Advice welcome please

[bumpyboo]

My DD is 4, a July birthday so young in the year. She is doing well academically at school but does not seem to fit in with her peers.
Currently she plays alone a lot at school (only child as well) but I know that deep down she would love to have more friends.

Her teacher has said that they are never sure whether she is listening to them as she does not look at them when they address her. The school are going to have her assessed by the special needs person in school because of this. This will be to see if they think she needs support.
I think that she does listen to the teachers because she understands what is being taught.

Does anyone have experience of this? What should I be asking/ telling the teachers? What helped your child?

Thanks for any advice.

bumpy.

I'd not worry too much, just be glad that you have got a really pro-active school who are taking action so early. By getting some support it may well be that your dd is helped very early on with the social aspects she is finding more challenging and it gets sorted very quickly.

Does she make good eye contact when you or other family members are talking to her? Does she play well with other children in other settings? Your observations about this kind of thing are well worth feeding back to school.

It can be that some children who have difficulties making eye contact or relating to their peers may be on the autistic spectrum, but please don't let me saying this alarm you. It may not be the case at all, and better to check it out (as the school are doing) than just leave it. The autistic spectrum is a spectrum with children showing very mild traits at one end of it and it is also possible for a lot of children to show some traits without actually being on the spectrum. I think school are just being highly responsible and on the ball in checking things out and making sure your dd has any support she might need.

Thanks for your advice Sarah, I was actually quite taken aback when the school mentioned it because up until then I had thought everything was fine. She does make good eye contact with me and others she knows well. She also plays well with friends outside of school.

I will feed that back to the school.