Yep Lingle, nursery 's opinion is a powerful factor i agree.
They do see our dc in a way we don't, for a start their judgment isn't impaired by the fear of admiting to ourselves that there is "something wrong" with our dc.

We had today yet another classic example of ds'reluctance/inabilty to interact with his peers. We were taking a nice walk and ds was playing his new found game of "what's that colour mummy?" for every single car he could spot (after 10 mins. it was getting rather annoying ), then this little boy about ds'age comes over and several times tried to engage friendly contact with ds who did notice him but chose to ignore him and carried on his constant car colours questioning!

I should have added by the way that nursery's opinion is a powerful factor here isn't it?

"So we will go along with it, if they all feel ds needs extra help then oviously his problems are not that mild while at nursery, DH and i have now taken on board that he has different behaviours and needs according to his environment (at home his difficulties appear milder)."

Well done you.

I too find this a really difficult period because of the language delay. You just don't know whether the child unveiled by speech development will still have serious social communication problems.

And an ASD dx might seem "wrong" for home (I was ganged up on again today by "friends" watching DS2 play a delightful game of musical chairs at a party telling me to ignore all those professionals....grrr)but could be useful for school.

My DS2's nursery is in the room next to the reception classroom and the nursery manager is a part of the foundation stage team so if any school ought to be able to manage a transition, it's mine. We are suddenly getting somewhere on the ability to answer questions and that could change everything.....

I completely agree with what Attila has said, particularly the

"You write that nothing is in place as of yet with regards to transition at school. I warn you now there won't be anything much worth writing home about unless you get yourself into gear!!!. Am sorry to sound so direct here and bloody minded grin but you cannot leave this solely to them."

It really will be down to you, I'm afraid, to keep pushing for what your ds needs.

And also, just to make you feel better, at the school where I teach, which is a mainstream state school, 64% of the children have SEN.

I think the national average is about 8%, so your ds's school is just above the national average.

Hi mysonben

Twelve percent eh - my son's school is 20% SEN but numbers are irrelevant really. Its what the school actually does to help these children with their additional needs that matters.

I would advise you to find out exactly what that policy of theirs is because it actually may be all fine words and IEPs (Individual Educational Plans) but no real action. It sounds to me like many of those children are either on School Action and or School Action Plus. Neither of these really amount to all that much in the great educational scheme of things. Anything other than a Statement is not legally binding either.

You write that nothing is in place as of yet with regards to transition at school. I warn you now there won't be anything much worth writing home about unless you get yourself into gear!!!. Am sorry to sound so direct here and bloody minded but you cannot leave this solely to them. Keeping asking them questions and keep up to date with what they are doing. You need the EP on side as well and once DS has been assessed you need to meet with the EP as well. She may well recommend to you verbally that your DS is statemented. The nursery would not be getting the EP in unless it was warranted.

DS is used to things at home and you can both accommodate him. It won't be like that at school though.

If you request a statutory assessment you as parents have far more power than school or nursery ever would in this situation. You can appeal in the event the LEA say no (this is not a right accorded to schools).

Am really glad that SENCO and nursery are on your side but you're also going to have to keep on top of it. That remaining year will go very fast and before you know it DS will be in Reception.

I checked out the infant school ds will be attending and i was surprised to discover that a massive 12% of the pupils have SN!!!

It seems a lot , doesn't it? The school has a good SN ppolicy in place , which is reassuring.

DS has another year at nursery , he doesn't start reception until sep.2010 due to him being born in november.
Nothing is in place as of yet with regards to transition at school.
I spoke to the nursery manageress on friday about statement and E.P.
She said SENCO wants EP to assess ds as it was difficult foe senco to get the whole picture on ds and some his behaviours..., also senco gave nursery staff instructions regarding ds 'stuggles to understand what's happening plus some activities , and the manageress says he needs 1 to 1 support and they need extra funding for that. She also pointed out we were"lucky" to be referred to EP, as she has seen children before struggle and being refused assessment.!!!???
So we will go along with it, if they all feel ds needs extra help then oviously his problems are not that mild while at nursery, DH and i have now taken on board that he has different behaviours and needs according to his environment (at home his difficulties appear milder).

lingle - I never applied in the end, because neither school nor ed psych nor even private SALT thought he would need one, so I didn't want to go down the road of shelling out for private ed psych report that might not have helped anyway. The lack of DX of course didn't help. I get the impression that my LEA is spectacularly tightfisted skint pressured. Statements seem to be rare as rocking horse poo round here - DS's school only has one or two statemented kids, another local school I looked round has none.

Total - yes the whole bloody problem is that people don't show them an unchanging picture of what's being discussed!

Total have you ever applied for a statement or did the lack of ASD diagnosis make it too hard to get?

Similar profile to Littlefish here, I agree totally with Littlefish's advice.

The sooner the better as Statements can take a long time to achieve. The school will then need to source the right person to work with your child. In our LEA a panel makes a decision on the level of need on consideration of the evidence presented.

The sooner he gets the support, the better for him.