anything more she can do??

[lisad123isgoingcrazy]

My friend is a childminder and has a LO close to my DD2 age. He is very odd and from what I see has issues with understanding questions and complex thought. He is very sweet but hard to understand and there is clearly something there just cant put finger in it.
My friend has mentioned it to his mum and his preschool. Mum says he is fine at home and preschool say he is fine. My friend feels like she cant push it too much as mum may think shes making it all up but also doesnt want to leave it too long as she knows early intervention is best.

Any ideas? I have told her to keep ongoing observations of his behaviour and hope when he starts nursery they might see the same.

Part of the requirements of the EYFS is that practitioners who share the care of children must also share information about that child's progress through the EYFS developement matters which is basically a list of how the child should be developing at different ages.

This requirement could be the childminder's excuse to contact the pre-school and see if they share her concerns. It may be that his mum is in denial and if that is the case there is very little she can do. She can show the parents the paragraph in the statutory guidance.

Regular observations is a really good idea.

Accepting that your child has a SN can be a long process so I'd suggest that she continues to be gently honest about his progress without pushy his mum to accept something she's not ready to see.

yes early intervention is best but having parents on board is also key to successful support.

the preschool do talk to her but they say that he is ok, but tbh I know this preschool arent good, they are the ones that made things very difficult for DD2, so we moved her quickly.

Perhaps she could suggest they compare notes about which part of development matters he's working in in their opinion. that may get them thinking a bit more about whether his developmental levels are appropriate to his chronological age.

Sadly as professionals our hands are very much tied if parents are not ready to listen.

Observations will help her contribute useful information if things do progress to some sort of intervention or assessment. they might also highlight for her ways in which her practice may be making things harder for him compared to home and pre-school, therefore meaning that these symptoms are more apparent to her.

She sounds like a very conscientious practitioner which is a big plus for this little boy. Hopefully she'll do well at supporting his needs now and be a great asset when they are recognised by others too.