School reasonable adjustments - please help

[ASDLife]

DC has been diagnosed with autism but remains in mainstream school.

In some respects, they've been great but in another ways, I think because there are a large Secondary School, they keep dropping the ball and I have to keep returning to them with new issues to iron out.

This is very unfortunate because, as a parent with an autistic diagnosis in the family, I am finding my way as I go and I would at least hope there'd be some school SEN system in place to help guide me rather than me having to approach them to guide them.

One thing that has flagged up recently is the academic scoring system used by the school to give amazing rewards. The scoring is split into different categories, one being the actual marks attained for each subject, and one being the attitude to learning. The criteria for high marks is easy for this autistic child, who excels in the usual science, computing and maths that you might expect would be the case. However, his area of extreme stress and challenge relates to processing speed, which affects his ability to get ideas out in written form (still needed in school unfortunately) and Social awkwardness, limitations and related anxiety, which impede public speech and the ability to come forward in class or tease out loud. He's absolutely gutted that his attitude to learning score is abysmal because of this as it can't improved; he will always have autism which is why the disability act demands schools make reasonable adjustments. The teachers have graded him low het he never gets into trouble, has never had a detention, has never been chastised for talking in class or backchatting to a teacher, in fact, one of his autism superpowers is that he keeps to the rules rigidly and so is extremely dependable and well-behaved in class. He believes his low score to be that he does not put his hand up and volunteer in verbal participation in the class, but says he has developed a stutter from trying and drives himself to extreme distress if he tries to perform in this area when he simply can't due to his autism

I wonder if anyone has any experience of this or insight as to what I can ask the school for, specifically? I do believe they need to take this into account and accommodate but being a secondary school, they seem to approach it from the point of view of they expect big things from teenagers. Now they are older. But that feels like asking somebody without legs to run a marathon and penalising them when they can't.

*talk, not tease!

can’t find the edit button

The school should be making reasonable adjustments. The attitude to learning score needs to be adapted for DS to not punish time for having a disability. They could do this by only scoring him on certain parts of attitude for learning e.g. not taking into account verbal communication in class. Or the score to receive rewards needs adjusting to take into account his disability and acknowledge the attitude for learning score will be lower.

Alongside this, you need another meeting with the SENCO to discuss additional support for DS. There is support that could help DS with some of the things you describe. For example, has DS tried a laptop, assistive technology including speech to text software &/or a scribe to help with struggling with getting ideas down on paper? Is he receiving support for his stutter? Has he been assessed for and is he receiving support for selective mutism?

Does DS have an EHCP?

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts here. it is of some comfort to me that you also believe they should make further adjustments for him rather than expecting him to squeeze into their neurotypical model.

I will request another meeting with the SENCO to discuss additional support again. I think one thing that is difficult is they have already offered the laptop and he can use assistive speech to text software to help, but the struggle to get ideas down seems to me more of a time issue, which they often don't get with restricted timed lessons. Recently one of his teachers, in one of his favourite subjects (which unsurprisingly turned him against that subject) asked publicly for him to stay behind because he hasn't written enough, compared to everyone else. She said it wasn't a punishment, but it certainly felt that way to him. He thinks no one will recognise the stutter and this is the first he has mentioned it, but I will flag it up to school. I genuinely think the only thing they can really do to put it back to how it was (before he began to trip over his words, while he got flustered being put on the spot like that) to stop, asking him to speak out loud in the class, unless he particularly wants to.

At a SENCO meeting last year I raised the subject of EHCP and they seem to shrug a bit, as though they felt he was managing without one. They said that the owners would be on me to pursue if I felt it was necessary, but the knowledge that School will often get the ball rolling in they're choosing not to here made me think that it would be a no. This is before councils were slashing funding for EHCPs.

Has DS ever had an ed psych assessment? That could help understand DS’s processing difficulties and what specific support would help.

Is DS getting extra time in tests/exams?

I think you should request an EHCNA yourself. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use. Unfortunately, some schools incorrectly tell parents their DC don’t need or won’t get an EHCP but the parents go on to successfully apply themselves. DS needs EP, SALT and OT assessments.