Should I complain?

[cyberseraphim]

When I arrived at nursery this morning, I was told that DS1's 1-1 was doing work with another child. This doesn't surprise me in itself as it only confirms what I've suspected for a while that he does not get exclusive use of 'his' 1-1. The other autistic boy goes to nursery in the afternoon so I'm assuming she was doing '1-1' with an NT child. I've had concerns about other issues too - that he is not really made to feel welcome and they hardly ever fill in his home-book.

I won the appeal on the Freedom of Information Request and found out that they get significantly more funding than a nursery would usually get to provide a 1-1 support because they claim to offer a specific form of therapy to autistic children. His 1-1 is an existing staff member not someone brought in for DS1.

[vjg13]

Did they have a different support worker for your son today?

[cyberseraphim]

No - They said his 1-1 would look after him later so he was left to play on his own - he is fine for behaviour so it is easy to leave him unattended.

[magso]

Is funding for the 1-1 allocated to your child via a statement - in which case yes complain! (Do not assume the other child is NT - they could be preDx)
On the other question - is the 1-1 or another supervising staff member trained or seeking advice from outside specialists to provide therapy for children with asd?

[cyberseraphim]

He does not have a statement - we are in Scotland. The program he is on is only for post dx. I raised concerns before to the Ed Psych and she told me that the 1-1 is intended to be just for DS1 during his hours at the nursery. I personally don't think the 1-1 has much experience with ASd and she has no specific training. Actually I don't think she is much use. We employed an SN nanny for a while who had experience from an ASD unit and the difference in approach and results was very noticeable. We have been toying with the idea of withdrawing him for a while now.

[vjg13]

I think I would ask for a meeting with the head of the nursery to discuss all this.

Is there any other provision worth looking at in case you have more problems? We moved my daughter from her first one because the staff had no experience of SN and were not willing to gain any. Do you feel he gets any benefit from going?

[PheasantPlucker]

I think you need to have a meet up with staff to discuss what is happening, what you would like to happen, and how they are going to work to provide him with the care your ds needs and was promised.