statements and self confidence

[emd4]

Hi,

Im not a regular poster but was hoping for a bit of advise on a couple of things please.

Firstly regarding statements. After a meeting with my ds's teacher I am wondering if it is worth pushing for statement? And what it is they do exactly? My son (in year 1) doesnt seem to be making any progress at school despite lots of work at home from myself and a senco who works with him once a week at home.
He is currently getting 1:1 in the mornings at school and 1 hour in the afternoon.

Im not sure if a statement would mean he would get more 1:1 time? or if he would have someone with special needs experience working with him rather than a TA?
His teacher seems to think they will only do a statement in year 2, at which stage he will be even further behind. She said that having the extra support now would really benefit him, but wasnt explicit about what the extra support might be.

So Im just wondering if anyone has any experience with statements and if they have made a big difference to their son or daughter? And if it would be worth asking the school to apply now rather than in september?

Also his self confidience has dropped recently and he is not even attenpting some things, as he doesnt believe he can do it, which is causing him to go backwards a bit which Im really worried about. I think it is because he is noticing the difference between himself and the others in the class. Ive also heard a couple of comments from other children in the playground commenting along the lines of 'you cant do anything'. At the time he didnt really seem to understand, but Im sure if its happening alot that he will. I know its probably just me being sensitive but i just dont want school to become a negative thing more than it already is for him.

Any tips on how to boost his self confidence? and make him understand that although hes a little different he is amazing in his own way?

Thanks any advice appreciated, I dont really know any other mums of special needs children so dont have anyone else to ask.

x x x

Still in the process of diagnosis, have been for a while as he is not a 'typical' case! I can never remember the name his paed used for the problems but it is apparently aspergers adhd and some mild mobility problems that they have unofficially diagnosed him with, and possibly something else.
The paed and psychologist advised the school to use stratagies with him as though he had a diagnosis of asd.

Can I do a statement? I thought the school had to do it?

I would of thought that a statement would be beneficial to the school as they would get funding for the 1:1 that they are already providing, so not sure why they said nothing more can be done until year 2. Is there a chance of him not getting that statement? I wondered if they wanted to wait so he would definatly get it- which seem crazy, and really unfair on him.

thanks for the reply

x x x

A lot of questions which would take too long to answer so suggest that you look on the RH side of the screen here at the Special Educational Needs: Mumsnet stuff for an explanation of Statments.

The main differences with a statemnet is that:

your child undergoes a full assessmnet to identify all their needs - at the momment school are just guessing at what he actually needs (badly if his performance is actually detiorating despite this support)

Any support identified and stated in a Statemnet must be legally delivered. Any support school currently voluntraliy gives him like the 1:1 support can be withdrawn by school at any time. That's why you need the protection of a Statment.

Obviously it helps the assessment process if school will apply for one for him but they are reluctant to do so. That means you should apply directly to the LA yourself and ask for an assessment. It's your right to do so.

Sorry about the typos

You do not always need a statement to access extra support there may well be support the school can access now, and you need to find out what this might be as it can be hard to get a statement if you cannot show the school has not already tried everything else.

Examples might be autism outreach staff to provide training, programmes, advice about environment (in some areas you need a diagnosis to access such services); outreach support from a local special school or unit; speech therapy; educational psychologist; clinical psychologist; behaviour support etc etc. Look on your council website and see what you can find out about the services they provide to schools and if your school has accessed them all yet.

Ask the school how statements are funded in your area its not necessarily the case the statement will be fully funded the school might have to put in the first so many hours and that may be why they are fobbing you off as they don't want to make a big commitment year in year out. (in my experience not going for a statement usually means that schools are not going to gain financially)

Ask the school what training the TA has been on. TAs and teachers get sent on a lot of basic awareness / generic advice type courses, but rarely get detailed training about how to actually teach the individual child in front of them. This should be what the outreach teams do, but quality varies massively from area to area. How often is the TA getting specialist advice, feedback?

Consider whether there are any special schools or units even in the independent sector or neighbouring LA where the staff may have the expertise you are looking for. Don't rule anything out until you have looked around. Even other mainstream schools that may have more experience of SEN (parent ASD groups often the best way to find out), or a school which has ASD unit (even if you don't get a unit place straight away)

If the school are not able to show progress they are either not teaching well or not setting targets properly eg they need to split up the skills into tiny steps and measure each one. This way you can tell each week if has learnt that next step or not, and if not they should try to teach it a different way not just keep going over the same ground. Very often the fault lies not with the child being unable to learn, but the staff not having a clue how to teach a child with for eg ASD.

We went for a statement with specialist ASD teaching for my DS (5) and the difference in his rate of progress now compared to his mainstream (well intentioned but ultimately clueless) nursery is enormous.

A TA, or more TA time, is not necessarily the answer. If your child is not able to learn from mainstream style teaching yet, then you may be right in your hunch that you need someone with SEN experience. That might mean moving to get it.

You should apply for a statement so professionals will come in and assess what is going on / wrong. But you also need to make sure that you are in a school that can deliver the quality not just the quantity of support you need.

Thankyou so much for all the help.

I think I need to have a meeting with the head and senco and ask for a statement.
I think they are already accessing outside support, hes on school action + and they consult specialist teachers, the SALT and play therapy. And communicate with the paed, psyc, ot & physio from the hospital. They filled in a CAF for him last year, which I was told outright last week did nothing but tick the boxes on the way to a statement.
I think the school have been quite good so far, so Im not sure about moving schools, but I guess if they cause problems with the statement then I should look at other options. There is only one special school in the area, and I think it would be better at the moment for him to stay in mainstream if possible as his sister will also be starting in september. I know one of the local secondary schools has an autism unit, which I have heard is very good, and when the time is nearer definatley be an option, its unfortunate theres nothing like that for primary schools as everyone seems to stress the importance of early intervention, yet not willing to do anything 'too early'!

I think your right Agnes that the care at the moment seems to be in quantity rather than quality, Im concerened that the 1:1 is as much to keep him cooperating in lessons so as to not disturb the others as to help him learn... his tutor, who works with autistic children has difficulty teaching him so I wonder how a TA could?

Anyway thanks again, have a lot of info to look through. Its good having other parents to talk to about it, especially as the system seems to be making things more difficult rather than easier for me to help my son.

x x x

Hi emd4,

"I think I need to have a meeting with the head and senco and ask for a statement".

Meeting yes but no to just asking them for a statement (as they will fob you off, one teacher has already done that by telling you a load of nonsense about only applying for it in Y2). You have a lot to learn and it can be a steep learning curve.

I would inform the school instead that you are applying for a statement personally (also if you apply personally you can appeal in the event the LEA say no, school cannot). If you were wanting either a special school or school with an ASD unit attached for him, the only way for you to access either too would be via your son having a statement.

You are truly his best - and only advocate here.

A statement takes 6 months to obtain so realistically if you are applying for one NOW, support won't be in place and available to your child until year 2. It'd be nice not to waste another school year & give your child a chance to catch up before juniors/keystage 2.

My son "lost" his first 3 years of education & I bitterly regret not making that statement application MYSELF at least a year sooner, as it would have saved him so much distress.

IF you apply for the statement, it's much easier to be kept in the loop on progress of assessments etc. Schools and LEA's rely on parents not knowing their rights and so many children get fobbed off for years and ultimately failed totally. It's not right or fair but it is a truism that it's the children of those parents able and willing to battle for support that have the best long term outcomes.

Is there a possibility of a different TA who has more experience if not now for year 2? Schools can be terribly defensive about stuff like this especially if they see it as a criticism, but ultimately if the child is not making progress there is a reasonable chance the TA feels demoralised about that in the same way as you do. Often the TAs in reception / Year 1 tend to stick with those classes every year. Whereas there in often no TA support at year 2 other than support attached to a particular child. So it may be you can push for a higher level TA with ASD experience from Year 2. But its crucial the teacher is playing a major role too. It takes ages to get statements so you should press ahead.

Also a statement should contain more than just a generalist TA. Some statements have NO TA hours assigned, but rather focus on HOW a child learns and methods/equipment to enable them to do so.

To show what I mean I've listed some of the stuff on my lads statement:- .
A weekly SALT programme to help his receptive language skills.
TEACH (a specific teaching method not generally used in mainstream), should be used as he has exceptional visual cognitive skills (see
there's a focus here on what he CAN do as well as what he can't!)
He has access to an alphasmart/laptop for some lessons. His workspace is adapted to account for sensory issues.
He has an autism trained TA at lunchtimes who asd outreach work with to help him with social skills at lunch times.

As you can see this is far more sophisticated than just giving him another adult to sit next to him for a few hours and stop him disrupting the rest of the class. It's about adapting the learning environment so that he can cope, concentrate and LEARN in a way that suits him best. Since getting this type of support in place he's thriving, whereas last year even with a general TA he could only handle 3 hours a day.

LEA's don't like too many statements issued as sadly it's the only thing that gives you the legal right to obtain appropriate support so teachers, sencos, ep's will always put you off as long as they can. Virtually all parents have heard this "line", so ignore it. A statement is also based on educational NEED not formal diagnosis, so don't wait on that.

The longer your child goes without support of the right type, the more his self-esteem risks being damaged potentially storing up mental health problems for the future. Please check out the IPSEA website and apply for a statement yourself asap.