How can we get support for my boy at school

[MrsGokWan]

I am pretty much convinced that my Son has Dyspraxia.

I have done a lot of research online and it seems very much that he has. We have asked the school about it and they have put it to the SENCO to sort.We had a phone call and she said to go to the Dr. to get refered as it was quicker. The Dr. told me there was nothing he could do as it was an educational issue and sent me away.

So what do I need to be pressing for? They say it takes a while for things to gt refered through them. To be honest I don't know who they are asking to se him and who gets refered to.

What should I be doing to gt things moving so he gets the help he needs.

To add to the mix he is also highly intelligent and aced his SATS (wanted to do more of them, strange boy.) Is doing a lot of YR4 work even though he is YR3 and we think he should be on the G&T list. Someone said if we could do that then he would definatly get help with his Dyspraxia.

So then ladies what should I be doing to gt him help?

Please.

bump

I have no idea, so just bumping for you

Thanks Norma.

I think this is in the wrong section so I am going to put it under SEN.

HI Mrs Gokwan
Firstly your GP is wrong, Dyspraxia is not an educational issue.
It is a condition that can effect many areas of a persons life.
Diagnosis should eb given by a professional or team of professionals.
It varies from area to area but most Health Athorities would start by an assessment of a developmental paediatrician, some may dx, others would ask for the input of an occupational therapist, physio, eduacational psychologist, SALT.
It really depends how your child is effected & what the local protacol for dx is.

If I were you I would go back to the GP & ask for a referal to either the community paediatrician or a develpmental paediatrician, I would also ask for OT referal, their waiting lists are usualy long but often can be so helpful so worth getting on the list.

If your GP is adamant that he is not going to help i would try going via the school nurse for onward referal.

What difficulties is he experiencing at school?

sorry to more or less make a list, just have a few mins but didn't want to run off without posting.
see your son's class teacher and SENCO to discuss your concerns
Ask if he has an IEP - individual education plan
Contact your local Parent Partnership - google it if you need
Wondering if he has any traits of dyslexia - the two often go together; but if he's done so well in his sats that sounds unlikely
Assuming that you are identifying key issues in his learning, find out whether the school has the ability/facility to do a moving to learn programme, or brain training, or something of the kind. If they don't (and they don't have to, just see if there are children already accessing a programme like this) then look at other ways of getting into this type of thing as an extra-curricular activity
If there's not an educational issue of concern, he won't get educational support. Whether he would get other types of support would be dependent on his needs. Individual support can be hiddeously difficult to get even with 5 years of IEP's and an Educational Psychologist's report. (as I know well, ds1 has issues and has all of these things, still no support)
May be worth getting a referral from your GP to Paediatrician / Community paediatric consultant / Clinical Psych - way more use to you in the first instance than educational route unless he has a big problem in school. Even the G&T route doesn't tend to come with a big pot of money and 1:1 classroom support, unfortunately.

hope that garbled lot makes sense - will pop back in later to catch up!

Have updated my other thread

HERE

Thanks for that list Gigglewitch, will start on that tomorrow. DH is writing to the SENCO, copying in the LEA so I will get him to ask some of that.

Agree with the other posts, and you do need the paed referral, but also, you certainly need a occupational therapist referral. They can carry out a test for dyspraxia, then it would be up to the paed to formally diagnose.

It is not jsut an educational issue. Regarding the issues in school, I would ask the SENCO to arrange for an Education psychologist to review him. They can make suggestions and help draw up an IEP.

I do think you may find it hard to get much support in the classroom, especially without OT input. An OT can lialise with the school and make suggestions which the school should implement.