Are all your children statemented?

[squishychick]

Can I ask a personal question? I hope it's not going to offend anyone.

 

Do all the children here have some form of Educational Statement? We have a worse than useless IEP and got turned down for a statement. When we appealed the school persuaded us to drop it as he was making good progress. This is now not the case and support is being withdrawn every year as they feel he is making good progress!

 

Any advice or thoughts?

[nellie]

Hi,

 

Not all children are statemented and it's getting increasingly difficult to get one.

 

I would strongly advise you to call one of the education helplines for advice. I recommend IPSEA and the NAS.

 

SEN Support and Information Services, SEN advice, information and support

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=676

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Nellie xx

[Amanda32]

Hi Squishychick

Yes like Nellie said its sometimes very difficult to get your child statemented without a fight but you cant give in. Some cases expert advice is helpful from any professionals that see's your child they may back up any concerns. Teachers, unless they are the ones that are not helping that much. My son was statemented in nursery school, think he was about 3-4 and they automatically did it so it wasn't difficult but ive heard lots of members saying they have had to fight for support so dont give up keep pestering them and we are all here if you need anymore advice as Nellie as already given you some information to look through.

Hope it turns out ok, you are not offending anyone.

Take care

Amanda

Edited August 7, 2005 by Amanda32

[squishychick]

Thank you - we were aware of problems in nursery, the nursery were all for it and called in the SENCO of the school he was going to go to. She said nothing was a problem and we have been fighting since. I find it hard that medically he has a diagnosis and the medical profession are all behind us, but education seem to sit on their behinds. Going into a new class in September with a new teacher who's son is AS so hope there will be some support. Head very good at paying lip service to anyone who comes in e.g Ed Psych, Comm nurse etc. making all the right noises and then not actually doing anything. Well we shall see. Thanks for the links will have a look at them.

[KarenM]

My daughter doesnt have a statment, i dont know if she should have. Although she did fine in her recent sats. She enters high school in september and i am really scared how she will cope.

[Sallya]

Hi Squishychick,

My son isnt statemented , but he is being assessed, and I will hear in September.

 

I have lost count of all the people,ie, teachers, etc who have said he wont be assessed, let alone be statemented.

 

Ive stopped listening to them. If you want a statement for your son, dont set your sights on anything less.

 

A child shouldnt be seen to be failing, before they are given a statement. If they are in mainstream school with a dx of ASD or AS they are a vulnerable pupil, and need the protection of a statement.(just my own view)

 

With the help of IPSEA, and the people on this site, the LEA have reviewed their original decision to not assess him, it has been a battle, but well worth it.

xxx

s

[jools]

my son doesn't have a statement......he doesn't even have an iep

he was put on the special needs register at school 2 yrs ago and despite me continually asking there has never been an iep put in place.

 

he is not dx but now we have camhs involved the school are agreeing he has problems. his teacher was very good at lip service. the specialist teacher who observed him keeps telling me how supportive his teacher is.

my suggestion is that next time she visits any school to observe a child, the teacher is not told why she is there......then they don't have time to play up to her......which is exactly what happened when she visited my son!

 

i have already told school i expect to see anb iep in place in th efirst week of term.....lets see if it turns up!

[lil_me]

My son does not have a statement, his review is up in September so not looking forward to the fight

[Zemanski]

I have one with and one without a statement.

 

We had to fight tooth and nail for Com's statement and still have to fight tooth and nail to get it met now he's in high school

 

Dot actually is only on school action and wouldn't even qualify for that if she didn't have a piece of paper saying she is severely dyslexic but she gets more than she would get on school action plus in most schools because her senco is fantastic and taught her this year so he has a pretty good understanding of her needs and abilities. At her last primary school (a year ago - left just before diagnosis) she wasn't even on the register.

We will probably have to fight for a statement for her if she is going to get any support at high school - the senco there is truly cr*p!

 

Zemanski

[Elaine45]

Hi Everyone

 

I've just found this forum and it looks terrific.

I have a son age 12, almost 13, who has a very mild form of Asperger's Syndrome. It affects mainly his socialisation skills and he's painfully shy. He also struggles when it comes to doing physical activities. When people look at him, he's always got a scowl on his face, so everyone thinks he's grumpy, but they have no idea why this is. To be honest, I don't think he knows he does it!

 

I lived in Scotland up until last September and I have to say the support and help available up there is so much better than it has been since I moved here to England. His school in Scotland were fantastic, he had support both from his learning support teachers and occupational therapy sessions. Now, that he's attending High School down here, he's been more or less left to get on with it. His learning support person in High School has been a complete waste of space. They keep on asking me if he's been Statemented, which of course we didn't have at the time in Scotland, but his teachers wrote a letter detailing everything that they were doing to support him and said that he was being treated as though he was statemented. Still, this isn't good enough for them down here.

 

Since moving here, he's become withdrawn (something I blame myself for) as he's had to not only move country, but go to a completely strange school with new people, pupils etc and I really feel for him. He won't leave the house now unless it's with immediate family. He doesn't want to join any clubs or organisations, he doesn't want to play his keyboard anymore (which he was fantastic at doing in Scotland, and thought nothing about playing it in concerts in front of loads of people!!!).

 

I'm really worried that he's going to turn into a recluse and just don't know which way to turn as regards his teachers and lack of support.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance.

[KarenT]

My son has a provisional dx of AS and all indicators suggest that this will be his eventual diagnosis. He has no statement, mainly because he can manage to cope in school and staff say he won't be considered for a statement as long as he continues to do so. In short, they see little evidence of behavioural problems and he manages to focus and participate in lessons, so they don't regard him as having problems 'in school', even though his class teachers are very aware of the resultant behaviour issues outside of school resulting from stresses he encounters while there. In a way, we're sort of hoping that he'll become less settled and kick off a bit when he gets into Y2, then they might consider statementing him and as a result give him some of the help we feel he needs.

 

Karen

x

[mossgrove]

We have two children on the spectrum (5 and 7) , both with statements and both due to start special school in September. We have been very lucky.

 

Simon

Edited August 11, 2005 by mossgrove

[smiley]

hi squshychick (love the name by the way!)

 

i can completely relate to this one. My son hasn't been statemented. I have requested it several times (after consultant and speech therapist said he should be) but his headteacher turned me down. i have since found out that a parent can request a statement and i'm just beginning the process now (although a friend took a year of constant phoning daily to get it done - bit of an uphill struggle where we are).

 

Mary xx

[squishychick]

We started the statementing process with the school behind us (or so we thought!) we got turned down as he was in year 1 and decided to appeal. The head called us in and said she was no longer supporting our appeal as he was making good progress (which we did agree with at the time) so we withdrew. The head is now withdrawing support left right and centre and J is beginning to struggle! See what year 2 brings!

[Tez]

My son is 14 with a diagnosis of AS, Dyspraxia, Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder and Prosopagnosia. He doesn't have a statement but the school have just requested that the LEA make a statutory assesment.

 

I have had invaluable support and advice from people on this site whilst writing my parental advice. In my experience our children only cope and do well with the support in place. Withdraw that support, because they don't need it any more as they're doing so well!!!! and everything deteriorates rapidly, they need that support to stay in place. In my opinion the statement is necessary to ensure that the right support stays in place.

 

Hope you get it all sorted.

[CarerQuie]

My son has a statement but we had a battle to get one.he is now making excellent progress at a specisl School.xx

Edited August 15, 2005 by CarerQuie

[lisapow]

My son (5) was statemented last year it has just been anually reviewed and he is statemented again.

[baileyj]

My son Max, nearly 5 is statemented, he is due to start full-time mainstream in September, his nursery and head mistress supported the statement, they had a lot of experience on it, and knew exactly how to word all the forms, and it all went through OK. I had to fight once we received the first draft, and had fantastic help from an NAS Advocate, but eventually got 27.7 hours 1:1. Its worth it if you cant get one, and it definately helps with the schools support.

 

Jo