Anxiety

[insanityscratching]

Dd is in yr4 in a wonderfully inclusive primary school. She has autism, a statement of SEN giving her twenty hours of support (secured at three prior to entry to nursery), a TA who is exceptionally good at melting into the background because she prefers her peers and a teacher who has willingly taken on board all my pointers provides an extremely nurturing environment and can read dd's subtle indicators to how she's feeling and adapts accordingly. Academically she's able IMO school say she's exceptional.
Nine months after last Annual Review I got the latest proposed amended statement and despite speaking at length both myself and school about her anxiety (isn't a problem when everything is routine) and asking that it was mentioned in the statement it still isn't although Inclusion Officer has asked me to tell her what I want her to write in.
Anyway if we are going to have an objective on anxiety( because I am aware that when she moves classes the next teacher might not be as good as the present one) then we need to have strategies. So what strategies do any teachers on here use to help with anxiety? Or if parents have anxious children what do your schools do to help?
Thank you for your ideas.

We use the incredible 5 point scale to help the child identify clearly how they are feeling www.5pointscale.com/more_sweet_scale.htm and children have a communication pencil case (red yellow green triangular prism they can turn to let the teacher know how they are ) www.specialdirect.com/Product.aspx?cref=TTSPR1365531&rid=168&cid=18 When things get too bad they can go to a safe quiet place where someone will try to talk through things until the anxiety hopefully passes
Also the book When My Worries get too big books.google.co.uk/books/about/When_My_Worries_Get_Too_Big.html?id=oYgKAjQVOHYC
www.practicalautismresources.com/printables

It is written into my ds's statement - can't remember the exact wording.
School do lots of stuff to help him to control his anxiety but lots of it is very subtle and structured to his individual needs. If you like I can pm you rather than waffling about it all here, as it's very specific to him but may (or may not!) help your dd.

that communication pencil case looks great mrz

they also sell www.specialdirect.com/Product.aspx?cref=TTSPR1103328&rid=168&cid=18 but I thought the pencil cases were less obvious

oh that's a brilliant site! Have been looking through their sensory stuff, they have some lovely things.
Yes the pencil case is very discrete -an excellent idea.

Insanity - you can do so much at home to help reduce your DDs anxiety - things school can't do.

Supplements and diet can make a big difference, as can retained reflex therapy and other therapies.

Indigo to be honest I'm trying to pre empt the move to her next class, future school etc because I realise after experiencing a nightmare teacher (we moved schools) that anxiety will be a huge problem if we aren't fortunate with the teacher next time. Although I can choose where she is placed and will be guided by her current teacher, TA, HT etc.

As I say where she is now there are no real anxiety issues even the last week of term when her teacher was on a residential and so her class was covered by another teacher she wasn't particularly stressed because her TA was there and there is good communication between all staff so the teacher was aware of her needs.

At home she isn't anxious either because well we have ds who is very rigid and so life at home is boringly predictable or she's prepared to within an inch of her life to be fair.

It's difficult, she has a statement when she has no real difficulties at school or at home any more. Finding targets for her IEPs are becoming increasingly difficult because she is quite simply thriving and has become increasingly independent especially in the last year.Her TA is available but often neither wanted or needed because she prefers to work and play with her friends.

Objectives are being removed from her statement (quite rightly so as well) as she has no learning difficulties, no behavioural difficulties, no speech or communication difficulties, no real social skills issues but I intend to keep her statement and the school will support me in this. So I need something in there that could be a problem and anxiety is the only issue that could affect her well being that school and I can foresee.

mrz thank you for that website I'm going to bookmark that.

I know I'm in an enviable position in that we have a supportive school with a statement giving more support than is needed and an LA who don't routinely reassess children (in case you want more support) so as long as we send in the right contributions dd will keep her statement and support indefinitely. I need to make sure that there is enough in her statement to justify keeping the support it brings for now at least.

Cornsilk will pm you thank you.

DS has AS and suffers from anxiety in school, he has an IBP for his AS behaviours. This term they are looking mainly at anxiety. It appears in school that most of his anxiety arises from not understanding what is expected of him, so he is being encouraged to ask for help when needed, and the teacher/TA are looking to make sure that he has understood what is needed.

Regarding changing school, our Ed Psych has a list of things that automatically happen once it is known what school they are going to. We are hoping DS will go to an out of catchment school so they haven't started yet, else they would probably already have kicked in now he is in year 5. e.g. DS will get extra visits for before the whole 'school move up a year' day, he will have specific places he knows to go to if he has any problems, there will be several people who specifically are keeping an eye out in case he gets lost etc etc etc.

In her previous school the majority of her anxiety was caused by the lack of routine and organisation. The classroom was always chaotic, noisy, she never knew where to find her things, the children just moved around at will so she never knew where to sit or who would be sitting next to her. The teacher's tendency to shout when she has hypersensitive hearing and some quite difficult children although she had spent more than a year with them already and they weren't difficult for the other teacher.
The teacher she has now is so efficient, dd knows exactly what she should be doing, where everything is, everything is predictable for her she knows where to look to check any changes the teacher never forgets to prepare her or warn her if there will be any change to what she expects.She never raises her voice and has a large class eating out of the palm of her hand so dd is secure and relaxed.
I have already identified one teacher who wouldn't work for dd purely because he is loud and disorganised.
I think that's what I find difficult her well being depends greatly on the ability of the teacher to run a tight ship as much as everything else. In secondary school coping with the different expectations and different approaches of many teachers I think will be a nightmare for her particularly when I most likely won't be given the same level of input that I have now.
My determination to keep the statement is driven by this as much as anything else really.

The EP came out to do her part of ds's SA last week. Anxiety is one of the main areas she wants the statement to cover. She says ds should have dedicated slots built into his school week for the purpose of 'downloading' his anxieties to an adult - that being the same adult, with whom he is able to build up trust.

She also wants his feelings diary on the statement, so that it is 'officially' completed three times a day and reviewed at specified intervals. This is already done, but on a very informal basis, as its something I initiated and designed myself. The feelings diary has actually been the most effective way of identifying his anxieties and getting him to communicate them more effectively.

Its one of the problems with additional support isn't it? She appears to not need the support, because she's doing so well, but if too much of the support is removed, will she continue to do as well? So you need to make sure she keeps the statement and enough support to ensure she carries on doing as well as she is, but the powers-that-be will be seeing a success story who no longer needs the support.

We have had a smaller version of this this year with ds1. His teachers this year are exceptional and its made a world of difference to him, but, this is an anomaly in his schooling so far. He's had plenty of teachers who were the complete opposite and one notable one who is apparently highly respected, but simply does not like and cannot cope with any children in her class who require her to change how she does things. His current teachers are keen to support him and naturally do a lot of what's needed incorporated into their excellent teaching practice, but we still need to make sure that he has everything they are doing put into a statement to ensure he continues to thrive. If we'd applied for the statement last year, there wouldn't have been enough evidence of school strategies to get SA, but if it had gone to SA it would have been a very different picture and I'm pretty sure they would have agreed he needed 1:1. This year there's no chance of him getting much, if any 1:1, but who knows what next year (Year 6) will bring, let alone secondary.

I am exactly the same as you worrying myself sick about he'll cope in secondary - well I know he won't really and all the professionals we've seen agree. Its such a hugely different environment to primary school. Yet going through SA at this point, any classroom observations etc may well suggest he doesn't need much in the way of additional support. Thank God for our lovely EP who is determined he will get appropriate support and happens to be highly respected by the LEA.

We have been invited to attend a LEA 'transition evening' in a couple of weeks. Apparently they do it every year for the parents of all children in the borough who have statements or are on SA+. I'm hoping I will feel slightly less panicked after that - although at this point I have no clue where to send him, as none of the schools are a good fit and I've just found out we will have to decide in the next couple of months.

Oops, sorry - mahoosive post. Its a subject close to my heart, as you can probably tell.