Teacher said she thinks dd5 has a learning disability or special needs

[Slavetolove]

Dd5 has a speech delay. She has since she could talk, Iv been fighting for speech therapy. Obviously covid hasn’t helped the situation. She’s 5 (6 in July) and in year 1.

She’s behind on her reading, spelling and obviously her speech. But it’s all linked because she’s spelling it how she thinks you say it. She has a therapist at school and an nhs one who has been out a few times to see how she’s getting on.

Today was her parents evening and her teacher said she thinks she has special needs and/or a learning disability.
She just said for me to chase up with the health visitor but surely that can’t be it?

We’ve always joked she had adhd. She barely sleeps, not so bad now but bevfore she would be up at 3/4am every single day. It’s now 5.30 no matter what time she goes bed.
She is non stop. She doesn’t stop talking, she can’t do anything longer than a min and is constantly moving from one thing to another. But she is so clever and funny. Her drawings are amazing and she remembers literally everything. But she has a temper and is hard work. We joked If she was our first she would be our last.

I’m abit emotional. I don’t know where to turn or what to do?

I’m going through something incredibly similar with my son. We’re being told that he might have ADHD or some difficulties and although I know in my head it really isn’t the end of the world, even if he was diagnosed with something, I just feel like I want to cry. I don’t want him to struggle. But I do think that any help he gets to help him to manage the world and himself is only a good thing so I’m doing everything they want and speaking to all the various people the school want me to speak to. And anything I can do to help him I will do. But I totally feel you OP, it’s so hard.

She’s had her hearing checked and it’s fine.

She says things like tat instead of cat, bug for book. She struggles with sh, t and g, Ch sounds

Get the teacher to write a list of her concerns and take it to gp and ask for adhd assessment - only issue you may run into is that most nhs trusts dont allow children on waiting lists before 6.

You could try private. We had private assessment for adhd for our youngest (have kids diagnosed already) as we have seen what a difference adhd medication can make to their learning at school. It was only £800, carried out by an educational psychologist then saw a peaditirian (who also.worked on local nhs trust) who diagnosed and prescribed medication.

I'd also worth considering dyslexia with dd having speech delay but again most local education authorities wont consider testing a child until 7 or 8. There are some good resources. I like nessy online programme. Word Hornet by word wasp is a good book and easy to use at home

Just relaise saying only £800 was a bit pretentious but only meant in comparison to asd assessments

Senco definitely

The only thing you can do is see a clinician - the teacher may not be right as assessing this isn't within a teacher's skill set.

People do assume that kids with speech difficulties are cognitively inpaired and it isn't always true.

Have you asked for assessment around ADHD?

@Slavetolove

She’s had her hearing checked and it’s fine.

She says things like tat instead of cat, bug for book. She struggles with sh, t and g, Ch sounds

Can I just ask when she had her hearing checked and who by? Was it a full referral to audiology recently or was it a quick check at the GP surgery? I've got a vested interest here as a Teacher of the Deaf.

Sounds very like my youngest who is dyslexic. Got through activities in minutes and then onto the next, highly dextrous, great with 3d modelling, v clever but would not sit down to read for any money. I could see there were all sorts of issues with sounding words out, organisation and spelling but tbh, no one listened 'because she' s so bright' I didn't push enough for help when she/I became desperate and regret it still: I let her down. If someone's flagging something up be open to it, no matter how hard it is to hear, run with it, thoroughly investigate it and advocate hard for your child whatever the outcome.
Very best of luck.

She is too young to do a formal dyslexia assessment, my DS is being assessed now and he is 7 and I am doing it privately. His school didnt raise concerns about it until I mentioned it. They seemed mortified as they had been providing him with emotional support as daddy is terminally ill. However he spells phonetically, hadnt changed reading book levels for nearly a year, couldnt grasp certain concepts and couldnt retain spellings and defaults to writing phonetically. His hand grip is poor too. Funny enough his dyslexia screen has stated he has a dyslexia profile and requires and extra 25% time for processing and exams. Your DC is the younger end of the class and can i ask if she is in a private school?

I don't understand the issue.

The teacher works with your daughter daily and has some concerns. Have her assessed! Find out what support the school can provide in getting her assessed!

ADHD sounds like a real possibility, and if that turns out to be the case, support will be a positive.

You've suspected there something not neurotypical about dd.

Now a teacher has noticed the same.

Agree senco is next step.

I think it's hard to hear because it confirms your own concerns. But also it's often so hard to get schools to admit they see something that needs investigating is take full advanced if a school who's noticed and work with them.

@affairsofdragons

I don't understand the issue.

The teacher works with your daughter daily and has some concerns. Have her assessed! Find out what support the school can provide in getting her assessed!

ADHD sounds like a real possibility, and if that turns out to be the case, support will be a positive.

The issue is the teacher was very vague and offered no support or steps going forward.

While OP is probably worried and upset that her DD might have SEN, it's also understandable that just being told that and being sent on her way will make her question things.

I’m so sorry the teacher was so blunt, that’s awful. I know how hard it is to hear that. I hope you have sympathetic listeners around in real life so you can say what you feel about it in a safe place before you have to interact with the teacher again.

I would ask the teacher and senco to meet with you with the aim of getting them to list their concerns- specific behaviours or difficulties they’ve observed, and any support they’ve offered and how it’s worked (or not). If they’ll write it down for you even better. Then take the list to the gp. Add anything that you have concerns about that the teacher left out. Say school have raised these concerns, we also have concerns, what referral do you suggest to begin investigating this. Most likely it will start with a community paediatrician depending on your area.

School may also be able to call on an educational psychologist or similar to assess in school- ask about this. It will take a while though so do the gp at the same time.

I hope you get the answers and support you need

I have been where you are, with my eldest. Turns out he has Aspergers, and that diagnosis was difficult for us to process, but in honesty, two years on I am so grateful that we have it because it means that we have it and school have to make allowances for his quirks.

We were diagnosed because the speech therapist made a sideways referral and honestly it was the best thing we did. If we hadn’t, we would have a 7yo with moderate behaviour issues and a long wait to find out why.

ADHD is not a joke and bright/funny/creative people can have it. They're not mutually exclusive. 🙄

my daughter had delayed sound at that age so the was y they was yay etc etc Hers was likely due to dyspraxia as she struggled with co ordination as well. She is now 25 and a primary school teacher !! Good luck with it all she came on but much slower than others but by time she went to senior school was in top set English went on to grammar school for Sith form has a history degree and pgce teaching degree never say never and she had encephalitis and received age 4 good luck with it allxx

Lots of good advice so just to say, having some sort of special needs doesn’t mean she isn’t bright and talented - she sounds like a remarkable and original little girl. Obviously support is essential to get her speech moving, but chances are she has a very bright future.

This might not be the whole answer, but if I'm reading your post correctly your child was born in July. That makes her one of the youngest in the year; if you Google summerborn child and special needs, you'll find that summerborn children (children born April to August) have a disproportionately high diagnosis of SEND. They're not SEND, they're just young. This is why there is a campaign for parents of summerborn children to be able to defer them to the next school year (Facebook - flexible admissions for summerborn group). My son is August born, he "should" have started reception last year, instead, I pushed for him to start in reception this year at age 5 and 3 weeks.

I appreciate that this is much harder once a child has started school, but you should also have a conversation with the school about allowing her to repeat her reception year. Legally a child doesn't actually have to start school until they reach compulsory school age, which, in the case of your daughter, was the 31 August after she turned 5. Take a look at the Admissions Code for Schools, for more information.

None of these things are a joking matter I have to say they all can be very worrying indeed. I have ocd and my son has aspergers and dyslexia. It's amazing how many people do joke about these things

*recovered

If the nhs speech therapist is still involved I recommend asking them for advice. They are experienced in working with complex needs and should be able to identify whether they think her needs are just speech and language related or part of a wider difficulty. They should also be able to make an onward refferal to other nhs professionals for further assessment if needed.

Here you go, here is some information about summerborn children being disproportionately labelled as SEND:

www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2021/f-June-21/Summer-born-children-unfairly-labelled-as-having-special-educational-needs

Bless you op, it's an awful blow when a teacher shows concerns, even if you have had them yourself.
My DS is 5 and has a severe speech delay, he was marked as having severe learning difficulties, scored very low on percentile. The reason he was noted as having severe learning difficulties was more as a safety net, because of his speech delay made it hard for anyone to really understand what and how much he knows. My DS has had intense speech therapy in recent months and has come on leaps and bounds, in some areas he is working at an average level to his peers. ( He also lacks concentration and is always on the move).
I'm not sure of the procedure where you are but where I live it's a referal to the education psychologist, done through the school, they will be the ones qualified to access your dd. Whilst I always value a teacher's input and early intervention is key, it can not always be as black and white, especially were there is a speech delay.

Gosh, teacher sounds woefully uninformed.

try the sen chat board for advice.
talk to the sendco
also ask the teacher for a letter to support getting a referral, with her observations of your daughter.

take time to process what they say. it can be quite a thing to get your head round.