How many kids actually have SEN?

[justasking14]

Morning all, not trying to be offensive with this just genuinely interested.
A big proportion of people on MN seem to have DC with autism or SN of some kind, its mentioned in their posts & replies. Have other people noticed this too & do you think its representative of general population or do mums of DC with SN use this forum more for whatever reason?

I guess what I’m saying btw is that I don’t think people aren’t telling the truth, just that they need to support from other people.

@2007millie

Maybe instead of my little boy seeing health visitors and doctors, having hospital appointments, eye and ear checks, being assessed by multi disciplinary teams. Physiologist reports, Speech and language therapy and Early year support plus having all this before done before his final diagnosis with a paediatrician he sees regularly I should have sat him in your classroom so you could assess him.

He was first given a referral at 9 months and got a diagnosis at the age of 3. It is not rushed, he was not eating sugar and fizzy drinks and I am not a bad parent.

Who still believes that nonsense with sugar nowadays? I though that was discredited years ago.

I’m quite interested in this. When I was teaching, almost every kid in the class was on the SEN list. But for some of them it was more obvious than others. I used to wonder if maybe the school had an interest in saying the kids had SEN, like maybe they got more funding or something, but I don’t think that was the case. However I honestly thought some of them were just ordinary kids who shouldn’t have been labelled SEN. There’s no such thing as normal after all.

My DS is being assessed just now. He is 3.5 years old and non verbal. We will await the outcome of his assessment which will continue after this pandemic calms down.

Absolutely howling at Brogley replying to the wrong thread 😂. Just don't let them onto your property 😂😂😂

I'm coming at it from the middle ground. The school referred my child and following the ASD assesment process he has a diagnosis of being autistic. I had my own thoughts and voiced them along the way, always borderline but it took a well organised secondary school SEN team to get the assessment process underway at the age of 11. If you met him once you wouldn't think there was anything much wrong with him. He's polite compliant etc. But I know he's mirroring everyone's behaviour and can't put himself in other people's shoes. Can't hold a pen. Can't regulate his emotions. I see the strain in him trying to act in the role of being like everyone else. If the school hadn't taken the initiative he'd just be a somewhat awkward human/ adult like a million other humans in history, struggling to fit in or perhaps finding solace in those repetitive immersive jobs like the code breakers at Bletchley park. Many more people than are diagnosed see the world differently and it's an uncomfortable place where they are always wrong. I welcome the additional diagnoses. It helps them and us understand why some people come at things differently.

Absolutely howling at Brogley replying to the wrong thread 😂. Just don't let them onto your property 😂😂😂

"Sorry DS, you need to stay that side of the boundary".

Look 2007millie, I don't think you're a bad person but I do think you are woefully misinformed in your opinions about sugar, poor parenting, and diet. This is something that can be changed though, a good first port of call would be reading and listening to the experiences of parents and carers who are actually living it day in day out.

@Brogley

Thank you for your advice but I don't see any reason to change my view.

I listen to the views of the parents and carers of SEN children day in day out already.

@Aeris1

You missed my point entirely.

You’ve summed up autistic eaters so well @Clymene

It absolutely does impact upon your everyday life as a family. Can’t go out for lunch anywhere unless it’s McDonalds or Pizza Express (and even then, have to ask for plain pasta). Holidays have to be self catering in the U.K. I’ve had snooty parents baulk at my DD’s limited diet and say shit like “oh I don’t tolerate fussy eaters in MY house, that’s why they eat so well”

Most people in real life do not know that my DS is autistic.
We don't tend to go around shouting about it, and contrary to popular belief you cannot "look" autistic, I mention it here sometimes when I think it's pertinent to what I'm asking/answering

So there may be many people who have kids with some sort of SEN. They're just not telling you.

Calm down everyone, I didn't say every single child. And yes sometimes children are diagnosed too easily. They are diagnosed before their diet/routine etc is looked in to. This of course doesn't mean children are not sometimes SEN, but children are sometimes diagnosed without proper information.

For the last fucking time CHILDREN ARE NOT SEN. They have SEN. You can be autistic. You cannot be ASD or SEN.
And no, children are not diagnosed too easily. You are talking complete fucking bullshit. It takes on average anywhere between two and four years for an autism diagnosis. And even when you have it there's precious little support available. Diagnosis is too hard to get and takes too long, rather than them being given out too easily.

I'm very curious why you think looking at a child's diet and routine isn't part of any assessment process. Because it is, you know because they're assessing the child's behaviour. Oh, and FYI poor diet is a symptom of autism, not a cause for poor behaviour as you're not too subtly trying to imply. God there's some proper cunts on this thread tonight. Did a klaxon sound somewhere for the ignorant twat brigade to show up?

I've only told 2 other mums that my ds is autistic. I don't want to be one of those mums using it as an excuse for everything (most arent, but there are a few very vocal ones who do). It's nobody's business, his diagnosis is to help us and mainly school to understand him a bit better. I'm more likely to talk about it on an anonymous support forum because of it being anonymous.

Re children who are self diagnosed by parents.
I have one of those. Oldest has a dyslexia diagnosis. Youngest has ASD. Middle one was doing "okay", coasting at the middle of her class. She only got put on the SEN register because I requested it. The only special support she got was to be included in the testing for extra time in exams. And as a result of that testing it was evident that she struggled to process information. So just to understand the question took her longer than most people.
When she sat exams if she didn't think she "needed" the extra time then she didn't use it but she didn't suffer with the end of every exam coming before she'd had a chance to finish.

And my youngest walked into a meeting with an Educational Psychologist experienced in Autism, by the end of an hour he thought she was most probably Autistic. But she would have struggled to get the diagnosis (after a long and involved process involving several professionals) if I as a parent hadn't been able to provide examples of the criteria they were looking for. It's a bit like asking for an example of Blue and the textbook definition is Royal Blue, but you know Navy and Sky are also shades of blue.

And yes sometimes children are diagnosed too easily.

How can someone still think/say this in this day and age?

It can take years from first referral. It takes a whole army of specialists and several assessments. Parenting courses are often offered first. There is a lot of delay, uhmm and ahhing and numerous hoops.

So many children don't even get looked at until KS2 or even worse, in secondary school.

A friend's DD has only been diagnosed with dyslexia in y5, she's been struggling since day 1.

Much as this thread irritates me, I think it's really useful to see what children with additional needs and their parents are up against.

My son is a teenager now and so I'm pretty Teflon-coated but this sort of thread caused me immense pain when he was going through the assessment process.

It shines a light on the level of ignorance that is still prevalent if you have a child with suspected additional needs. I'm sad that nothing has moved on in the last 10 or so years.

Why did I open this thread? Sigh.

I have twins who were both diagnosed with ASD at 2. I’ve had family members say “you shouldn’t let them be labelled so young”, or “they’re just a bit behind”. When I mentioned them to a GP a few months ago he said “are they properly autistic?” As if improperly autistic is a thing.

I’m so sick of it. And for the record, my boys are beautifully behaved. They giggle most ot the day, they’re happy, they’re not aggressive or violent, they aren’t neglected or coddled.

They are non verbal, they don’t understand words but they understand a thousand things from context.

They were not diagnosed with autism because they’re difficult or naughty. And frankly I’m also sick of hearing that autistic children with behavioural issues are just naughty.

This is all such bollocks, frankly.

Princess 15 year old ds was given his autism diagnosis in September last year, two weeks into the start of year 11.

DS2 is being assessed, it’s been so so frustrating with a lot of his issues- eg very picky eating, delayed speech, very delayed potty training, intense frequent tantrums- because a lot of people and family etc really do seem to judge and make comments/offer advice that makes it clear they think it’s a case of your parenting techniques and that you just need to do xyz and everything would be easier.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that we have another son who has none of these problems yet has been brought up by the same parents, people often forget to look at other neurotypical kids in the same family when they make their case that the other child is obviously the product of poor or lazy parenting.

Pun I'm sorry it took this long and I know it must've been a bloody hard road to get there.

I honestly don't know how people can still think that getting a diagnosis is in any way easy or quick.

I think about 1 in 6 in general