Ds5 has autism. He has "low level of need" written on his diagnosis letter but realistically he is about as autistic as you can get without having learning disabilities. He needs constant supervision at home and school or he will eat things like leaves, grass, paper and even plaster off the walls. He will cut his hair, clothes, fingernails and eyelashes if allowed to use scissors. He is in year 5 and nearly 10 years old. He is academically very able but can't produce any work unless he is working 1-1 with an adult. His class have started doing practice sats papers but he always scores 0 because he won't write anything and won't tell the scribe what to write either.
His current teacher has been brilliant with him but she is really struggling with him now. School senco applied for an ehcp but the LA have refused to even assess him, saying that school can meet his needs with assess, plan, do, review.
Professionals involved are family intervention service, access to inclusion team, children autism outreach team. He had speech therapy and physio when he was much younger. Family intervention service and access to inclusion team have written reports which were included in the ehcp application.
So far the school have tried:
Using a laptop
Using a scribe
Writing with whiteboard pens (he likes the squeaky noise they make)
Sensory circuits
Lego therapy
Thrive
Visual timetables
Now/next board
Wobble cushion
A giant elastic band thing on the chair legs, I think it's called a theraband
An intervention group where they get given pictures of different faces and the children have to say if the person is happy, cross, sad etc, not sure what that's called.
The teacher keeps his scissors in her desk drawer and only gives them to him when needed.
The teacher has him at the front of the line holding her hand when they go to assembly or the dining room so he can't wander off.
Mediation is this afternoon. The lady in charge of mediation has said that the LA might say they need to go back to panel to make the decision but someone on mumsnet said that was illegal and the LA should send someone to mediation who is able to make a decision about assessment. Now I'm worried they will try and do something else that I don't know is illegal.
As part of the ehcp we would like him to have a 1-1 teaching assistant some of the time, equine therapy and to be allowed to wear his PE kit instead of school uniform full time, not just on pe days. In secondary school he will need a lot more support, not really sure what yet. The access to inclusion team have suggested he have a TA to walk with him between classes and fetch him from the playground after break/lunch so he doesn't wander off.