Home visit, SALT is coming too,panicking slightly

[SystemofaDowny]

I've posted before about DD's behaviour problems at school and they have decided to apply for a statement for her (a band B? apparently, but I am a bit clueless about this stuff) and as part of the evidence gathering for it they called in a lady from the Behaviour Support team to observe DD and find ways to support her in school.

I met the behaviour support lady at school when she first started and was very impressed with what she had to say. She had noticed that most of DD's problems are to do with anxiety she experiences at school and has told the teachers they need to change the way they behave towards DD if they want to get an improvement in her behaviour All the things I have been telling them since Reception year that they have ignored she agreed have lead to a deterioration in DD's behaviour

Anyway I spoke to the behaviour support lady again today and she said she will be finishing working with DD next week and has written her report and wants to do a home visit to discuss it with me. Also when we met before she told me that all children she observes are also seen by a SALT as routine. I agreed to that even though DD has never had and problems in this area (she talks alot!) but now she also wants to come to the home visit to talk about her report too.

This is why I am panicking a bit, does it mean DD does actually have speech and language problems that I haven't noticed? and also why do they want to do a home visit? is it going to be 'bad news' that they want to break to me gently rather than just sending the reports by post or phoning me? Has anyone else been through similar that can tell me I'm fussing over nothing reassure me and that this is just the standard way they work?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Could they be wanting to investigate social communication difficulties, rather than speech?

[SystemofaDowny]

I don't know but I've never noticed any problems. I always thought of DD as quite a sociable child (more so than I was at her age anyway) she talks alot and to lots of different people, never had problems making friends until her behaviour got bad at school but still had a 'best friend' last year until he moved schools.

Also she has always done a lot of that imaginative play and showing/sharing things with me. She has been previously described as 'articulate' in school reports and once I was told she did exceptionally well in a vocabulary test and knew words they would expect a Yr8 child to know.

[SystemofaDowny]

Ok thanks I think i am probably just worrying about it too much because I have a lot of anxiety about people (especially if i don't know them) coming into my house and always start thinking the worst about it. Obviously i have to do this as it is necessary for DD but can't work out why it needs to be face to face (my least preferred method of communication) and not in school as it is a school issue in my mind.

I have been thinking and there might be one talking thing that they might think is a problem. DD sometimes talks with a baby voice or sometimes she claims it is an animal/robot voice. She still uses proper words though so its not exactly baby talk. Do you think this is something the SALT would consider a problem?

[SystemofaDowny]

DD won't be here though, the visit is arranged for a time that she will be in school. It sounds to me like it is for a proper serious discussion rather than just an informal chat- thats why the panicking

[Journey]

I think the reason your dd is having a visit from SALTs is because they want the findings on your dd to come from a range of professionals as opposed to just one. It does not mean that your dd will have any speech or language issues. The evidence will just provide a better overall picture. For instance, SALTs may conclude that all is well with your dd's speech and language and the report will reflect this accordingly.

Just so you're aware SALTs deal with children who are able to speak okay but can't communicate effectively. I'm not saying for a moment that your dd falls into this category but it is just to make you aware that the scope of speech and language therapy is not just for children struggling to talk.

From using the behavioural support lady it will probably have entitled you to the use of other professionals such as SALTs.

It can be very emotionally draining dealing with the professionals but hopefully it will help your dd.

[Journey]

Oops just noticed that your DD won't be there at the meeting. What they will be doing is gathering your opinions first before seeing your dd. This is because you have valuable information you can give them on her speech and language because you live with her 24/7 as opposed to just a 1/2 hour observation session at school from SALTs.

It is also easier to have this conversation without the child being there because the parent may not like to say certain things in front of their child.

At the end of the meeting they will probably ask you if they have your permission to observe your dd either in the home or at school and you will be entitled to say yes or no.

Please don't panic. It is just a standard process they're following.

[SystemofaDowny]

Maybe I didn't explain properly (I have problems communicating effectively myself, thats partly why I fear meetings so much) but the Behaviour Support lady and the SALT have already seen my DD several times at school over the last 4 weeks and have COMPLETED their assessments of her and written reports. I have been told the home visit is to discuss what is in the reports.

The parts that are confusing me and causing a bit of worry are:

-why they want to have a home visit to discuss these reports with me in person, rather than just send them to me in the post/ brief chat over the phone. As I said before it makes it sound like something serious needs to be spoken about, but this could just be due to my own anxieties

-I was kind of expecting the Behaviour support person to want to discuss her report as DD clearly has problems in that area, she has already mentioned some of her findings to me already which I agreed with BUT I don't know why the SALT would need to discuss her report as I was expecting it to be all ok as I don't see any problems there, in fact I would say its an area of strength for DD

[SystemofaDowny]

No they don't know about me and I try to make an effort to look 'normal' in front of them usually because I don't want to give the school any excuses to blame me for DD's behaviour any more (had several leaflets about parenting classes in the past [hmmm]) although they have started to realise there is more to it since DS started school and he is a 'model pupil' in their opinion and its unlikely that I am treating them drastically different at home. Plus I have always made extra effort to talk to my DC and get them involved in social events (and not show how much I hate them) so that they won't end up so hopelessly bad at them as I did.

Only place that is aware to an extent is my university as i need extensions for assignments and extra time in exams. This is helpful to me but disclosure in other situations in my opinion is not usually and often the opposite.

[SystemofaDowny]

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to speak to the behaviour support lady today when i took Dd into school, to try and find out some more information about the visit. Unfortunately she wasn't there so I guess i will just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. DD was very upset that she wasn't in her class as usual too which made me worry about what is going to happen when she stops working with DD after half term.