Manchester Grammar School & ASD/ADHD support?

[BabyMommaDec2012]

Hi there - my DS (6yrs old) is very clever but struggles at school due to his inability to keep quiet/be still in class. He presents as NT outside of the school environment - both at home and when we’re out and about. He’s able to focus well and keep still when it’s appropriate to do so (or when he’s told off for not behaving appropriately!)... it’s just at school where it all seems to be going wrong.

He has 1:1 support at school to help keep him on track with his work. He used to hate writing and this was a huge problem when it came to completing his schoolwork but over the past couple of weeks he’s been writing with no complaints... fingers crossed that he’s turned a corner!

He’s undergoing investigations for ASD/ADHD (...still... he’s not a clear cut case and his CAMHS psychologist is totally baffled by him. She’s been sending him round the houses to her psychiatrist and SLT colleagues for their opinions) and he has a ‘spiky’ WISC V profile - extremely low processing speed but average/high average for everything else.

Anyway! He’s currently in yr1 but I’d be interested in sending him to the Manchester Grammar School assessment day for yr3 entry. If he doesn’t get in, that’s fine - he’s just so smart that I wouldn’t want to deny him the chance of going. According to their website the MGS has excellent support/provision for boys with ASD/ADD. Just wondering if any of you have any real-life knowledge of this SEND provision - is it as good as they say? www.mgs.org/435/send

Hi,

I do not know about Manchester Grammar, but has anyone considered dyspraxia and/or sensory processing disorder - writing could be effortful for him, which is why he is reluctant to do it or he could have light sensitivity, which means with specialist coloured glasses or coloured overlays, he might find it more comfortable to write - sensory difficulties can also affect ability to concentrate, especially if there are bright over-head lights.
If he has dyspraxia, being able to use a laptop might make things easier and as that would be his usual way of working, in the future, he could use it in exams.
My son has both and his specialist glasses have made a huge difference, as has using a laptop - just a thought.

Low processing speed can mean he needs a slower speed of teaching, even if he is exceptionally clever - would a very academic environment be compatible with that? He might need extra time after lessons to go over the lesson, as he might not be able to absorb the information, before they move on to something else and might need more time to complete work. My son also has slow processing speed.

Hope you get to the bottom of his difficulties :)

Just seen your comments in the other thread - he might find it easier to write when he is writing about something he likes, because it takes less thought processing - he's not having to think of the answer and write at the same time and something he enjoys takes less effort to think about. There are a number of free/cheap online touch typing programs and my son was advised to do 10 mins each morning every day. He can now touch type and it's much easier for him.

Thanks ladies - I’ve looked into dyspraxia (and dysgraphia) but it doesn’t fit my son. He can quite happily write at length on some days but then getting him to write even a short sentence is like pulling teeth on others. For some reason though, he’s always eager/happy to write out birthday/Christmas cards.

With my son, I feel that a lot of his resistance is his ‘attitude’. His slow processing may genuinely make it more of an effort to write down his thoughts in compared to other children of the same age... but... he also simply just doesn’t want to do it if he’s not in the mood. This is where the possibility of him having ASD comes into it for me - he just doesn’t seem to understand the fundamental principle that he’s expected to do his school work when his teachers ask him to. He’s in no way spoilt and he wouldn’t get very far if he behaved like this at home...! It’s at school where the problem lies. They're very ‘softly-softly’ when it comes to being strict. He’s not taking the teachers seriously because of it. Part of what attracts me to MGS is I think that the teachers would be much stricter there.

So back to the original question - does anyone have any experience about the support for children with ASD or ADHD at MGS?

Hi OP, you've probably had your question answered. I understand that the school has very good SEND provision in the senior school but in my experience, the junior school doesn't benefit from that team. The school might say differently but I've not known one boy with a diagnosis be accepted after the assessment day.