Laptop Provision for Yr7 Son with DCD/Dyspraxia - School Saying No

[BretonStripe]

I've just had my first ever meeting with a couple of the staff from the SEND team at my son's (academy trust) secondary school. He was diagnosed with DCD following a private assessment with an OT in January this year.

The OT recommended he uses a laptop as his typing is almost twice as fast as his handwriting, but school just point-blank refused saying they won't provide one; we as parents have to buy one.

Does anyone have any experience of pushing back on this please? I feel like they should provide one if it's one of his needs? (but appreciate school budgets are stretched).

The school must make reasonable adjustments and must make their best endeavours to meet DS’s SEN. It is best practice for the school to provide it. However, some schools aren’t able to provide a laptops to all DC who require them no matter how hard they try.

Be aware, if the school provides one then in many cases it isn’t allowed to be taken home, so you may still have to buy a laptop or similar for DS to use at home.

Is this ‘just’ a laptop issue or is there other support DS needs that the school is unable &/or unwilling to provide?

Thank you so much for replying. Yes, you're probably right; best we buy him one. He's just got an old Chromebook we bought him during Covid, but as he's now at secondary he will need a good laptop and then he can do all his homework on it, too (he's happy using his phone/text books at the moment).

OT also recommended:

1. The use of a 'Time Out' card to help when he's feeling overwhelmed (sensory differences and he doesn't like loud classrooms; can't concentrate). The staff earlier were rather reluctant and said it's up to the Head of Year, so they'll speak to him and let me know what he says.
2. The use of a 'tension relief grip exerciser' to be kept in his pencil case. School said they don't provide these, and it's best he doesn't bring one in as it may get lost/broken/be a distraction in class. He can use a little stress ball (not the same).
3. Preferential sitting - front and centre of class (due to his poor ability to copy from the whiteboard well). Staff again said this can be difficult to implement as it's up to the teacher where students sit, and they can't have everyone sitting front and centre.
4. Not penalising him for weak organisational skills (he keeps getting conduct points for forgetting stationery/lanyard/wearing wrong colour socks etc). Again, staff basically said the rules are the rules and they can't adjust them to suit individual students all the time, and teachers can't keep up with who has what difficulties.

It's a big school (1700 students) and we're always being told that. Guess we're lucky in that DS's needs aren't massively impacting him yet, but I want to try and get support in place now to avoid him struggling to keep up with his peers as time goes on.

OK, so I think you have bigger problems than the laptop, which is what I suspected.

The school absolutely can and must make reasonable adjustments to the behaviour policy.

1 and 2 should not be an issue either.

Depending on the class, 3 may be a problem, depending on the class. There may be other DC with SEN who need to sit front and centre. Some of those may have EHCPs which mandate it. That isn’t to say the school should shrug their shoulders and do nothing, though.

Rather than just looking at placement within the classroom, I would have also expected the OT to make other recommendations around copying from the board. For example, minimising copying and ensuring DS is provided with handouts/power-points, etc. The use of assistive tech on the laptop (or a tablet, which some find more helpful because they can take a photograph, then annotate) to help with recording work.

If you aren’t getting anywhere with the SENCO, I would escalate it higher up the chain. Request a meeting with whatever member of the senior leadership team has responsibility for SEN.

If you have the email addresses of DS’s teachers, I would email them directly.

Does DS have an SEN plan, e.g. IEP, one page profile, MyPlan. Called different things in different schools/areas but will set out the support DS needs.

For forgetting equipment, we find it helps DS2 to have two sets. One set remains at home. The other set is never taken out of his bag at home. Now items are lost at school, but it means his e.g. calculator is never left at home because he forgot to put it back in his bag.

Thanks so much again - I really appreciate your support. I'm brand-new to all this. They did say they/schools in general don't get any training on DCD/dyspraxia. I know they've been awful at supporting a friends' son with this condition, who has higher-level needs than my son :-(

Any suggestions on how they make reasonable adjustments to the behaviour policy please? I have a friend whose son goes to the school who has ADHD and keeps getting punished for blurting words out in class. No allowances made for the fact that's one of his features.

I will wait and see what the Head of Year comes back and says re: time out card, and will push back if he's denied one.

Sorry, OT did also make those recommendations in the report re: ds having the learning resources on his tablet/laptop or right next to him, rather than just copying from the board. We will be looking into getting him a device asap so they can start implementing this.

After sleeping on it, they did seem very teacher-focused and what is best/easiest for them and sticking to the strict behaviour/rules policy. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what the next few months bring.

On the way out one of them was looking at her iPad and said "oh, wow, I've just seen his reading age; it's really high!" and I was like "yes, well, he's an avid reader and dyspraxia isn't linked to intelligence".

Adjustments to the behaviour policy will vary depending on individual needs, but the focus should be on supporting the additional needs rather than punishment for disability related behaviour. For example, for things like poor organisation, the school should be looking at ways to support DS to develop his executive functioning skills rather than punishing him for it. Things like using assistive tech, supporting DS to routines in place, checklists if they help, mentoring…

Not penalising him for weak organisational skills (he keeps getting conduct points for forgetting stationery/lanyard/wearing wrong colour socks etc).

This is one where you can help surely?
Lots of scaffolding at home, checklists etc.
Make sure he has everything at the start of the day (and spares) or better still the night before for most things.
Do something so the lanyard is attached to some piece of uniform, or his school bag or something depending on how it is used.

Continuing on scaffolding. Both mine have dyspraxia.

DD1 needed help with her school bag all the way to y9.
It took me literally (and I use that in the literal sense) years to 'train' her to use checklists.

DD2 still has checklists downstairs that she runs through before going to college or work experience to make sure she has everything.

Do they still have paper planners? We made sure the homework hand in date was written on hand in day so that was checked. We also had a rule that all messages were written in the planner, no trying to remember.

When DD1 used to get home she'd go upstairs with her bag to get changed, and then come down again. I then asked her if she had any homework. She then said 'I'm not sure, I'll check' and went upstairs again. It took DD1 until at least y9 to check upstairs before she came down first time. (DD2 learned from this, she walked in the door declaring 'I've French h/w' or whatever.

Thank you so much @ExistingonCoffee and @TeenToTwenties We do support and scaffold at home (I've accepted that ds needs reminding of things he does daily, daily ! and try to ask open questions like "what do you need today?" rather than just nagging about remembering what he needs).

School have actually been really proactive and today come back with a student passport (I need to add my 'parent voice'; not sure what to put? Needs to be brief) and agreed he can trial a 'time out' card for if he gets overwhelmed in a busy classroom.

@TeenToTwenties that last paragraph made me smile! With our ds it's telling him to put his dishes IN the dishwasher, not leave them on the side...E-V-E-R-Y S-I-N-G-L-E DAAYYYYYYY! See also: taking his inhaler when he brushes his teeth. Bless them, they get there eventually...we hope...

Would the school allow him to wear loop earplugs to helping with concentration? My daughter has some (fake ones from temu, as she loses them every 5 minutes) and she says they help her to concentrate in a noisy classroom.

She also has a smart watch with reminders at set times for anything she needs to do during the school day.