to think this LEA is bullying my friend?

[cantberight]

I've NC for this as I don't want my friend to be identified given the circumstances.

A friend of mine has a 3 year old with autism. Now I don't know much about this other than she really has a hard time coping and her DH isn't very supportive (seems he is in complete denial which doesn't help matters). She also has a younger baby. Her child didn't talk until about 3 months ago when they started this home behavioural programme. They started working on his language and now he is starting to talk, which my friend is thrilled about. (although she is still confused as to why the speech therapist is still insisting he uses pictures to communicate?)

Because she doesn't speak English very well, I help her out by attending meetings, etc with her. Last week we had a meeting with her child's doctor, early years coordinator, nursery manager, and behavioural tutor. A few months ago my friend applied for a SEN nursery as she believed that would be best for her son. Given the progress he has made over the last few months, she no longer thinks this is appropriate. Her behavioural tutor agrees with her. When she mentioned this in the meeting she was told that if she gives up the SEN nursery place, she won't be able to get it back if she later changes her mind. She was also told she will not likely get 15 hours of 1:1 support on her statement (from what I understand she is still waiting for this to be finalized), and would likely get 10 hours. She was told that if she takes up 3 sessions at this SEN nursery it would use up any 1:1 hours she gets on her statement (which I can't understand since it has yet to be issued), and therefore any remaining hours would have to be used in a "setting of her choice" (i.e. mainstream) but with no 1:1 support. She believes her child would be better off in a mainstream nursery with full time 1:1, but they were adamant that if she did this "there is no turning back". Is this correct? She is now feeling like she should take up the SEN placement even though she knows it isn't right because she fears she could be wrong and if so won't be able to get it back. I believe this statement cannot possibly be factual and in fact is a bullying tactic. Am I correct?

I have no qualifications to say what her child needs, but her behavioural support are also advising that she does not take up the SEN placement and instead put her child in a mainstream nursery and they will provide support (they have a nursery in mind who will accommodate this). Why then would the LEA argue this?

Sorry for the long thread, can anyone shed any insight on this issue?

Ooh you need to post this in Special Needs. The posters there know ALL about this kind of thing and will walk you thorugh exactly what to do. Tell me if you need me to link to it.x

here it is go there and repost.

Thank you I will post in SEN.

The problem with the SEN place is that it is all very visual and picture driven which my friend doesn't think her child needs. Of course the other professionals who seem to be using a "bucket approach" instead of an individualized approach disagree. Her child has made more progress in 4 months of this behaviour therapy than he has made in 1 year of the other provision he has been given.

Anyway, will take this to the SEN board now.

I don't know much about mainstream placements for students with SEN as I work in a special school (reception/year 1 class). There is a special needs nursery attached to my school which is very much seen as an assessment placement, some of the children who attend then come to my school, some go to the other special school and some go to mainstream with or without 1:1 support. I have also worked at a previous special school where children who attended the attached nursery almost always went on to attend the special school. It may be worth your friend finding out more about the SEN nursery and where the children who attend typically go to school when they move on. If it is an assessment-type nursery then they will likely offer lots of specific interventions (which he probably wouldn't get in mainstream unless he is very lucky to have a highly-trained teacher or 1:1 working with him) that may help your friend's son to make progress.

In terms of using a visual/picture approach it is generally recognised that children with ASD tend to be visual learners and that supporting their learning with visual aids is helpful, although obviously this isn't always the case and provision should be tailored to meet the needs of the individual child.

I think, in my experience, parents often worry about children using pictures/symbols to communicate with because they think it is being offered as an alternative and that if children are able to communicate with photos they won't bother trying to speak. However using pictures to communicate is supposed to support speech, my experience is that verbal children who start off using a Picture Exchange System (PECs) do begin to drop the pictures once they realise it is much easier to simply say 'banana' than it is to get their book, find the symbol for banana, take it off and then take it to an adult. They also realise they aren't limited by the pictures they have to hand and can verbally communicate anything they want. However this isn't usually immediate and should be at the child's own pace and I would only stop giving children symbols to communicate with once their ability to communicate verbally is better than their ability to communicate using the pictures, so if they are able to use 10 words to communicate verbally but can use 50 pictures I wouldn't take away PECs yet. Similarly If they can write a sentence using PECs but are only speaking in single words, can communicate verbally at home but only use PECs in public, or can communicate verbally when happy but still need PECs when they are having a meltdown then I wouldn't take away the pictures yet. That said PECs doesn't work for all children with ASD or for all families - I have worked with children who just didn't take to using pictures to communicate and there's no point forcing that method on them if it isn't supporting the child.

Anyway, I'm sure you will get some better answers on the SEN board, it's good to hear that your friend's son is making progress anyway, is the behaviour therapy ABA?

I wish her good luck in finding the right placement for her DS, wherever that may be.