grrrrrr
Have a review meeting coming up next week, and becuase of that have spoken to a couple of the pros involved with ds1 this week. Mentioned to both that we are introducing ABA at weekends and during school holidays and both have been very negative (they're TEACHH people). "oh he'll come out very rigid" said the NHS SALT- which is laughable really having seen an ABA session. AnywayI said it didn't really matter if this part was rigid as all we are doing is trying to teach imitation with a view to eventually moving onto speech sounds. She did concede that would be useful.
Showed my private SALT the video today and she thought it was great. She also thought the comments were ridiculous given that ABA has been shown to be the most effective teaching technique for autistic children. She used to work in a shcool which operated a system of reinforcement so she thinks its great.
Anyway have heard via a convoluted grapevine that when told the results of ds1's CARS (childhood autism rating scale) test the NHS SALT "raised her eyes". The results were that he was mild/moderate. Now I'm not stupid I know how the cars test works. You are either mild/moderate or Severe- and there is a huge range for severe only a smallr ange for mild/moderate. DS1's result was at the severe end of mild/moderate. Now I didn't score the test- BIBIC did- after spending 4 days with him. What do these people think- thatI spent 4 days bribing BIBIC to give him a mild/moderate score. Now I do not underestimate my son's problems- wherever he comes on a CARS test his problems are severe- and if he doesn't move on then he will soon be scoring as severe on the test I'm sure, but why do these people think parents have to be in denial. When I told the nursery manager she hugged me- becuase she understood that that result gives us HOPE!
Frankly I find it insulting that these idots think we're all in desperate denial - especially when I bloody knew he was autistic at 17 months and spent the next year collecting stupid dx like "mild language delay". So bloody in denial I recognised it a year and half before diagnosis.
Grr grrr grrrr bloody grrrr.
The good news is that private SALT was at the discussion about the CARS test and the grapevine tells me that she said she thought it was an accurate reflection of where he is now. Interestingly the NHS SALT was "Stunned" to see ds1 give private SALT a hug and cuddle. Maybe that's becuase he sees her every week so has built up a relationship with her. Beats me how these pros get such rigid ideas about our kids when they only see them once every 6 weeks.
Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.
SN children
A professional "opinion" rant grrrrr
Jimjams · 27/03/2004 14:54
God I know what this is like!! So sorry for you jimjams, but I would just ignore the nhs salt. We have always had problems with our dd's professionals and esp the paed. We do accept our daughters problems, its just they dont give us enough time to explain or show her strengths and weakness's. It always a case of what they say goes.
We had a lovely physio technician who did an intensive course with dd, so she would visit every week and dd did love her, even though she hated the physio! Same with the portage, the weekly visits builds trust and gets better results.
I used to find the half yearly visits from the physio and salt a waste of time. DD didnt trust them and we never used to get anything out of it.
I love her school though, they are so positive and treat her and us as normal and not 'freaks'. Cant beleive I have typed this but the physio/salt/paed make us feel like dd is a freak and it makes me mad. thankfully the paed is retiring in june so hopefully we wont have to see him again
sorry for the waffle
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