my son has speech and language delay and possibly some type of processing problem what sort of help should I be expecting/demanding in school?

[NotInTheMood]

I really don't know what to do as my son is in year 1 and is really struggling with his reading and writing which is having an affect on everything else.

One minute the school are saying he's making progress with the extra help he's getting in school which is just extra help from the TA in class and extra reading twice a week. SALT have closed the case as feel he has improved and needs a break and will review/refer in june if any concern from the teacher. But his grades in his school report were appalling. And it wasn't helped by the fact that only Maths and English were individualised reports the other subject areas were a standard report of what they did as a year group and not what he personally did in these subject areas so I have no idea what he enjoys or how we can help in these other areas.They graded him 2's and 3's with two being below average and he actually got a 1 in English which was well below average.

NotInTheMood, is he on school action or school action plus? Does he have an individual education plan (IEP) with SMART targets that are specific, not woolly, measurable, achievable, Relevant and time based? These should be agreed with you and reviewed each term. If this isn't happening you need to meet with the SENCo and find out why not.

If they are and he is still not making adequate progress you might be well advised to ask about statutory assessment for a statement of SEN which, if successful would give your DS some 1:1 support protected by law.

Do you think he might have something like dyslexia? There are others on here that have better knowledge than me, but he may benefit from an assessment by the educational psychologist (EP).

Keep posting for more advice. Things move quickly on this board so don't be afraid to bump up your post if necessary.

Thankyou Ellen for the reply and your help-im finding it really overwelming. And everyone who is supposed to be supporting my child seems to be sitting on the fence and taking a wait and see approach. I dont think there are other issues there they say he has difficulty processing things but they do not mention dyslexia it all seems to be a branch off the same tree to me iykwim. He really struggles with reading and still writes letters and numbers back to front his 3', B's and even his j's. He will read a word on a page and forget it or be unable to sound it out on another page. He has an IEP not sure when they will renew it i will have to dig it out. I think alot them were references to his speech.

I would ask the school to arrange for him to be reviewed by the educational psychologist to try and determine where his problems lie and then if appropriate refer on from there. It is worth asking school about the CAF process and TAC meeings - basically a way of getting all the people involved with a child together in one place to discuss the issues and plan a way forwards to try and get him the help he needs. I don't think everyone on this board has had good experiences with them, but in our case it has definately helped us with our DD in school.

If school are unable/unwilling to help or you are just plain concerned and want everything looked at then it is also worth a trip to the GP to discuss the worries and ask for a referral to a developmental paed.

NotInThe Mood, your situation mirrors our, except we are four years on. My son is in year 5 and has been seeing SALT since 4 years old and has been on SA+ since he started. We was told he has a speech and lanaguage delay and Auditory Memory/processing disorder (this was only advised recently), but still 5 years on no official DX. He is on average still 4 years behind his peers. His school are very much sitting on the fence and waiting to see and are always telling me he is making progress, when clearly he's not. I feel so guilty because I have trusted these professionals for 4 years and I should have gone with my gut instinct and met up with the school on a regular basis challenging his IEP, which reading them now are not worth the paper they are written on as they just say the same and no change made, they have never been reviewed. Now the school know me by my first name as I am always there, I challenge everything as I know my child better than they do. We did have the EP involved 2 years ago, so I have now arranged for her to come into see my son again in 5 weeks time, I have got a referal to the Paed and I am going to see my GP. I guess I have woke up and now I am prepared to fight for my son, I am thinking I will have to go for a statement as his school are in the process of making redundancies and one is his TA, so I know they will use this as an excuse for not being able to give him more 1:1 time (at present 2 x 10mins a week, the EP laughed at that) which I am hoping the EP will recommend. Its a battle but one worth fighting, so don't let them fob you off like they did to us. At least challenge those IEP's and request for an EP.

Good Luck

Thankyou for the replies. At present ds gets no 1:1 and the extra help he recieves is in class apparently. Which is not great when apparently in his report it says that ds has a lack of concentration and works better in small groups. When I questioned then 2mnths into year 1 they were very vague about the help he recieve its so frustrating

I would ask the GP for a referral to a developmental paed if your son is not already under the care of such a person.

I would also apply now for a Statement from the LEA for your son. You do not need school's permission to do this and you can appeal in the event the LEA say no to such an assessment.

Look at IPSEA's website and read the SEN Code of Practice as well.

www.ipsea.org.uk