advice needed on special educational needs

[HelenAnneArt]

I have been living in Spain for 6 years but am returning to Uk as my son is Dyslexic and other possible learning disabilities. Any advice would be really helpful my son is 9 years old. We will be based initially in Sw Dorset but are prepared to move anywhere in UK.

What do you want to know?

In almost all cases a child with dyslexia and learning difficulties will attend their local school, in the correct age group, and be supported to the best of the schools abilities.

The support offered will depend on lots of things.

Most classes in the UK will have kids working at least 2 years behind and at least 2 years ahead of where they should be. UK teachers are used to dealing with that.

Every UK school has a person who has the role of SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator) who will normally arrange the support.

Bring any reports you have had done , assuming they are in English, and request a meeting with his teacher and SENCO as soon as you know where he has a place. Usually the first port of call would be Local Authority (County council) who will look for a place close to your new address in the right year group. If his needs are significant you may in time be able to apply for a Statement which would ring fence resources such as one to one but that wouldn't happen straight away.

Thanks we have been advised that it would be good to get a full assessment from an educational psychologist as the Spanish system is so different. I understand this can cost up to 500 pounds and will look at everything. apparently I can then push for statement. Do you think this is worth it, we are rather cash strapped, but will do it if it helps. i think that he is at least 2 years behind.

He is very unlikely to get or to need a statement if he is 9 and only 2 years behind. It's very unlikely he'll be the only one in the class that is 2 years behind.

In the UK the system is designed to go at the child's pace. There isn't a set of things you must learn in Y4. Rather they start with what your child knows and teach him from there. They may do that with ability tables or in other ways. But with ability tables there could be 4 -6 different learning objectives taught at the same time.

No 1 rule with SEN is only spend money you have. An EP report may or may not help. There are absolutely no guaranteed. So make sure you can afford it enough that if it doesn't help you won't be upset.

Odds are the school has taught kids with your DSs profile before, and have read EP reports and have a fairly good idea what the EP would recommend.

Cause the majority of EPs do just recommend a standard set if things. Once the school has read 5 EP reports on dyslexic children they're unlikely to learn anything new from another EP reports.

So get one only if you can afford it.

Some LA's wont accept private EP report, tests etc check before you spend a lot of money for them to ignore it.

in my area you have no chance of getting a Statement for dyslexia. You haven't said what your child's reading age is, but if more than 2 years behind he would be put on the waiting list for the specialist reading teacher (one hour twice a week plus homework).

Hi, we moved back from spain 18months ago with our DD who has physical difficulties. I would say don't bother with a private report they will just do their own assessments anyway. I contacte the education department via email from the council website. We moved to Scotland so the system is slightly different - do you know what school he will be going to? I would contact the Head direct and ask them what you can do to make the transition easier for them and you. Has he been Spanish or international educated? If Spanish I would get some jolly phonics stuff CD etc to practise his English letter sounds as English is so much harder than Spanish. I grew up in spain and even though I went to uni in the UK I struggle with UK spelling.
Hope that helps

I moved my DS from 1 school to another within the same Borough.
I gave them all the documentation of dx, sensory diets etc that I had.
The first thing that they did was to re-assess him themselves - to confirm where he was exactly and what interventions to put in place.
I don't think that even schools in the same Borough necessarily take the word of another school as to the level of need. Possibly because the school may play down the need so they will be accepted?
The school will then decide if the DC needs to be seen by the EP. There are extremely limited budgets in state school for this.
This does not stop you requesting that the LEA assess your child (request a Statutory Assessment)

Oh, and pop over to the Special Needs Children board.
There are a lot of posters from the SW and might be able to navigate you through the murky waters of education/LEA and provision

Scrabble for English spelling. And hangman.

"He is very unlikely to get or to need a statement if he is 9 and only 2 years behind. It's very unlikely he'll be the only one in the class that is 2 years behind."

That is simply not true. None of us here can tell the OP whether her DS needs a Statement. That is the role of the LA to decide. The SEN Code of Practice sets the threshold as 'provision required is beyond the resources of the school from within it's own budget'. Equally, the only way to decide the provision needed is to look at progress made. The threshold for intervention is 'inadequate progress despite appropriate intervention from school'.

Also, we have no idea what the OP's DS has been learning to date in Spain, and may already be significantly behind UK peers even if he is 'only' 2 years behind in Spain.

My DD is 'only' 1½ years behind in Maths - she's on a 1c now in Year 2. She has a Statement and goes to Special School.

HelenAnneArt, I would contact the LA you are moving to. I would initially be cautious about mentioning 'dyslexia' because it is rarely taken too seriously in the UK. I would focus on 'undefined learning difficulties'.

You can go to the GP and ask for a referral to a developmental paediatrician. Have a think as to whether you have concerns in the following areas:

-Gross motor skills (running, skipping, hopping, riding a bike, etc.)
-Fine motor skills (writing, drawing, zips, buttons, knobs, etc.)
-Speech and language (both expressive language and speech sounds, plus understanding instructions verbally)
-reading
-academic skills
-medical features
-self-care skills (so dressing, washing, etc.)
-danger awareness/independence skills (out and about, supervision needed etc)
-social skills (including friendships, turn taking, rule adherence, etc).

Come over and speak to us on Special Needs - we have all the information and can share which Counties to avoid how things work in different areas.

does your child read and speak English ie. is the dyslexia evident in English or in Spanish.

I would have thought that it would be easier to acquire literacy skills in Spanish as it is a more phonetically regular language (will stand corrected though)