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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Doing the 3yr check by post ???

18 replies

Feistybird · 13/03/2006 14:48

The HV at our GP does a check at 3yrs. Instead however of getting a letter asking to make an appointment, we got a letter asking if we thought we needed appointment.

There were a few cursory questions like, do you have any concerns about your child's development' etc., but essentially they will only see my DD if I ask them to.

Is this common?

OP posts:

Angeliz · 13/03/2006 14:49

I don't think so but it makes so much more sense for most Mothers.

Does make me worry about the ones who are being abused that go undetected but i'm guessing that's a rarity anyway!

PiccadillyCircus · 13/03/2006 14:51

In our county, I think they are planning to do that for the 2 year check. When I saw a HV when we moved here, she said they were phasing out having an automatic one.

BettySpaghetti · 13/03/2006 14:53

Thats shocking!
When is the check prior to that? 18-24months? That means some children may not be seen by a professional between the age of 18 months and starting school!
Just think what could be happening in that time and the conditions that could be missed. OK most parents would seek advice but not all. Scary.

harpsichordcarrier · 13/03/2006 14:53

yes, I hear this more and more, that GPs are not doing the two and three year checks. the justification being that the children in most need are being referred anyweay and anyone who is conscientious enough to go to these checks would seek advice is something was wrong. I think that's balls personally but it is a good way of saving money, opps sorry, diverting resources ot the area of most need

PiccadillyCircus · 13/03/2006 14:56

If we hadn't moved house (ie we had been in this county anyway), it would be possible for DS to not have been seen since his 7 month check.

If we had stayed where we were he would have had a 2 year check though (just 5 miles away but n a different county)

Caribbeanqueen · 13/03/2006 14:59

Dd had her 2 yr check and is due a 3 yr one, but I can't see any reason to do it. They are optional and I have no concerns. Does this make me a bad parent?

Tinker · 13/03/2006 15:15

Don't think mine will have another check until she starts school - recently had her 8-month check. My HV did sound sad about telling me this though (my HV's are very nice)

catrin · 13/03/2006 15:20

In our borough and surrounding ones they appear to be sending letters and not actually seeing children . Guess that's what i get for living in East London.

coppertop · 13/03/2006 15:34

They don't do the 3yr check here either. Instead we just got a list through the post saying what ds2 should be doing by the age of 4yrs. The thing that annoys me is that they send out this list without bothering to check individual circumstances first. Luckily I have a pretyy thick skin these days or it could have been extremely upsetting to receive a letter telling me that my autistic ds2 should be able to do X, Y and Z by the time he's 4yrs old.

Hulababy · 13/03/2006 15:36

DD never had the 3 year old at all. We were told it would be a postal questionnaire, but never recieved one. She will be 4 next month and hasn't seen a HV since well before then.

prettybird · 13/03/2006 15:39

Might as well have been done by post for all the HV did in terms of actaully looking at ds.

DH took ds along, and ds apparently spent his time in her office making spells with his wand, and falling to the ground in "response" to a counter spell (he was very in to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at the time).

I then noticed that in the Red Book she had written "H" - as in, she had been told about it by the parent, instead of "O" - as in, she had seen it for herself!

nikkie · 13/03/2006 19:10

I insisted on a 3 year check for my dd2 (they were phasing them out at the time) the HV was reluctant as the nursery nurse usually does them and she was off sick so the hv would have to do it herself
i insisted because at the time we had just started pushing through hearing/speech assessments and it looked like there was some delay (good job I realised)-these were the sort of problems that would be missed by a letter and it would be more difficult to catch up later at school.

Orinoco · 13/03/2006 21:09

Yep, postal around here too. They did have an "drop in" session to bring the forms back where HV's would be present - dd2 and I went and were on our own with 3 HV's!!

alexsmum · 13/03/2006 21:12

this is what happened with ds2's 2 year check.

dollybird · 13/03/2006 21:38

Yes, 18m and 3yr check done by questionnaire here (Hants). Quite useful if it's difficult getting to the HV's etc but worrying what could be missed as it's pretty obvious what are the 'right' answers. DD 2.5 and hasn't seen HV since just before she was 1. I find it a bit weird going in there without a tiny baby that needs weighing - I feel out of place!

angm1 · 13/03/2006 22:35

Up in Scotland we do not get a check at 3 years old. They get a 2 and a 4 year assessment.

GDG · 13/03/2006 22:52

Yes, we had this for ds1 - it was a couple of years ago now as he's coming up for 5. For ds2 they are asking for us to go in for a proper assessment - I'm ignoring it though - waste of time.

Hattie05 · 13/03/2006 22:54

My borough stopped doing two and three year check some time ago.

I got sent a questionnaire but it went straight in the bin.
It makes me cross because those who are aware of child development and have picked up signs themselves will already have sought advice, those who are have not picked up signs of delayed development in their child will not see any need to raise concern in the questionnaire!

Btw that was a year ago, and noone has ever chased my questionnaire up.

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