Kids clubs for child with SEN

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

I have almost zero experience of resort-type international holidays. We have only done UK self-catering or Eurocamp type holidays as a family until now, but we are thinking of a first international holiday this year. Ideally it would be somewhere with a kids’ club where our children, who will be 9 and 4, could go for a few mornings.

The complication is that 4yo DS has special needs, for which he has an EHCP at school. His speech and language understanding fall within the expectations for an 18-24 month old within the early years curriculum. Can anyone recommend or suggest a provider or resort with childcare which might be able to meet his needs, if such a place exists?

I don’t know any but would be really interested in this as we are in a similar situation.

My sister has taken her family a couple of times to Portugal centrealgarve.org/ This place has really great SEN provision and also you'll be holidaying with other families who are non-judgy and very supportive if anyone throws a wobble. She didn't discover it until her kids were all teenagers, but there were families there with babies to adults. She said it's the most relaxing holiday she's ever been on - which is really saying something as one of her children keeps her on her toes constantly!

You need to call club med or neilson who might provide a one on one

Or other operator call head office and ask

Get assessed by ss for respite care and ask for direct payments to use for this or a one off grant
Or put dla payments towards this cost of one to one

We went away with neilson and they provided a 1-1 for our asd son, who was AMAZING. Only a very reasonable extra charge.

The other options is to take a holiday nanny with you or teenager/student maybe you know one or teaching assistant from achool but again would cost you extra £££/€€€€

We went on a neilsen holiday. I don't have children with SEN but made friends with a family who had a child with significant needs. He had one to one care and was very well looked after / very inclusive. This was not the first time they'd used Neilsen and they said they always had a good experience. I got to know her as she became my tennis partner during the week and whilst she still spent lots of time with her children she felt she had a real break / holiday as she got to do lots of things for herself too (like play tennis).

Thank you so much- these are some great starting points.

DS’s needs aren’t severe enough for us to qualify for DLA or respite care but thank you for the thought.

Try again with dla
A four year old with speech and language of a two year old should qualify
Re apply

They still might provide one to one support, I'd speak to the travel companies that you're considering and see what they offer/ suggest.

If DS has needs significant enough to have an EHCP and be developmentally around half his age he should qualify for DLA. Apply and use the Cerebra guide to help you complete the form.

I have to admit we’ve never applied - it’s all very new to me and it hasn’t occurred to me that we would qualify.

We found that they couldn't deal with dd because she struggled to be around other kids plus her interests were very different to her peers. They didn't offer 1:1 (she didn't need it). Tried various companies over the years and only Disney cruise line was kind of successful, Cinderella reading stories was a hit.

Thank you- I’m reading old MN threads and realising that we might have a claim. I had never considered that it might be an option for us.

Your son sounds quite similar to my daughter and we get DLA. For a while we used it for private speech therapy and OT but now I just save it for her in premium bonds which is a terrible way to
invest money but didn’t know what else to do. Definitely apply for it.

Thank you @User89174648495. In addition to his communication needs he also has hyper mobility and needs particular shoes to fit over his orthotics so the more I think about it the more I think it is worth applying. Thank you all so much. I really had no idea.

Yes my daughter had similar hyper mobility too. That all counts towards it, including if he gets tired more easily and replies on a pram etc

Get your application in asap as they back date it to when you applied.

You can often also get free carer passes to places if you’ve get DLA, it does cushion the blow of the whole thing a bit.

Good luck. Xx