Don't they need to see him?

[BuntyB]

Hi,

When my daughter age 8 was diagnosed, she went through a series of tests before we were told her diagnosis.

As her older brother is so like her, I have no doubt he also has AS and told them so...however, they didn't seem terribly interested.

 

Her brother was also not interested in having a diagnosis.

 

Now he is 13 and has had loads of problems since starting secondary education. School are aware of why I think he is having problems and told me they can put support in place if AS is diagnosed.

 

I was sent a questionnaire and so was school. I wrote loads on it since a lot of the questions would have been applicable at 6, but not at 13 (eg, one relating to his understanding of humour. Tom studied joke books like he was taking an exam in it to work out what is allegedly funny, just so he can laugh appropriately) I told them why school would probably find it difficult to identify, but if they saw him sobbing when he got in from school after holding it together all day, they might understand.

 

I had a message today saying there would be a 'panel' meeting in December. They haven't met him- don't they need to? What happens at the panel- is he subjected to a bunch of experts? Can someone enighten me?

Edited October 26, 2005 by Shona

[littlenemo]

I have no idea about the panel really but it may be the panel that decides whether or not your son meets the LEA criteria for funding at SA+. If so they will only be looking at paperwork - they aren't assessing your son only looking at the evidence school presents to them.

 

if the school has a 'suspicion' that your son has AS then they should be acting on that suspicion according to the Dfes good practice guidelines for ASDs - you can find them on the Dfes site under their publications section to download. However, I haven't met many schools that act on suspicion, I suspect that the LEA don't encourage it and that without the diagnosis he won't meet the criteria they use very well.

 

Zemanski