Nursery assessment for autism/behaviour issues?

[susan198130]

I have an appointment with a nursery nurse who does the checks at my local clinic. I've posted on here before about my 3.5 year old. His nursery flagged up some issues with him. They say he doesn't interact with the other children there and often goes into his own world, just sitting staring out the window. Anyway, the nursery worker for my clinic has offered to see my son to see if she can see any red flags and asked me if his nursery have done an assessment of him? Has anyone's nursery carried out an assessment like this? I asked at my son's nursery today if they'd done an assessment and they kind of looked blank like they didn't really know what I meant. Is this something standard that nurseries carry out? And what does it involve? I know they've been observing him and have referred him for speech therapy (his speech is fine - but they said it can help with other areas as well). But should they have carried out an official assessment (if one even exists)?

[buttershy]

Hey lovely, I used to be a pre-school teacher now a PhD student researching early years learning. Yes, your son should have a two year progress check (completed between 2.5 and 3 years of age) and that should have some detailed information about his development in a nice, easy format for you to understand and share with other professionals. I would be concerned if they haven't done this (it is part of the EYFS, so is a statutory requirement) especially if they have communicated concerns with you. They also should be keeping some sort of written journal/file/folder which records his development over time, for example in next steps/targets that he's working towards, observations etc, and these should demonstrate any areas he's struggling with and similarly any areas he's really doing well with. As I'm sure you know, children who are suspected as having an ASD will probably have some interesting observations to do with letters, numbers but may have some limited information in their file about their communication or socialisation with other children/adults. Even if your nursery has somehow stuffed up and not got this information easily to hand they are required now to work with you closely to help provide you with the information you need to help with any assessments, so absolutely do put pressure on them to produce you some sort of report.

if you scroll down to page 8 of this document, this is what is used to record the development of all children in nurseries/preschools/childminders. You might be able to go through it yourself and think about what he is able to do for his age band in each of the areas of learning. You will probably want to be looking particularly at personal, social and emotional development, and communication and language. www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf

Hope this helps!

[buttershy]

Sorry- thought it might also be helpful to include this: its the information about the two year check, so that if you do want to confront them about where it is/why it hasn't been done you at least know what it is/should look like :)

www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-know-how-guide-the-eyfs-progress-check-at-age-two

[NickNacks]

Maybe he started after his third birthday?!

[buttershy]

good point NickNacks, hadn't thought of that! Also the behaviour you describe doesn't ring alarm bells with me. If he only started at 3 and doesn't do many sessions it would be perfectly normal for him to still be settling in and to enjoy his own company, children are all unique :)

[susan198130]

Hi thanks for the replies. Really helpful. He's only been at nursery since September. He'll be 4 in July. Sorry I should have said. He does 5 mornings a week. He does have a book where originally they told me they would complete it with his development but so far (and we've had this since January), all it has in it is what they are learning at nursery - i.e. phonics. It doesn't give me any feedback whatsoever on his development.

I don't really know what to think to be honest. When we are out, I see him play with other children. Normally they are the ones to instigate play but then he's very shy. They're concerned with the fact that he doesn't show any interest in playing with the other children, can quite happily roll a car along the floor for the whole time he's there, and his zoning out where he sits just staring out into space. They have said that he also sometimes speaks out of context, as in the sentence makes sense but it doesn't make sense in that sentence. He does this at home sometimes when he's annoyed - like if I tell him it's bath time and he's playing, he may something like "No there's no room to have a bath". Or when I say he has to go to nursery, he'll say "No, I'm not going to bed with nursery". But a few weeks back, we were over the park and I saw a boy he goes to nursery with. The boy kept looking at us and I said to my son "why don't you go and play with him" so he did and they went off and played for a good hour. He just needs a lot of encouragement sometimes.

My son had his 2 year check at 27 months with our health visitor which didn't go so well but he wasn't well, was tired and I knew that he was so much better than he showed. Plus she started off with a cars puzzle (cars where his thing at that time) so he didn't really want to do anything else after that. She also wanted to see him do some imaginative play so gave him a doll and a brush and wanted to see him brush the dolls hair. My son is a typical boy, doesn't like dolls, so he kind of just put it back on the table.

It's all so confusing. I just thought he was shy and sometimes a bit difficult but now I'm worried, especially as he starts school in September. I'd hate to think of him in the playground all by himself at playtime.

[susan198130]

My other concern with the nursery is that they have said he is such a good boy, and so quiet to the point where you wouldn't even know he was there. I know there are a couple of boys in his nursery who can be a bit of a handful so I worry that maybe because he is such a good, quiet boy, they overlook him because they have other more challenging children to work with. I hope I'm wrong but considering he is so quiet and doesn't interact (we got invited to their story time a while back), while the manager there was reading the story, my son started calling out about the woman in the book having oranges on her head and laughing. The manager didn't even acknowledge him (another worker did) but I'm just surprised that considering their concerns, they didn't kind of jump all over the fact that he spoke up to try and encourage him.