Views on this treatment at school please

[fightingthela]

Ds has always had good vocabulary using long words and sentences from age 2. When he went into Infants he was very frustrated that he couldn't converse with his peers and called them 'babies' as he could not understand them. Had behavioural difficulties and in Year 1 was separated from his peers and kept in a small playground with reception children rather than older ones. I am at a loss to know how this was meant to help him with his social communication difficulties. When he was eventually allowed back into large playground (around a year later) he had to either hold hand of LSA or not go more than 2 feet from her - again not helping his social skills. Anyone have any views on whether this be likely to cause long-term effects?

Yes he was aggressive at times but that could have been down to frustration at not being understood. I am going to be asking an EP their thoughts on this but wanted to know some views from other parents.

Sounds a bit arse about face really.

Presumably he has a Statement, so it sounds like you need to revisit that and discuss with the school how they intend to manage his aggression / deal with his frustration / develop his social skills / encourage integration.

All of those things are very basic stuff the school should be doing so maybe a prod from you is now required.

I can see from their POV they are trying to avoid any aggression incidents bt while that may be the safest optuion for other people it is very short-sighted and obviously not bothering to get to the heart of what your shild needs.

To answer your original question surely it is detrimental to him to be firstly held back from his peers, and then secondly allowed to reoin them but only from a distance and on a tight rein. In fact, that is really really awful the more I think about it - they aren't trying to help your son they are just trying to manage any potential problem, and that is not good enough.

My dd's school do "social skills" sessions for all the kids who have issues, for various reasons, not just SN. Some are aggressive, others just too shy to join in and some a bit awkward and unable to join in. Perhaps your school have or could start something similar?

Thanks for your comments. He is thankfully no longer at this school and does not have a statement yet. He is having to have trauma counselling due to still having nightmares about the school and bad memories about being dragged from classroom by 4 staff. We are really angry but did not know all what was going on until he started at other school (he is now 10). He then began to tell us what had gone on after he realised that not all schools were like that one!

my ds was also treated badly when he started school. Is now school refuser. Often wonder if it is all linked

When my ds was kept in a small playground by himself for 6 weeks, I was not happy. However, I knew school was applying for extra hours so waited to see what would happen. Meanwhile, called ACE who said that one of the main reason for primary school education is the development of social and communication skills and if the situation continued, I should write to the head of dept to complain.

ASD outreach recommended that school should develop a social skill programme but the 'highly trained' TA thought that was the same as social stories! I now write in with suggestions like will someone teach him to play xxx? In fact, ASD outreach suggested that if her recommendation that he was supported at playtime, he would not have been that aggressive and frustrated a couple of years later.

When did he move school fightingthela?

He moved school 3 years ago and still has social difficulties. Going through assessment now to try to get help but feel some problems could have been avoided if he wasn't kept isolated when younger. All actions by school seemed to focus on behaviour rather than social difficulties.