Would the school let a kid use a non phone mobile in the classroom?

[RubiaPTA]

Basically my son uses an old mobile that has no sim in for music. He starts reception in September and he'll need to use it at school but I just had a thought. Would they not allow it because it's technically a phone?

TBH I would spend some time trying different ways of managing sensory overload. Mainstream schools and individual strategies that look like (not sure how to put this) ‘rewards’ don’t tend to mix easily. There are exceptions of course, but I would say the majority of schools just cannot get their heads around it and even if you get it approved for reception it is likely to be an ongoing issue unless you have a very good head or SENCO. Someone above has already mentioned the ‘not fair on the other children’ argument - which is a nonsense for reasonable adjustments (the other children a) shouldn’t come into it and b) are very accepting of explanations ime) but comes out time and time again in mainstream. Again there are exceptions, but it’s often something schools just can’t get their heads around.

Maybe try the noise reducing headphones (they have them on amazon, pretty cheap)? This is something that schools (ime) don’t have a problem with these days. They’re robust and effective.

I know it might take some time to switch your son over to a new strategy. He may not accept a change at home but readily accept it in a new setting. So different rules for different settings can work well. It may quickly become ‘this is what I do in school’ even If he doesn’t use them anywhere else. He could have a social story explaining that music headphones aren’t allowed on school but instead there are special big headphones to make him feel comfortable (adjust the basic story to his level of understanding obviously). Social stories can be very effective in this sort of situation.

I agree with Devilish. From your past posts, he is quite mature to understand the environment. Even if the school allowed phones in school for him, some children wouldn't sometimes, in lower years especially. It can cause more distress or heartbreak for him, and financial problem for you over the years. It maybe better to establish more practical things from early on.

The camera doesn't even properly work and can be covered easily. He uses it because it's old and broken. It'd be worse if he broke or lost something new. And the music isn't to block out sound, it's to give him a sound to focus on. If he's listening to livin la vida loca he can make the 5 minute round trip to the corner shop, if not he can't

What about Bluetooth headphones and then the device doesn’t need to be with him at all. It can be left on constant repeat somewhere else in the room.

It sounds like your ds had significant extra needs. I definitely think getting the conversation started now is in your best interests. I don't see a problem with it being a phone that he uses but my concern would be that, due to the nature of early years education, it's likely to get lost or broken. There's so much play and outdoor learning. Has your ds had support in pre-school? How has he coped in that setting? (I'm assuming he has been to nursery/pre-school - my questions obviously aren't relevant if not)

Talk to the senco but I would start thinking about other strategies that might work and look at social stories (if you have input from portage or early intervention team they may be able to help).

I might be wrong but I think you are likely to have problems at some stage with the school and phone (or music) and setting up new rules/boundaries with a new setting can work well ime.,

The thing is, you have spent the last 4 years finding strategies that work for home and you have things that work.

The new challenge for September will be finding strategies that work for school. You can't assume that strategies that work well at home will translate into school for a variety of reasons- it's a very different environment.

If you go into the conversation saying- this is a difficulty he has, here's how we support him at home, what can we put in place at school to support the same difficulty... you will have more joy than insisting that the exact same strategies that work at home are used in exactly the same way.

Does he currently attend any childcare/education setting?