advice needed for 7 year old ds

[mum2rob]

Hi

I am hoping for some advice about my ds. He's just started year 3 and has a statement for problems with his speech. He has been assessed by EPs in the past and the feeling has been that his problems are all tied up in his language problems. But now he is at juniors the SENCO and teacher are telling us he definetly has a general cognitive problems as well and wants he reassessed by a new EP and won't help us push for more speech therapy -saying his speech is on level with is cognitive abilities. They basically are saying we are in denial over his problems. It is really worrying me and we are thinking perhaps if this is true he will be better off in a special school. We chose the junior school as it has a good reputation locally for special needs.

He is behind with academic work. He got 1s in his SATs apart from writing which is so bad they didn't assess it. He started school only being able to 3 words together so I feel he has come along way. His speech is still delayed (understanding has improved but has problems putting sentences together esp when stressed). He is distractable and SALT assessments always say he has a poor short term memory. He also has slight hearing loss (as a result of recurrent glue ear problems) and is waiting to be assessed for a hearing aid in class would help him.

I feel his reading is really coming on (can read ORT books stage 6/7 and is beginning to spell cvc words. he knows numbers to 100 and above and can count in 10s, 2s, and 5s can do simple sums but not in his head (using fingers or numberlines). He is also one of the youngest in his year. He is a lovely happy boy and we just want to do all we can to meet his potential. We feel he is bright in some ways -great at navigating the internet and building amazing spaceships from lego at home.

My question is does it sound like he has a cognitive impairment. We are reluctant to give up the little SALT he is getting and it does to seem to help him in the past.

Thanks for reading this rambling post! Any input into how we can help him would be welcome.

[coppertop]

I think I would be asking to see a developmental Paed who will look at the full picture IYSWIM. EPs are notoriously cr@p when it comes to deciding on what a particular difficulty is. A SALT will naturally be focussing on speech & language problems. A Dev Paed will be able to get a fuller picture of what is going on.

Welcome to mumsnet. There are a lot of us who post over on the Special Needs board so come over and join us if you would like to. You might get a few more replies over there too as we often forget to come and check this section.