advise on starting the statementing process

[supercalafragalistic]

My DS1 was diagnosed with DCD about a yr ago after a very difficult reception year and ASD during the summer after a difficult yr1. I feel he has made very little progress socially or academically since starting school. We have had to fight for every assessment he has had so far from school and it is exhausting and soul destroying with little resulting help. I had a meeting with his new class teacher and SENCo today and made my feelings very clear that my intention was to start the statementing process. I think his class teacher was supportive of this but the SENCo seemed worried about the paperwork! She also felt that we needed more evidence but I do not want to leave this to the school as I feel we have wasted enough time already. Can anyone recommend what assessments hold the most weight in terms of a statement and by which professionals? I also feel he may have dyslexia/dysnumeracy and sensory issues too. He has started to develop a noisy tick which is causing problems (any advice from those in the know?). His behavior has also started to cause problems which have not been a problem previously. Hope to find some support as this is one hell of a journey! Many Thanks

Perhaps you could have a 3 step visual sequencing chart ie picture of homework book and bag, coat and lunch bag, then you would only have to prompt him to look at his chart? Perhaps try it home and child minder, if its sucessful, then make one for school.

I have a sequencing chart for ds at home to help him with getted dressed, he often puts things on inside out, back to front or gets dressed only to find he hasnt put on his pants or vest or t-shirt.

super - I know its hard to not get frustrated and think its a put on sometimes. My DS is so dramatic and I cant tell the diff sometimes. adjectives! Brill I cant even remember what an adjective/noun etc is lol I need to get myself a basis english guide to help DS with homework to come. lol
claw3, thats a good idea. Thanks :) I will give that a try and stick it near the front door.
On his stage one school action they decided to do a visual schedule as DS was always too worried about what was happening next to focus on the "now" Not too sure how this is going at school so far.
Any tips on keeping on task? Its not always a case of knowing what to put on or do, hes just so easily distracted away from things

Yes, DS gets very distracted and I still haven't figured out how to tackle this. It's his main problem with work at school too. I know he is perfectly capable. Going to give the visual cues a go this week. I always know when he has done PE as his clothes are always back to front and inside out! At least he gets his shoes on the right feet so there is some progress!
Yes, I had to get him to remind me about adjectives! He told me I was silly! Well, it was quite a few years ago and I was never good at English!

Ds gets easily distracted in school because a) he doesnt understand, so loses interest or b) sensory, fidgets and fiddles with everything. Depending on the reason you feel your ds gets distracted, some children get distracted by noise, too much visually etc, etc.

EP recommended ds have a personal workstation in school.

SALT recommended ds have higher more complex language, broken down and recast.

OT recommended sensory diet, movement breaks, foot rests, weighted lap tray etc.

At home limit the distractions, somewhere quiet, make sure he has understood (ds gives up very easily) perhaps with movement breaks.

Thanks Claw,
We discussed a workstation with teacher but she was worried about how he would feel about being separated from friends. It's a hard one isnt it.

Same here Super, i have all those recommendations, but school are not implementing any of them! Ds is feeling increasingly 'different' from his 'friends' because he doesnt get much work done, its swings and roundabouts really isnt it. You could always ask your ds how he felt about it, if he liked the idea etc.

Oh we have had so many recommendations by various 'professionals' not seen school put anything in place tbh! I was horrified when he brought his folder of work home from yr 1. Basically just paper with scribbles on. I know he is capable of so much more! I think they still believe he is just being difficult. It is not helped by the fact that he can read well. They told me that he needs to learn to work on his own! Urrrm, yeh, he cant, he has a learning difficulty,HELLO! Sigh, sorry I need to stop getting wound up!

Ds's reading age is that of about an 11 year old, he is 7, yet his vocab is 3 years behind, severe wording finding difficulties, semantic links 0.04 centile etc, etc. He changes facts he reads to whatever he wants them to mean etc. Along with all his other complex and conflicting difficulties, advance reading age seem irrelevant, if only school would view it like that!

Super, ive found that too. OT have been sending the school reports and recommendations to help, but they havent even read the reports.
claw -its so frustrating watching them struggle with getting words out :( You just wanna help them, but know u cant. DS struggles alot with reading. He is still on Reception books and in yr 2, cant remember all the sounds no matter how hard we try, even ones he knows he still gets wrong at times.

Claw3 and Merry, I agree the help available to these poor boys is terrible. I was horrified after the SALT assessment that he will not get any help because he can communicate. I know there are kids much worse but how frustrating for these kids to not be able to get their thoughts and feelings across. DS was trying to tell me the other day that his brain hasn't got all the wires it needed and that's why he couldn't make people understand him.

DS says his brains all fuzzy and like spagetti, all muddled up.
You cant help but feel sorry for them. Sometimes when your stressed and cant get words out, its embarrasing and annoying. Our poor DC are experiencing this on a daily basis :( Ive started to notice DS friends looking at me as if "what on earth is he waffling about" when DS is trying to explain things. My heart breaks as I know the gap is now widening. Other days he talks like hes swallowed a dictionary

merry, it sounds like we are talking about the same child! yes the gap does feel like it is widening which is scary. They seem so much less mature than their peers which makes it so hard from a social aspect. He is so desperate to make friends but often doesn't know how. I guess that is his ASD side shining through! Thing is I wouldn't swap him for a neurotypical kid!

super. I know maturity (or lack of it) is a big problem for DS. When he gets excited he starts this baby talk and no matter how many times I tell him to talk properly, he doesnt. I have tried to tell him people will laugh at him and he needs to act like a big boy :( DS also is desperate for friends to like him. He does make friends, but unfortunatly they get fed up with him easily. Another problem I have is stories about "best friend pushed me, called me a baby and told me to shut up!" also he told him "if you tell the teacher, I wont be your best friend anymore and no-one else will want to play with you". :(
Picked DS up from school the other day and saw Ds being hit over head with lunch box by this "best friend". I also have noticed DS trying to hard to impress this "best friend" and him ignoring him. DS following like a puppy for his attention. :( Heart breaking. I have already went into school and they told me "the boys do tend to play rough and DS does tend to over react. But these things DS telling me just seems wrong to ignore?
I just wish he would get away from this boy and play with others!
Your right, I would change DS for the world, I just wish things could be easier for him :( He really is the sweetest, adorable boy. Hes so funny and he doesnt even know it.

Oh dear, there was alot of :( faces there. Sorry!!!!

To go back to your first post as I haven't read every post in the thread,

I was told that the Local authority would read a private Ed Phyc. report but would insist on the school having one done as they think that a private one is biased. To that end go and ask the school to get the Ed Psyc in asap. - this can take some time so ask for it now.

With the ASD diagnosis - is there a special autism school around you? If so then your mainstream school should be able to access outreach from it. Go and insist that they get the outreach person in to class to observe and make recommendations - this will be another report to have in your armour.

Are there any other outside professionals involved? OT? SALT? CAMS? all of these people if they have seen your child will have produced a report.

If you hunt your local authority website you should be able to find the policy ( fro schools) on inclusion and statementing process for different conditions. I am in London and found the one for where I am that was guidance essentially for the people deciding whether or not to award the statement. If you look at this and see the sorts of things that they are looking for then you can find examples demonstrating these to put in the "parental information" that they ask for.

I was told that the key things are to look at what help the school are currently providing and What BARRIERS remain to accessing the full curriculum and learning.

Oh and not knowing what they are like where you live can I suggest the parent partnership that the council provide. Ours were fantastic at helping me write the letters and telling me exactly what it is that the LEA look for.