Where should we be?

[nosuchthingasagruffelo]

hi everyone

I've been reading through various posts to see if I can get an idea where we should be and what help we should be getting for my ds 6 dx asd

Ds was in the system from when he was 3 but it took until September this year to get his diagnosis! The past few years ds had his IEP's and was SA+ but when he started school in sept it was decided by the school that he didn't need any IEP
We have had a nightmare in the past with the school especially the SENCO who was ds teacher last year who told me there was no way on this earth ds was autistic! Obviously she was very wrong!

Ds copes very well with school he is very quiet and tends to just ignore anything around him, he is very intelligent but really struggles with his writing this hasn't improved over the past few years, he does have fine motor skill problems! He has problems maintaining friendships and is coming home most nights very distressed having huge melt downs and not wanting to go to school!

I believe some one to one would benefit him but I'm not sure how to go about it all and with the SENCO being a nightmare I want to go in fully informed and know what I'm intittled to if anything!

Thank you!

Is he still on SA+ ??if so has an Ed Psych been in to see him? That is normally what should have happened.

If he has some motor skill issues has he been seen by an OT to help with this? does he have social skills issues. Reason I asked is my DS has and currently a SALT is going into school to assess him to help with social and communication skills.

No he has nothing at the moment, no ed psych has been in and the school hasn't mentioned anything even tho the pead has wrote to the school with the official diagnosis nothing else has been put in place!

He has exercises to do from the OT but they are so over stretched an to be honest arnt the best!

Ds speaks very well but just chooses not to a lot of the time which hinders his learning.

My ds speaks very well but too long winded and too old fashioned for kids to understand. His need to be in control of situations stop his social skills and he basically clams up and ignores everyone.

I think you are going to have to take the bull by the horns and arrange a meeting with the head and the senco. Just plain come out with it that they have now got notification of your sons dx and what are they going to put into place to help him. State your concerns regarding his writing and ask what they are doing to help improve it. Great that he is doing fine in class but he is obviously having a hard time of it with his peers bless him. Ask the school if they might consider making up a circle of friends involving another teacher/ta to help him.

Speak to your OT and ask if she could go to the school to give them ideas on excercises they can do for his writing and any other fine motor issues he has.

I think the school can contact a SALT to come in and assess (I know mine is hasseling one) but I could be wrong.

Perhaps someone will come along in a minute with some more advice. The only thing I can think of is if the school are a bit shall we say not forthcoming then make a log of events each day as it comes and how your son has been each day then march back in.

Yes should have an IEP.
Yes should see EP and autism outreach / SALT
You can contact your SEN officer at COuncil and ask them for details of what schools are supposed to put in place / are able to access and what monitoring / data they should be taking. Many LAs are moving to more outcome based IEPS and making schools set out SEN maps of all the interventions they can access which schools should share with parents. So you can ask to see school 'provision map' for autism (diff LAs probably call it diff things) and their plan for your DS. To get a dx must be areas of deficit - were these identified in the dx reports? Did you get a full written report?
If you don't get anywhere quickly apply for statutory assessment on the basis this is necessary to identify your child's needs and the provision needed to meet them. Thats a quick way of getting the LA to put pressure on a school to put intervention in as they won't want to pay for an assessment / issue a statement of SEN.
You might want to go for statutory assessment anyway as getting OT is almost impossible unless its written into a statement