Seeing Ed Psych - would you mention this?

[debs40]

We're seeing EP as part of stat assessment on Thursday.

DS is getting virtually no provision in school and we have had to battle every step of the way to get school to do anything. They seem to be unable to accomodate anything beyond the 'average' child unless it is literacy/numeracy catch up.

Anyway, after a recommendation in our dx report which said a SA should be undertaken, we managed to persuade school to apply.

In the meantime, while we await its completion, we seem to have gone back to square one in terms of establishing support. Obviously, when you've got a child who just does as he's told, it's easy to do that and get away with it in a way that wouldn't happen if he was throwing chairs at teachers.

I spoke to the Head today as she had previously mentioned allowing DS to finish early to see a specialist tutor. She has agreed this. Obviously, we pay, but, at present, it seems the only way to ensure he is getting some specific support.

Would you mention this to the EP? It seems wrong to me that, because what happens to those children whose parents can't afford to do this???

What does he see the tutor for Debs? Surely school should be dealing with his education -why do you have to pay for it?. I would definitely mention it to EP. We recently saw EP for SA and it was actually refreshing to meet a professional who 'got' our ds and understands his difficulties. I am in a slightly different situation though as my ds gets really frustrated and has behavioural difficulties. After a particularly bad day recently school have managed to obtain emergency funding until statement is sorted. I would say though that school seem to have been not as supportive as they were before we went for sa.

Thanks. I had a bit of a battle by email wit this EP who asked me not to attend the assessment with her and DS as 'children change with their parents around'. This was based on one child with AS she had met who was lovely but who changed in to a difficult youth with parent in tow.

This was said even though she doesn't know DS and despite the fact I have always attended his assessment appointments for his dx and was welcomed. I suppose they were medical with no LA funding axe to grind.

Anyway, she didn't even tell me I had a right to be there, so I'm sure I shhan't find her so helpful.

The school should be dealing with it but they haven't and applied for a SA even though they were actually only offering him 5 hours on SA+ (that's what the LA pay for so they had to put that figure) at the time of application.

I think once they put the SA request in, they kind of hang fire to see what they're going to get out of it.

Fighting - have they offered you a statement then, or are you not quite there yet?

It is always the same old story with DS. He doesn't bother anyone but himself and it was a revelation to him that he could tell people he was upset - I told him the EP would ask him what he thought of school and you have to say to him that it's ok to say what you think.

How long did you see the EP for? We've got an app for an hour. I envisage it being a complete waste of time as you have to dig to see the problems and who wants to do that?

Hi Debs - have to dash now but will be back this evening. Saw EP only for about half hour but she also spoke to ds and observed in class. She had also seen him 4 years ago which helped. We are going through SA but she seemed pretty confident that we would get statement. Having to decide secondary schools at the moment too so not good timing!

I would tell EP anything relevant, especially as its about education. In fact, I tell various professionals any info I want to "get out there", whether its their area or not, that's their problem not mine.