is mainstream right place for my son given this list of measures autism outreach have suggested?

[autumnsmum]

hello , sorry me again as you know i am condidering starting the statementing process , today i heard what ao are suggesting for my son and i wonder if it gives any strength to my argument that he should attend a special school. Firstly ao gave the number for parent partnership, they have also said my boy needs a visual timetable and as he has no friends in class and incidentally today was involved in an altercation, they suggest he is introduced to some older children, they also think he should get involved with games run by a midday at lunchtime presumeably to help with his very poor social skills sorry to waffle on i would be so grateful for opinions.

Nothing you have written suggests special school to me. Most mainstraem schools would be used to having children with those needs.

They are standard practise in our school. DD has autism but doesn't need the visual timetable but it's there for others without ASD who do. They have buddy systems, circle of friends and playleaders at lunchtime as well. Nothing there that many schools have as standard tbh and not a reason for special school really.

How old is your ds?

Dd2 started school in september, she is at ms, she needs visual time tables, doesn't know how to make friends (which doesn't bother her), uses PEC'S alongside some speech and it statemented for 30hrs 1:1 a week. She is in MS after i tried to get her into sn school (lea decided ms was best for her). It hasn't been easy, we have had ups and downs and i don't know how long she will last in MS, the school are trying (finaly) to meet her needs but she needs someone with her at all times. In a way i feel she should be in the sn school (as they understand more about ASD and the classes are smaller but on the other hand the social interaction in ms has really helped her, her speech has improved and so has her imagination. I kind of feel she doesn't really fit in any where.

thanks for all your comments my ds is 5 he is in year one , i suppose part of the reason for me considering special schol is that he hates school

Its hard when they are not enjoying it, dd2 refussed to go after christmas, it broke my heart to see her so upset , do you think he would prefer special needs school or would he still not want to go?

Its such a shame that there are not more ASD schools/units (we have nothing here). Maybe he just needs a better ms school or a smaller school, dd2 is in a tiny village school (90 children), i don't think she could cope with anything bigger.

Visual timetable, social skills group, support at playtime.

I think my autism advisory service recommend these same things to every single child on their list regardless of where they are on the spectrum.

The question is will these interventions meet need?

Also who will be teaching social skills? Are they trained to do so? Can they train peers? Do they know how to measure progress in social skills? Can they fade out at the right time? Can they teach conversational skills?

VTs can be great if used well for the right child. But often they are served up as some kind of silver bullet for all kids with autism. They are supposed to help the child access the curriculum - not be the intervention themselves.

All this tells me is that they are recommending the standard offering.

I would always apply for a statement and appeal if necessary. By the time you got any where near a tribunal you would know if this was enough for adequate progress or not.

Otherwise you might find out - as I did - that your autism outreach offer the same very occasional, generic, back of a fag packet kind of advice that mine did.

Are they offering 1:1?