Head's comments on reports - am I being too sensitive?

[debs40]

I'm a little annoyed.

My son is 7. He is being assessed for Aspegers/ASD. He has a working diagnosis of ASD and also has DCD.

School have been very slow to catch on because he falls into that 'average' bracket and doesn't cause any disruption for teachers.

They have started to accomodate his needs after much intervention from health practitioners and an Early Bird Plus course run by the LA.

Anyway, I got his annual report on Friday and it showed moderate progress (described as good). He has barely gone anywhere in a year. In addition to the grades, the report assesses things like concentration, working in a group, self-correcting etc.

All those marks (and there are probably about 20 individual marks) have moved from the 'always does this end' to the 'rarely does or sometimes does' end. How is this progress?

Further, the Head's comments - in addition to 'good progress' - are that it is hoped he will show resilience as he moves in to the junior school.

Now, am I being insensitive or is this demonstrating, again, a complete lack of understanding of the problems he faces just being in school. I think he shows great resilience to be there in the first place!

I am seeing the Head this afternoon. Should I comment on it? I was going to ask her directly what her personal experience of ASD is too.

I think you may be being a bit too sensitive. I may be wrong, but the way I read the resilience comment is that the school knows that it is currently tough for your son, but he is coping and making progress, and they hope that he will be able to continue this when he moves to junior school. I wouldn't ask her what her personal experience of ASD is, that might come across as too critical of her and put her back up, which won't be in your interest. But I would ask for more information about their assessment of progress when it is clear that there are instances where he seems to have gone backwards i.e. "have moved from the 'always does this end' to the 'rarely does or sometimes does' end".

Why have you been given an annual report in March? We are only just past the halfway point of the academic year - Y2 children can make even more progress between now and June/July.

But surely it is "good" progress for him so you are being a bit ott in your reaction. The targets will change so he may not make apparently consistent progress, does he have an IEP ? Resilience is a positive characteristic and will demonstrate some inner courage if he can face the challenge (one which many NT kids would also struggle with) - I don't think this is necessarily a criticism or misunderstandign of SN issues. We have similar comments about dyspraxic ds going to senior school - he'll need to be more "socially robust" apparently - as although he is happy enough on his own terms he struggles among a wider group. At the next opportunity I will be asking what strategies the school might propose to prepare him for this. Perhaps you could similalry ask about the transition, making it a more positive observation than merely challenging the comment ?

Thanks. I suppose I just interpreted the comments as laying the blame at DS's door rather than at the door of the school who have singularly failed to support him in any way for most of the year.

Reports are always March/April. Don't know why.

It isn't good progress for him as he has become lost in a large class with little assistance from teachers etc. They have now granted him TA time as they realised they knew nothing about him. Teacher attention supports G&T and the TA supports those at the 'bottom' end.

He now has 5 mins a day to chat with the TA a day (which is timed) and even that has made a difference.

So I'm amazed he's made any progress at all to be honest. But he has had non verbal and verbal reasoning tests done which demonstrate he is very bright so the progress is minimal and I think without support, he'll grow further away from where he should be

I should add that I know relisience is a positive character but he shows it every day and doesn't need to develop it. He needs effecrive support.

I'd be similarly about comments about being 'socially robust' too.

Actually I think you're right to be concerned. This is a stage where the gap often widens for asd children in mainstream school, and if your feeling is they haven't really got a handle on what's going on, I'd trust your instincts.
It's really not enough for them to hope that he'll develop resiliance, imo; the school have to anticipate where difficulties might appear, and meet him more than halfway because he's seven and has sn.

I would ask for another progress meeting in the summer term - a lot could happen by then, and it would be better to discuss progress regularly.

Thanks for your help. I had a very productive meeting with the Head who could see that the 'learning skills' assessment on DS' report was vastly different to that of last year and that, given the grades, he might be underperforming.

We have set up a multi-disciplinary meeting for next term and will look at things again then.

Thanks so much for listening and advising!!