Bit of a SN WWYD? Advised that DD should be in a speech and language unit but there are none for her age group in the area

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And am not sure how to find out what she could have in terms of support within a mainstream school. Just had a private assessment done and the overall feeling is she needs to be in a unit and receiving specialist therapy most of the day. Which has made me rethink how pleased was that our inclusion teacher was organising 5 hours a week learning support assistant for her her playgrouo with a view to upping it to fifteen maybe in the future.

I don't want to make unreasonable demands but there seems to be a lot of sense in the idea that she won't cope in mainstream in terms of learning-it seems that she has a problem remembering words as well as using them and she is operating at the level of a one year ten month of for expressive language, her receptive language skills are 2.3 years and she is four and two months. The private SALT at the assessment said she just can't access the curriculum at present and the ed psych said her cognitive fuction is age appropriate using pictures etc and no language in the equation therefore she is ideal for a s and l unit but we just don't seem to have any for children as young as her here.

It was suggested thatsometimes children are able to go to mainstream school and be taken out for thier therapy but I don't want her on her own with adults for half the day-or do theymean taken out with others for therapies?

look out of area ds attends speech unit out of our area even though theres one nearer to us I looked felt not right and insisted on one he now attends

I would get moving now with statement ready for S*l unit in Septembe rknow some areas have nursery where small groups get intensive theraphy .Some dc spend time in ms class and some in he unit it is vairable ds unit there 100% in the unit but he needs that intensive support all the time othe runits its morning in unit and in clas sin afternoon

Ican said DD needs intensive therapy all the time, so wish she could go to thier school she was great after and did new things justafter being there two days.

Do you know how I would find out which schools have units attached in other areas? I have looked at our council website and there is just the one unit but it doesnt take them till year one which is too long away as she is the oldest in her year, that would mean waiting two years.

ah ok that makes sense and yes i felt like that after ds went to ~Ican .Infcat it was their report that i used to argue with Lea thats what ds3 needed and hey did agree with it

Does dd have a statement ? that would be first step as you cant get a unit place without one.

I phoned the Lea and asked for them , what area are you in someone here might know of it

im in East Herts and our council only listed one but i Dug around and found that inHerts it self there was 5 units and went and visted them all and was all very differnt

I am in oxfordshire but it seems there is only the one, I will ring them tomorrow to check yhe age they take children from as the more I think about it the clearer I feel that she needs it. She seemed so confident after ican.

Also look see if any in other LEA near you .Have you got a statement for Dd if nit apply for one

bigcar found these there seems to be a few schools with language bases dont know if any helpm

portal.oxfordshire.gov.uk/content/public/LandC/Childserv/sen/Special_Schools_Resource_Bases.pdf page 10

Thankyou I have had a look through and there is one in my area but I rang todayand they said they now don't send children there till year four and that most children's needs can be met in mainstream.

I am quite worried about DD and how she will cope and said so, turns out I was talking to the area coordinator and they provide outreach SALTS to mainstream schools. I just hope this won't damage her confidence though, she is so happy and not really aware most of the time of her problems that I would hate school to damage that.

Should add I called AFAISIC today who looked into it and our nearest s and l base for her age is in surrey its at ican,I wish! So sad tonight it seems so stupid to have outreach services going to children in different schools when they could be together. She said most parents want mainstream but I want her working towards that not in it yet.

I suppose at primary hopefully there is less bulying etc so she may be ok a few years. How old are they in year fouris that 7?

would be a battle and a half, but would there be suitable private s/l provision at her age?

In the school do you mean? I think whatthey are proposing is an outreach service that meets her needs. I am worried that really to meet her needs they would have to have her having speech therapy most of the day so she would then not be with other children?

Oh or maybe you mean private s and l schools? Hm that I don't know. I did look on icans website at the maintained schools list but got confused over what was what.

TotalChaos a battle I am willing to fight. After christmas and the move though ha ha! Thats when I am tackling the statement too.

Year 4 tend to be age 8-9.But yes look at private options and in neighboring counties.I'm looking ahead to year 3 options already as ds unit only goes up to year 2 and is year 1 already

provision in ms is patchy could end up with once every half term plus a special teacher advising the Ta how to work with your dd .Lot would then depend on how good that Ta is

Ds struggled in ms poor TA and was becoming aware that he could not do things and they really struggled to differante and put reccomendations into place add in the advisory teacher was crap

yet now in unit and he is Reading and signing and making progress in class sadly speech still ongoing problem infact his teacher is former ican teacher.

But check how much salt is available ,?how much time in unit

Ican are going to put in the report that she needs a s and l therapist intensive input ie not a TA with occasional SALT but obv depends how the LEA are. I found a list of private schools and still no units within 45mins drive!

The confidence thing is my worry too.I just can't see how she will cope or get enough out of it unless she literally has someone all the time and then I worry that she still won't be accessing the curriculum really. I am going to try and find out if any SN units/schools cater for children with s and l disorders,all the ones I could find say profound SN which ofcourse she has when it comes to s and l including her understanding of language but whetherthat makes her a candidate for a school for children with profound and multiple sn I don't know.

Wow a month or so ago I was obsessed with moving to get her in catchment for a "nice" school that seems crazy now I must have been in denial.

maybe need to up the distance ds unit takes 90 mins of a mornin 60 of a afternoon .I hate that he has hat journey but he is doing well an dmaking progress now.Doing stuff I only dreamed of this time last year.

LEA here lifted everyone of ican recommendations into his report ds to has problems processing language to needs teh signing to support his understanding.

If you was nearer i would reccomend his unit to anyone and they have spaces to

ok thanks well that would be the same as dd to ican,bit more maybe. But then she has medical needs and I am not sure what a taxi would do so it would mean me taking her I think which I can't do really. I so wishwe hada unit nearer to us and feel maybe have missed something.

I just need to visit SN units and mainstream maybe after christmas (but before the school applications deadline!

where in Oxon are you? i am in South Bucks and there are a few MS schools here with speech units- maybe not too far if you on the border??
My DD (3.11) is down to start at a primary school next september for reception.

the school has a speech unit and she'll have 4x sessions of SALT eash week with therapist, and be taken into small groups (4-6) for numeracy and literacy work- they are calling it ARP (additionally resourced provision).

It has taken a lot of digging to work out what is available and how to access it- but couldn't be more pleased now I have.

Wow that sounds good, I wonder if the ARP is part of the package that the outreach s and l service are going to come up with. I am still waiting to hear what can be offered but ican said dd has really severe needs and a unit would be best.

We are south oxfordshire so I can't think how far from you that would put us... I work near Thame though so its probably not unthinkable? Or maybe my geography is rubbish!

btw- I've been told that if you're going down the statement route that the whole deadline thing is irrelevant- we have our place now and have nothing to do with the primary applications. that might be because we already have our statement though.

I'm about 30 mins from Thame but I'm also about 25 mins from the school in the other direction...

I think it may be the statement. I think our inclusion teacher will put on the form that we are applying for a statement though.

Feeling a bit calmer after talking to our afaisic coordinator. As soon as christmas is out of the way I will start visiting schools. There are only two orthree I have in mind but it may help. Will have to try and do it all asap after the holidays. I would still love her to go to somewhere more specialised though or at least part of the time. Think I may have a fight on my hands, or another housemovein a year or so!Funnily enough Thame is an area I considered but it didn't fit with my boyfriend's work.