'Well we really can't identify any big problems with your son...

[OrmIrian]

..but if you still want to chat perhaps we could get together this afternoon?'

SENCO at DS2's school. I posted about him a few months back - has an IEP (last of several) from his teacher. Hand-writing appalling, maths is 2 years behind where he should be, to quote IEP 'J cannot follow complex instructions but can deal with one instruction at a time', he improves when given one-to-one instruction but when that stops he reverts.

But apparently the PE teacher hasn't noticed anything wrong with him - ffs he's nearly 9 and he can't catch a ball, or throw in the right direction, or ride a back safely. He falls over all the time, trips over spiders' webs and is the most accident prone child I know.

The school are doing a lot for him - he gets one-to-one for maths and he dif for reading last year (that helped hugely). He is being entered into a scheme for improving hand-writing which is the only thing they can see he has a problem with.

I know there is some underlying problem - he quite simply struggled with everything but he is far from stupid. Imaginative, huge and very advanced vocab, very good general knowledge. My neice and nephew were diagnosed with dyspraxia - looking back I reckon DB had it too. DS2 is so similar.

What can I say to the SENCO that will help this afternoon?

Help?

Has he been seen by the Ed Psych? You can ask that they get involved - tbh school should have done this already.

Other thing is maybe consider getting him assessed for a statement - not easy but it may get him the help he needs - not an expert by any means but sure some-one will be along who knows better that me

Also try posting in the Special Needs (children) forum as this doesn't get as much traffic as there.

Good luck to you and your ds x

THanks who.

I don't know about ed psych. I will ask.

I thought this was special needs....

It is but you will find there is a lot more traffic on the other topic. Good luck with your meeting this afternoon - funnily enough I have to see the SENCO about my ds at 2.30 today as well

If you suspect dyspraxia, I'ld look at going down the medical route via GP to get a specialist paediatric referral, even if senco says there are't any big problems, the IEP is evidence there are some problems, after all.

Thanks light.

I guess I will have to see what she says this afternoon and then go from there,.

You will get great advice on the special needs children's board.Much busier than here.Definitely try and push for the ed.psychologist to get involved though!

Thanks everyone.

Well SENCO was absolutely lovely, as I thought she would be. I told her all my concerns - including behavioural problems that don't seem to arise at school. She tells me that although there are areas of concern educationally she doesn't think there is any specific problem. He is to get a teacher-mentor as well as the extra hand-writing help.

She suggested I approach the GP if I am still concerned.

I don't know.....

sounds dyspraxic to me (ie like DS). You need an ed psych to diagnose and advise.

If you're still concerned after talking to your SENCO then I agree you need to pursue this either through the Ed Psych or your GP. They should give you access to others eg CAMHS?

One thing I have learnt is that you need to fight and fight and fight for support.

I dont know what to do TBH.

They are providing support in a way, but without giving him a 'label'. Which is fine I guess but...... She did say that if the handwriting still remained a problem they would consider providing a laptop. Doesn't address the issue with the maths.

She suggested some strategies for helping him at home by giving him timetables to offer a bit more order to his day.

He could be dyspraxic and have dyscalcula? It's fairly common for dyspraxic children/adults to have another problem. An OT can assess him for these, you can get a referal from your GP.

If there aren't any major educational concerns and school feel like they're putting strategies in place that are helping him to improve & extend his learning skills, I imagine your son won't be a priority for their Ed Psych.
If you're concerned about dyspraxia, you can (should) approach your GP and ask for a referral to a paediatrician. Paeds are good at putting together all the info and making medical diagnoses (dyspraxia is a medical diagnosis, not educational) and can refer on to OT, SLT as necessary, as well as sharing their findings with schools.

From my experience you have to push and push and push to get anywhere if your child appears intelligent and articulate - faced with such children the school will want to focus with the harder to reach and may implicitly assume that you can make up the slack. We were able to afford to go private to get an ed psych assessment and I so wish we 'd done it earlier, although for some areas of the learning profile it's not necessarily easy to diagnose until about 10.

But there's a great book for adults on dyscalculia by steve chinn, head of mark college (specialises in dyslexia and dyspraxia) called Sum Hope2 which would help you recognise whether dyscalculia is a possibility. It revolutionised the thinking of friends of ours about their DS. I do recommend it and it has some great tips for making things easier. There's lots about dyscalculia now more generally, but this is a really approachable entry level book I'd recommend to any parent.

agree notsosuperma 's advice