The future and jobs for someone with severe language disorder

[pingu2209]

Hello. I normally post on Am I Being Unreasonable but decided to post on here with the hope someone will have knowledge I don't.

My 8 year old is just finishing year 3. He has a severe mixed expressive/receptive language disorder. He 'masks' it well and many people have questioned me whether there really is anything wrong with him. However, yes there is.

For years I have asked the school if he needs to be statemented and they have said no he isn't 'bad' enough. However, following a recent NHS language assessment, the therapist has stated that yes he does need to be statemented and will most likely need to go to a specialist unit in a different school.

This new turn of events has moved quite quickly and has made me realise just how bad his needs are.

Do any of you know what the long term outcome is for children with severe lanague disorders? Can they get qualifications (grades A-C)? What type of jobs can they do?

Is my son going to end up in some dead end manual job earning a pittance?

pingu

From what you have written, your son has just passed the age of Maturation (7 - 8 years old) when children stop growing out of developmental problems, and the remaining problems become disorder / disabilities.
Your DS from what you have posted seems to be good at developing alternative compensating coping strategies to work around his deficits, and how he progresses further will depend on how he is able to develop these abilities and skills. And sometimes these skills are skills that many others do not develop or even possess. You have to look for subjects he can excel at anf get good grades on those and not worry about the subjects for which his disorder is a problem, try to limit the stress on both him and you.

Employers are very good at discriminating against the disabled, which is their loss as the miss out on some very talented people. But things are beginning to change as the disability lobby groups are seek the enforcement of the Disability Discrimination Acts (DDA), and fighting the present governments wish to let employers ignore the DDA imposed requirements.

Hi, I can't answer your question re future but I can say you are not the only one.

My son is 4 and should be starting school but he is retaking nursery due to expressive speech and receptive understanding disorder. He is a happy little lad but very behind. He often just doesn't 'get' things and sometimes it as if he learning English as foreign language. Yes, I worry too about the future, but as he is child number 3, I try to be chilled about it (every child different etc).

Good luck! Its not easy but I think my son has many blessings and we concentrate on those. I'm sure your son has too xx