Should School be doing more?

[Jerbil]

My ds1 is about to be assessed for Social & Communication issues. He was referred by a Community Paediatrician a few months ago. He has seen Speech Therapist and has progressed extremely well with pronunciation issues. He continues to have interpretation issues (literal) and cannot follow a sequence of instructions especially in a group. His main issues are that he?s obsessive, has sensory issues, attention issues, many many food issues and learning difficulties.

His behaviour is extremely good at School and since he started in Nursery I have been concerned about his attention skills. As time has progressed and he is now in Reception I am much more aware of his difficulties as they seem to be growing all the time. He is way behind at School. He has not yet learnt his phonics (not even half) but all his classmates have. His teacher has put in some efforts by giving him different work to the rest of the class and we have to adapt what we give him during the morning task that parents participate in. It is very slow progress and he will not be learning keywords in this academic year unless there is some miraculous improvement. He is not going to be given any keywords until he knows all his letters.

I met with SENCO and they seem to be waiting for his NHS assessment to use that for information, but I think that process can be a lengthy one. The Speech Therapist will also be assessing him in School hopefully this term.

I am obviously extremely impatient and want all answers now as most parents do, but I am aware of the fact that these things do take a while, but my question is should I be expecting more of the School? Reading the formal documentation on Statements etc. I would?ve expected him to have an IEP now, or is that unreasonable of me? Are there educational assessment available for Reception children that could be performed?

He should definitely have an IEP by now. For instance, one of the targets could be to learn a certain number of phonics by a certain date.

they should not be waiting for the NHS diagnosis - they should be supporting his difficulties not his diagnosis.

He should also be on Schools Action level of SEN support if not the higher Schools Action Plus.

Sometimes parents have to push schools into formalising support.

The Ed Pysch can be called in by school (or by you) to make an assessment. He would automatically be contacted if your son was to be assessed for a Statement.

If you applied for a Statement the LA wold want to see what school had already tried, so it's important that he's on School Action and has his progress documented in an IEP.

Best wishes

Thanks so much for the reply. His teacher has suggested one target already, but that was just off their own back and has not been formally recorded. I am going to contact the SENCO - definitely! Thanks again

Just found out today that he is on School Action. School are also now going to perform some assessments (at my request).

Why do parents have to push so hard? Am fed up of hearing people say "he'll grow out of it". He's being assessed for Social and Communication disorders (apparently a new term for ASD inc Aspergers).

Need to learn some patience! :-)

Hi Jerbil

The age of maturation is between 7 - 8 years of age, when children stop growing out of developmental problems and the problems can then begin to be assessed and diagnosed as a form of a cognitive information processing deficit or disorder.
All learning neurological learning difficulties have one or more underlying cognitive deficits or disorders. And it is only from a Multi -Discipline (or Multi - Profession) assessment which only the NHS can provide that will diagnose the real problems which your son will have learn to cope with for the rest of his life.
Most of these issues are genetic and have no cure, some of the attention issues can be mediated using some medications, but there are no solution as yet for auditory processing or visual processing problems.

The professionals who have little understanding of these issues are those who like to change the names of these conditions to conceal their ignorance, or in an attempt to prevent you from easily obtaining the best available information regarding the real issues. Such is the politics of disabilities in the UK, especially in the Education system

Hi dolfrog

Thanks for that. I will try and be patient (honest). He does have a muti-discipline assessment about to start. I've been quite pushy!!! :-)

Thanks again