SALT input at school may stop we have been warned...

[genieinabottle]

Following my thread yesterday, i thought i'd update...
As i dropped B of into classroom, teacher approached me and said he had been getting upset with changing of activities for the past couple of days, so that they 'now' could see that a PECS timeline would be of use.

(I am wondering if the turn around in atitude towards the use of PECS timetable has anything to do with the meeting she knew was set up with senco )
Hi,
Just a little update as some of you may remember from my previous rant on monday that school were not using strategies recommended by SALt, EP and ASD dx team.

So during meeting, senco and head teacher confirmed that visual aids were now to be used, school-home communication book has started, school is trying to arrange for EP to go in to observe and advise, new IEP will be written (they are using atm the old one from nursery), and as soon as SALT makes contact for her first visit to school, we'll be told and we can see her afterwards.

But senco did say we have to be wrned that this SALT coming into school twice termly to check on progress and set targets will not last for very long.
I pointed out that DS has a dual dx of ASD and speech and language disorder and that SALT did assure us that SALT input would continue as long as needed.
SENCO quickly added this was the usual procedure for children to be discharged from SALT once they are in school, but that we need not to worry as the LSA is excellent with working with children like DS and has been given SALT within the school for many years.

Very well but... she couldn't give me an answer as to how much and when will DS have SALT with LSA.

Is this another battle we will be facing soon... trying to get SALT for DS at school.

OOOPS copied and pasted some stuff and it's gone wrong... here is the post i meant to write.

Hi,
Just a little update as some of you may remember from my previous rant on monday that school were not using strategies recommended by SALt, EP and ASD dx team.

So during meeting, senco and head teacher confirmed that visual aids were now to be used, school-home communication book has started, school is trying to arrange for EP to go in to observe and advise, new IEP will be written (they are using atm the old one from nursery), and as soon as SALT makes contact for her first visit to school, we'll be told and we can see her afterwards.

But senco did say we have to be wrned that this SALT coming into school twice termly to check on progress and set targets will not last for very long.
I pointed out that DS has a dual dx of ASD and speech and language disorder and that SALT did assure us that SALT input would continue as long as needed.
SENCO quickly added this was the usual procedure for children to be discharged from SALT once they are in school, but that we need not to worry as the LSA is excellent with working with children like DS and has been given SALT within the school for many years.

Very well but... she couldn't give me an answer as to how much and when will DS have SALT with LSA.

Is this another battle we will be facing soon... trying to get SALT for DS at school.

gut reaction - call up SALT department on Monday, see what their reaction is. School could be talking cobblers. And if your DS hasn't got a statement, apply for one pronto...

Has your DS got a statement? If so, does it mention the SALT?

"SENCO quickly added this was the usual procedure for children to be discharged from SALT once they are in school"

• er, is it? My DS has had SALT at school for the past 5 years!

"the LSA is excellent with working with children like DS and has been given SALT within the school for many years."

• is she qualified though?

Thanks TC,
as i feared it all comes down again to the statement issue... DS is only on action + atm.

Mumi, in our area we have been told by ASD paed that SALT is like golddust and we will be lucky to get SALT with a dx of ASD.

I don't know if LSA has any qualifications... but the salt from the lang.unit did speak highly of her.
So i'm hoping that she knows her stuff.

I was told for years that ds did not need SALT despite fact had no lang and very little ability to communicate. Eventually realised it was all totally resource led and got SALt written into part 3 of statement. LEA then obliged to get independent SALT in to see ds once per month. If the SALT you access is NHS, then it's possible that they may just stop coming in. In my area, they only see pre school children too. You probably are going to need a statement to get any concrete provision.

Cansu, yes SALT is NHS.

When ds left the lang.unit they gave us a bit of paper which says "salt service will provide ongoing support in conjonction with the school's teaching team comprising: -individual assessment and modelling sessions. -2 termly visits to school, who wil advise parents of date and time. -revised targets for intervention, while the child meets the criteria agreed by primary local trust and LA for ongoing intervention."

Then it goes on about that discharge will occur when the child's communication needs can be met in the educational environment.

...

I know this is a few days old, but as a SLT I would say ring your SLT dept and find out what's what from the horse's mouth so to speak.

In my experience some schools are excellent at working with SLT and know what they're talking about, others at best make it up as they go along and at worst are point blank unwilling to work cooperatively in the child's interests. Out of interest, do you know how many children with S+L needs the current SENCo has had dealings with? She may be vastly overgeneralising based on what happened with a couple of children, who may not have the same diagnosis/lang unit background your child has.

At the end of the day, it is not really anything to do with the school when your child is discharged from the SLT service.

"SENCO quickly added this was the usual procedure for children to be discharged from SALT once they are in school, but that we need not to worry as the LSA is excellent with working with children like DS and has been given SALT within the school for many years".

OMG, I hope you gave that piece of misinformation the contempt it deserves.
How can a LSA be at all properly trained to give SALT, it all sounds like SEN on the cheap.

Hi genie,

You are probably heartily sick of me writing this:)(and you probably already know what I am going to write here!) but it bears repeating.

You and by turn will keep being messed around like this if your DS has no statement in place. You will end up feeling shite and your DS will end up being failed by a system that is supposed to bloody well help him.
If you ultimately want DS to have a place in a language unit (and he seemed to do very well in such a place) you need a Statement to get him in there. There's no other way.

Put a rocket up their jacksi and apply for the Statement yourself asap. You will thank yourself for doing so. Do not fear applying for one; there's a lot of us who have been through this and come out the other side and you will have a lot of support.

Re SALT and a statement it needs to be written into both Parts 2 and 3.

We get SALT - is on statement

Parent the other day said to me when I said even if we did not win aba at tribunal at least we'd get a statement that was specified eg re SLT - why are you bothering they will only take it off the statement the next year. So i can see it is something we will have to deal with yearly.

For the statement the SLT had to put DS in a band 1,2 or 3 which indicated level of intervention eg visits. I can't see why a SLT can't tell you the intervention band while on action plus eg you could ask her if prepared to put in writing the band your DS needs and an explanation. He might have been allocated a banding without your knowledge. If so ask the SLT to share this info with school

Thank you for replies.

I'm eagerly waiting for the first SALT visit to school to see DS (apparently this usually happens near the first half-term).
We have been told that we'll be notified and given the chance to speak to SALT when this happens.
I shall mention what SENco said and see what SALT says.

I don't know if i ought to bother ringing the SALT dep. in the meantime. They have been quite difficult before at giving out info over the phone , and in any case, we have a letter (the one i mentionned a few posts above) from them, highliting details of the involvement of SALT in school for the time being.

Still hovering over the statementing dilema ... feeling scared by it all tbh.
But i am keeping a log of everything, every little incident involving school, and will be keeping out an eye out on progress and even more so if DS falls behing further.
Thanks for offering support anyway.

genie

You will get bags of support and help from this board if you apply personally for a Statement (we'll hold your hand figuratively speaking). Don't feel scared at all although it is a daunting process. Scared just puts you off applying and your son could certainly do with the support on the level the language unit gave him.

Better off applying now than for example midway through Junior school.