Statement - Skills sets - Motor, Social etc..

[CinnamonPretzel]

I'm trying to get all my comments together to send back to the LA for the proposed statement.

I hope you don't mind (if anyone is out there today to assist) if I dip in and out of this thread for support Its taking longer than I thought and I've had independent help but would just like some Mumsnet back-up, as you are the rocks and backbone of SEN

Starter
'...structured programme to develop motivation...'
This doesn't fall within social skills or motor skills does it, or can it be linked to the two? I'm querying who will devise, monitor, how often, what professional help will be given? Is that right?

I'm trying to be as detailed as possible, or am I going into too much detail as this point and should only question and see what the final comes back with and then go into even more detail for tribunal?
I know I've probably asked similar before but I really want to get this right

Social skills = motivation. In my area it's only asd outreach who look at what motivates a child beyond stickers and reward charts. If it's the same in yours I'd link it to that category & ask for asd outreach to be the professional advisor to devise and monitor.

Thanks bochead - we don't have asd outreach here, although school have called in a specialist ASD teacher for help before so I could request they use them or the neighbouring specialist school who also do visits and coffee mornings/presentations.

Do you know if SALT can help DCn with flat and extended intonation? Our ASD SALT was on leave so we had a stand in who said nothing was required re help in how DS talks

There is hardly any mention in the provisions for DS having accidents, getting changed, independence skills for toileting - other than that he has a reward chart.
should I be asking for something to go in there re: help & or assistance for toileting needs such as if he has an accident - who will watch, motivate, ensure he changes properly and puts his wet clothes in the correct section of his bag as opposed to in with his clean clothes?
Thanks

Yup - I'd add a heading entitled Life & self-care sklls.

Then Break it down saying that your child requires 1:1 assistance and training in the following self-care skills.

Objective:- To ensure Child X recieves the hygiene and self-care support to remain healthy and to help child X develop self-care skills.

Toileting - child X needs assistance with toileting skills a minimum of 3 times a day, and extra as required. This involves helping him to wash his hands, dress, clean himself blah blah. Any soiled clothes should be bagged up seperately to the clean clothes the parents provide each day. Soiled clothing should be given to the parents at the end of each day for laundering and care should be taken to ensure that fresh clean clothing is worn by X after any toileting accdents.

Dressing - child X requires help with dressing himself. This support should be provided by a trained TA and includes but is not limited to:- taking on and off coat for break times, tying shoe laces, changing for PE, apron for Art etc.

Dunno if what I've written is quite right but you are much better putting in what feels like too much detail and then the lea whittling some words out initially than allowing them to get away with very vague non-specific wording. "Quantify and specify" is your mantra.

Thanks Bochead - thats pretty much what I'm doing now.
Asking questions on each and then giving an example on how I'd like it or it should be on each and every provision Its taking ages.

I need the Ed Psych to amend their report as it details bits that aren't even DS - such as the school they attended!
Not sure if I should just phone or send the form in requesting a meeting and saying on the form 'further comments on the proposed statement will follow the meeting.'
That will take it past the 15 days deadline I need to return my form/comments though - am I allowed to do that or should I send in all my comments with the request for speaking to Ed Psych - do you know?

Appreciate the help. I'm struggling a little, but I know I'll look back and think 'how did you get through all that'

you don't want to just say help and supervision as that just means watching your child is safe and does not mean they have to teach them anything new. ie they can just maintain the current level of ability and still meet the statement. So you want to use words like develop, improve etc
So in 3a it should state the objective eg

? To develop DS self care and independence skills
? To develop DS awareness of danger, risk and personal safety
? To develop motivation to .....

and in 3b the mechanism eg
? Provide support and advice from specialist teaching staff familiar and experienced in working with children with ASC.
? Implement systematic, intensive structured teaching approaches that can be utilised both at school and at home including breaking skills down and teaching one step at a time, requiring a response from DS at each step
? Ensure that learnt skills are applied in a variety of contexts to promote DS ability to generalise newly learnt skills.
? Provide adult ASC trained support to teach self help skills and independence (you can list specific skills eg toileting)

For motivation as we do ABA it is a behaviour issue and achieved via a behaviour / reinforcement programme eg objective is
? To improve his motivation so that he is able to engage in all lessons/activities with greater independence
and mechanism is:
? Provide a consistent and personal behaviour management programme which includes careful setting of specific behavioural targets in order to work to decrease behaviours that are disruptive to DS learning and to increase his motivation, compliance and attention in a range of situations

Then we also have targets and provision to teach social skills etc In your case it might be motivation to develop self help skills.

I've been extra harsh and insisted all objectives state that they ensure ds catches up with his peers in each area. This has been met with a very hostile response about a deluded parent and ASD meaning he will never catch up with his peers, and yet, in independent standardised assessments ds dies indeed increase his percentiles.

This is proving to be a key point in our forthcoming tribunal.

My KEY win at tribunal was the inclusion of smart targets being set and words such as "precision monitoring and measurement of improvement", "Incremental small target setting towards X", "new targets should be set on a monthly basis" all the way through the document.

Basically they now have to break tasks down and then measure the improvements properly (my background is IT so think agile ) rather than waffle ifkwim. "ABA" key principles are in their though we were careful not to use the word "aba" for fear of scaring the horses ; )

Thanks Guys,

I've given my comments to the LA and we'll see what they change. I'm not sure I've done enough tbh re: targets and improvement changes I added things like '...with support from xx one to one LSA...' in most, added examples of how often, for how long but don't feel like I've changed enough.
I need feedback on a report i've queried so might be able to add more.

Does anyone else feel like they've failed each time they hand in more paperwork, as if you haven't covered enough ground or made your point, missing relevant details?

The things you guys are telling me is completely different from my independent help - no way near as much detail changing and emphasis on specific wording

I think I need to break for the rest of today - maybe read a book, watch a film and start again in the morning. But then I feel like I'm not allowed to stop and should carry on until its all done!

Do stop - putting it aside for 24 hours will mean you'll come back to it with fresh eyes and end up with a better doc in the long run.

Sadly my first "final" statement was so vaguely worded by the lea that it meant in practice they needed to do naff all to help my kid so I went to tribunal to get it worded in such a way that it's harder to wriggle out of. However my lea is "known" to ipsea & the solicitors etc as a poor one - yours may not be as bad.

Despite Tribunal I still don't feel my lads statement is "perfect" (OT not included as the lazy cow never submitted a report and the tribunal didn't rule in my favour to get her to complete it!). However it's enough to be getting on with till the next annual review (my son can at least now attend school full time) when I'll push for the stuff I didn't get this time round ; )

Thanks bochead - signing off