Son in Year 2 assessed as on P Scale - fighting an uphill battle

[autumnsparkles]

This is really long and I apologise but here is the back story

In Reception, we discussed our son's speech delay with his teacher, at first she said she would refer him for therapy, 2 months down the line, she said that the school now did that and he would receive help via school. He occasionally came home with phonics sheets in his bag. By the end of year1, he had not shown any improvement and he could not read or write.

In year 1, at open evening his teacher said he had been assessed on "P" scale for reading and writing but this was due to his speech. Half way through the year and still no improvement, we approached the teacher. She told us not to worry as she was seeing improvement with his reading and writing in school. I was still worried about his speech and asked my health visitor that I use for my younger children for help even though he was 6, she could see the problem and we had him checked for tongue tie, hearing and referred for speech therapy. We discovered that he does not hear sound differences such as "D" and "G" and so he has learnt to speak as he hears it and needs to relearn. I passed this information onto his class teacher.

The end of year report came and he had only gone up the p scale by one point throughout the whole year.

So we worked with him every day during the six weeks, his concentration is terrible but to give you an idea, he writes all letters back to front, uses numbers instead of letters (1 for I) has trouble forming letters and asks which side he needs to start from. Incidentally his mind for maths is excellent but he is unable to write sums down correctly and the numbers are back to front. His reading is so much more better when I cover all words and have him read one at a time although he gets really simple words mixed up like saying "no" instead of "on".

His behavior is fairly good although we have seen him more aggressive lately. He goes from 0 - 60 really quickly but is also quick to calm down. However once it is over, it is over. If I try to talk to him, his mind is elsewhere and he is talking about something else. Again a concentration thing.

This week I had a call from the new SENCO at the school, (I had seen his class teacher to say I wanted him assessed and thought it was because of this) but she said she was going through all the children she has files on and seemed surprised that I had not spoken to the previous SENCO. She said she had arranged a speech therapist to attend the school and assess him to which I replied that he was already having therapy and I was additionally concerned about his reading and writing and upcoming SATS. She said there was nothing in the file and I said I was upset as he is showing as being on the P scale and this should have been flagged.

Tonight his Yr1 teacher approached me to say the SENCO had been to see her but she has advised that she did not think that DS had additional needs above his speech. When I mentioned the P scale, she said it was all down to his speech as they go hand in hand!

I am deeply concerned. I have looked online about P scales and they refer to children assessed as having SEN. Has my DS been assessed as having SEN and if so should I have had more input from the school?

Also does anyone have any views on delayed speech and reading and writing?

Thank you in advance.

[autumnsparkles]

Forgot to add that with his speech, he does not just say sounds incorrectly but also words. He has no concept of tenses and adds "ed" onto a lot of words.

[billiejeanbob]

he sounds very similiar to my dd who is dyslexic. sounds like school are failing him spectacularly. I would be requesting an assessment from the LEA.

[Veritata]

The teacher has some strange ideas if she thinks that the fact that in her view he only has one category of special needs means that she doesn't have to flag this up to the SENCO. The lack of progress should have rung alarm bells if they were tracking him properly. Yes, it may be down to his speech but that absolutely doesn't mean that they should be complacent about the fact that he's slipping behind - he will become less and less able to access the curriculum unless this is addressed.

I suggest you write immediately asking for an education, health and care needs assessment - there's a precedent on the IPSEA website. Also talk to the SENCO about doing a dyslexia assessment - they should be able to do at least a basic one in school - and putting in place more support immediately.