, so then requested a re-assessment. The NAS supported me and I put a strong case and he was re-assessed. During the assessment the annual review was held, and the school reluctantly said it could no longer meet his needs.
The LA then beat around the bush for ages; we had several versions of a newly written statement that, as I mentioned, made no reference to his previous statement or all the info and test results that it had included and had not been repeated by professionals because they saw no need.
I was on the verge of camping out on the doostep of the LA's SEN supremo to get an answer about what type of school they would name, but they cocked up timings (as dictated by law) and generally messed us around. There is no alternative ASD provision in my county, just MLD, and by that point we had four EPs (2 independent) saying that he DID NOT have additional learning difficulties.
Then the local SEN team sent out another version of the statement saying that he needed an ASD placement. I don't know if it was a mistake, because the SEN supremo had said otherwise, but we leapt on it and from there the placement was decided. He went for an assessment at the out of county school and it went on from there. So we narrowly avoided having to appeal on that score... but it was not at all easy!
With my eldest son, the we appealed over the Statement he recieved at the end of Y6 (he hadn't been statemented previously). Again the NAS education advocacy team were brilliant. The LA agreed to accept all my amendments before the tribunal was actually heard, so again we withdrew the appeal. Our appeal was not about placement.
So no, I haven't been to tribunal but I have had two narrow escapes!!!
But I would really consider getting advice from Ipsea, the NAS or ACE, because they have all the legal and COP references at their fingertips and it helped enormously.
Hope that helps.
Lizzie xx
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So even in a special school you are still having problems with non-compliance?
No, DS1 (aged 12) is in a mainstream secondary school and the school is not abiding by the Statement.
DS2 (aged 10) is in a specialist independent school and everything is going really well.
To be honest, my feeling is that your situation is probably best sorted out by appealing to SEND. The NAS was fantastic in supporting me and guiding me and there's also IPSEA, ACE and others. It can be hard work, but you sound like you have lots of evidence, you just need to put it together into an application and then make your case.
Hope that doesn't sound dismissive, I just genuinely think that's the best way forward.
Lizzie x
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Just wanted to add, since the Statement is already finalised, you may have no choice but to appeal to SEND. I think I'm right in saying that while an appeal is in progress, the original Statement is still valid...?
You may find that once an appeal is started it may not go all the way to tribunal. With regard to my DS1, the Statement that was finalised was rubbish and missed out vital reports, as already mentioned, including any mention of communication skills. As part of my appeal I totally rewrote the Statement, incorporating the 'missing' evidence, as a Parental Working Document. The LA sent me an amended Statement, incorporating about 99% of my version, which was a huge success. We then negotiated over the wording of one or two paragraphs and the appeal ended. It sounds straightforward, but it was actually flippin' hard work...
The next step, of course, once you've got the Statement you want, is for the school to use it and fulfil it... a year on, we are still trying to get school to comply with the Statement!
We've had one Annual Review and an Early Review is now scheduled in November.
Lizzie x
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Very briefly, because I'm in a mad rush right now...
Ask the LA to provide the evidence as to why the information in the previous Statement is no longer relevant, ie how his needs have 'improved' in their eyes, and ask them to be specific. They may continue to stonewall, but it's certainly something SEND would want to have explained.
That was the point we were at with DS2 when the LA suddenly pulled the rabbit out of the hat and gave us the specialist provision.
Lizzie x
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SEN Regulations 2001 11 states that when making an assessment an authority shall take into consideration
any representations made by the child's parent and evidence submitted by the parents.
I would argue in your case that the LA does not appear to have taken parental evidence into account.
Having said that, when DS2's Statement was amended following a re-assessment, the original Statement (which was the result of an appeal to SEND) wasn't in the appendices although I had sent it in as part of my advice; the resulting amended Statement therefore missed huge chunks of his already recognised needs because the professionals had chosen not to repeat their tests, knowing that the results were already well documented. In the end it wasn't a big deal because the important thing for us at that moment was that the new Statement recognised he needed a specialist setting rather than mainstream. I sent the old Statement to the new school anyway and they have since made their own assessments etc.
With both my sons' Statements we have encountered no problems getting the LA to accept independent reports, although strangely when DS1's Statement was written the LA totally missed out the LA's own specialist senior EP's advice - even when I pointed this out the next proposed Statement merely mentioned her. The EP's advice was actually the most important evidence we had, and identified huge areas of need. Subsequently after appeal to SEND the LA agreed to put it all in. Hmmm, the cynic in me says the LA was cherry-picking the evidence it felt suited its own needs rather than my son's....
Lizzie x
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fabulous, fabulous, fabulous news Lizzie
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Wow, that is great, well done him!!!!
And for something as 'boring' as shower gel, too! I'm impressed!!!
Lizzie x
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Am I going back in time?!! What happened to the other recent post on this topic???
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But it is just all very tedious what more can I say.
I had dared to think about what I could do with my time and I don't want to have to send more Emails.
Karen.
I so know what you mean!!! Feel like that myself. We also have a new Senco, and a new head, but how much 'settling in time' should we allow them? My son's mental health issues won't go on pause while they get used to their new offices!!
I sent my first warning shot across the bows on the first day back - mainly because DS1 had been up until 4am stressing about not knowing who his form teacher would be in Year 8, where to go, who the TA would be...
It really does get tedious, doesn't it?!
Lizzie xx
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Thanks for the suggestions
Lizzie x
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Hi Karen,
I can tell you what happened to my friend's son when his Statement was rewritten for secondary school after his Y5 review -
Her son had had a Statement since Reception, with hours of 1:1 specified etc. The new Statement, finalised at the beginning of Y6, has no hours specified on it, because such specification 'is no longer needed', ie, the school should be able to accommodate the needs in Part 2 through their delegated funding. The provision in Part 3 is now much more woolly and general.
What tends to happen under delegated funding, especially at secondary school, is that Teaching Assistants are 'shared' across a number of children, to cut costs and for 'greater flexibility', apparently. In practice, as in my own son's case, it is often the more disruptive or more demanding children that get the TA's attention and therefore input, while he sits and stresses on his own.
My friend started an appeal to get specified hours back on her son's Statement because she know he wouldn't cope without 1:1; meanwhile she spoke to the intended secondary school who said: 'We currently prefer Statements to be as unspecified as possible because, when they are tightly specified, we know we can't fulfil them with our delegated funding. So please don't appeal!'
In the end my friend has sent her son to an independent school, so the appeal ended, but it would've been very interesting to see the SEND view on that situation! And SEND may still, because my son attends the same school and we are having difficulties with non-compliance of his Statement...
Back to your query, I think an LA would have to be particularly ######-minded to take out specified provision at a 'regular' annual review; I think any parent/carer would have a very strong argument for getting specified provision put back in if the needs hadn't changed - although, of course, the LA might try that tactic, too, by changing Part 2...
I think SEND would take a very dim view of such practice. IPSEA may have a view on it too, and would probably very much like to hear about any LA that does so it can take action against them.
Lizzie x
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Autism is autism. Asperger syndrome, High Functioning Autism, Kanner syndrome, etc etc are all subgroups on the autistic continuum. Asperger syndrome DOES have its own diagnostic criteria, but it's still autism and revolves around the triad of impairments.
DS2 was diagnosed as having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder at the age of 4 in 2004. Not knowing a great deal about autism at the time, we asked was it actually Asperger syndrome, to which the doctor replied: 'Autism is autism'. Now I know more about autism, he quite clearly does not have AS. He did have speech delay and probably has an above average IQ, but the diagnosis ASD still stands.
DS1 was diagnosed as having Asperger syndrome at the age of 7 in 2005. He fits that description much more accurately than DS2 ever did. At a paediatric review in 2009 the paediatrician described DS1 as having ASD. She explained they tend not to differentiate and prefer to use the term ASD.
This same paediatrician recently diagnosed DS3 as having ASD at the age of 7 this year; he is clearly high functioning and in actual fact much like his eldest brother. The term Asperger syndrome is a likely description, but for diagnostic purposes the team has stuck with ASD.
I think that's fair. The spectrum is large and we have met many children who present very differently, some much more severely, but each person I've met presents in a very individual way - and personality often affects presentation, too. Nonetheless, all three of my children are autistic.
It's hard enough for much of the general public to understand what autism is and additional terms such as AS and HFA can just prove to be confusing - in my experience that can be true of teachers and health professionals, too.
I suppose it depends WHY people are keen to make distinctions. I'm genuinely interested - what purpose does it serve?
Lizzie x
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We have started talking to DS3 about his ASD. He is open to the idea, after all it's perfectly normal in our household, with two older brothers on the spectrum!
However he's in a different place to them, at the very high functioning end (I don't really like that phrase) of the spectrum and I think a book would be a good way of supporting him.
Does anyone know of a good book, with pictures preferably, aimed at his age group and the high functioning/Asperger group? He already has an idea of what autism is, but he relates that to his less-high functioning older brother and his extremely anxious Asperger brother.
This has probably been discussed before, so if there's a link that I've missed, please feel free to point me in the right direction!
Many thanks,
Lizzie xx
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Most schools now get 'delegated funding' for SEN. That means the LEA already gives the SEN budget to the school.
This usually equates to up to 15 hours of support per week. I do not know what the amount per child is for delegated funding.
If a child requires more support than that a Statement maybe issued.
At this point the school can request addtional funding from the LEA to fulfill the Statement.
We have delegated funding under our LA. It does not work like this.
The LA decides how much each school's SEN budget will be, based on criteria including league table performance, how many children have free school dinners, and predictable need (eg how many children are on the SEN register). This budget has to cover all the SEN within the school, including Statements. No additional funding is provided and Statements do not carry separate funding. The LA's policy is that specific hours of support do not need to be written in to Part 3 of a Statement, to give the school flexibility and allow them to use their SEN budgets as effectively as possible. It sounds great on paper, but in practice it's rubbish.
When delegated funding was introduced most schools found that their SEN budgets were slashed. Consequently it's very common to find that schools cannot even pay for the required support stipulated in Statements, let alone meet the needs of children on SA+ or SA etc.
The result is that schools are now asking for Statements to be as unspecific as possible, because they know that they will not be able to meet and pay for specific requirements. The system is totally funding-led and not needs-led, as it should be. What a farce! It's true that ultimately the LA must ensure that Statements are met (unless, of course, the school becomes an academy and breaks away from LA control), but I'm not aware of that happening as yet. We may be the first test case with DS1!!!
Getting back to the OP, when we first went to tribunal over DS2's placement, we needed to find out how much his mainstream placement was costing, with the cost of all the support in the Statement added on (eg SALT, OT, 1:1 teaching) - this was before delegated funding - so we could compare it with the cost of a specialist placement. I don't remember the exact figures, but the LA downplayed it as much as possible, eg saying they paid nothing for SALT because they had a blanket contract with the NHS SALT, altho this was a nonsense because the NHS SALT service kept discharging him even though it was a big part of his Statement...
A tribunal is likely to take such financial issues into consideration, especially when the LA is arguing about use of resources, but it will also take the child's needs into consideration. With DS2, the LA finally agreed to a specialist out of county placement for him because there is absolutely no provision within the LA that could possibly meet his needs. That costs the LA a great deal of money, with transport costs on top; it's a weird system that pays out such enormous amounts for the specialist out of county placements but doesn't provide enough money to fulfil Statements at its mainstream placements...
My advice would be to try not to worry about the finances until, as you say, you find the appropriate placement. Then you will need to prove that this is the only one that can meet your child's needs, and that any others can't; it won't work just to say this is the best one for him, you have to prove that it is the ONLY one for him.
The finances are the LA's concern. It's very unreasonable for the LA or schools to throw financial issues at you, but sadly they do and they will. If that happens, don't be overwhelmed. Stick to your guns and, if necessary, go to a higher authority eg tribunal or ombudsman. We are on the verge of that ourselves, having ended the summer term planning to complain officially about non-compliance of DS1's Statement, but then the summer holidays got in the way and we have to start again from next week, with a new head and a new SENCO - which may turn out to be a good thing...!
sorry, jlp, no clear-cut answers!
Lizzie xxx
Supports not in place after a year!
in Education
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I'm starting to seriously think that finding an alternative school is going to be the only way forward.
But DS1 may not like that idea at all... I hate the idea of uprooting him - it's hard to work out what's for the best.
Lizzie
