Premature Chat and Autism Referral

[ash677x]

So my 3 year old daughter was born at 28 weeks, shes tiny, only just came into 2-3 clothes, she attends Speech And Language Therapy, and also has been referred for Autism. Shes a June birthday so shes very young in her class, Due to start Primary 1 next year and as much as I want her to go I just worry she will struggle, shes peeing in the toilet but still poos in her pants (dont know if this is Autism related), Nursery said i have the option for her to do another year at nursery i dont really wanna do that i want her to go to school, has anyone been in this position

It sounds like it's absolutely in her best interests to defer and enter reception at compulsory school age a year late.

Not premature but I have a very small August born. She is still in 2-3 clothes at 5! She's now in year 1 but she started school at 4 and a few weeks.
She potty trained for wees quite quickly but it took at least another 6 months to get her not to poo in her knickers but made good progress once she did. She was dry by 2y9m but it was more like 3y4m for poos

It really comes down to the child and the school. My daughter has done well in school academically and from that perspective it has absolutely been the right decision to send her. She has needed more support with her social and emotional needs and this has required input from myself and the school to build to skills. Part of this has related to toileting issues. She was fully potty trained before starting school but struggled in reception with communicating with the teachers and couldn't use the toilets so she started to have accidents and not tell them. It took until the end of the summer term to get her dry in school and to get her into the routine of pooing in the evenings most of the time. We were worried about her regressing again when she went into year 1 but we haven't had an accident yet at school.

She is at an enhanced resources school, although she doesn't need the enhanced resources, and I think this has helped. They have tools that they use for children with neurodiversity that they have used to help her develop as a rounded child. For example she has a sheet on her desk for her various needs so she can point to the picture of a toilet if she needs the loo but the safe teacher isn't there at that moment. There are definitely schools where I would have worried about aspects of her development but I've been happy with how this school treats her as a whole person. It really has been lovely to see the shy reserved child in school blossom into the confident and vibrant child we see at home. The other school option we have has got a better academic record but is less child focused from talking to other parents I think her needs wouldn't have been addressed so readily

I would start looking and talking to schools about potentially starting school next year but let the nursery know you potentially will defer and see how the next year goes.