Moving into year one- I can't imagine she will manage but not sure if we even have options.

[used2bthin]

DD is five and a half. Medical issues from a genetic condition so lots of wprry with that and it can affect her behaviour when doses are changed but shouldnt have affected her development.

So then she also has SLI and some pther delays in other areas. Some confusion as to the extent of the other delays but the SLI is severe-the ICAN assessment we had said she is as severe as they see there.

I am struggling to see how on earth she can stay in mainstream but there are only special schools in our area for profoundly disabled children and the language units have merged with autism services and I have been told they are only getting children with severe social communication issues-not sure this is dd because its not social communication it is understanding but she is very sociable-impossible to know what her social skills are really witht he language constraints.

School are managing but for now she is just in foundation unit and it is all very free flow-they are applying for full time support in our coming statement review.

I just can#'t see how she will cope and without knowing whether she will ever progress how do I know what the best option is? I am going to get her another private assessment at ICAN I think my dad wants to pay for one but options are really limited where I live and I don't even know what would be the right sort of school anyway.

Sorry bit panicked.

Oh still waiting for diagnosis on the learning difficulties and she also has epilepsy and microcephaly.

used2, it's tough isn't it! I think all you can really do is act on how she is now, trying to guess what will be happening in a years time will drive you nuts I'd certainly be wanting to raise my doubts now about year 1 at the review and see what school think, a good part of getting a move is getting the school on side and saying they can't meet her needs. Do you have the lea caseworker coming to the review? They may be able to advise on what they think is suitable, it would give you a starting point of where to start looking and then you can slowly start to spread your search to the surrounding areas to see what they have, Ofsted can be quite useful for finding what 'type' of child a school usually takes. Then it's just going to visit all the schools to see if you can picture her there. Has she been seen by an EP recently, if she hasn't then it may be good to have an up to date report as they will make recommendations about placement in a roundabout way, ICAN may well do a similar thing.

for me it was just a case of visiting various types of school until I found one that had children like dd3, she's ended up in a school 2 boroughs across from where we are but it's worth it to see how much better off she is. I can't say it was easy getting the LEA to agree but we got there in the end!

Sorry for my late reply, have had a horrible week. ZZZZZ your DS sounds so similar to my DD. I can see why you would ask for him to be back a year, DD plays really well with the just threes in the foundation unit she is in atm. She is sept born though so will be six this year so oldest in her year, not sure if they would put her back. I love the school so far, they have been great but I had been putting off thinking about the real school element that year one will be. She was due to start epilepsy meds but I have gone back on my decision to start them as we've had a terrible time with her genetic condition and the management of that so I want to wait till those levels are stable and am also worried about effects on learning etc. That is amazing about your DD3, so impossible to know this stuff isn't it, the decisions are just way above what I expected to be making as a parent!
Oh and my DD also a mimic, school have said she will find the worst behaviour and copy!

Hi ninja thanks yes I think I need to lookoutside of our LEA as it has nothing even vaguely suitable in terms of special schools or units. I may visit a few though. EP and SALT have said mainstream with support suits her but ICAN said she is understanding at a two year olds level, mainstream absolutelty not the best choice! I will ask for another EP assessment though.

Oh just wondering about multi disciplinary assessments- have your children had these? DD never has, she has a paed assessment once a year and has lots of consultants due to different issues so maybe thats why but I wondered whether to ask about it-a whole week of assessments scares me but it may get a more all round picture?

Hi used2
I'm in similar situation in that ds would go up to yr1 in September. He is currently repeating reception - he is happy and developing his social skils but school say he is not progressing in literacy/numeracy etc etc. We are now looking at whether to move to a unit/ss.

If you want your dd to repeat reception then it is worth getting the ball rolling early - we left late and was touch and whether a place would come up in reception as places had all been allocated.

repaeating reception would give you a chance to look round in good time at other schools and her a chance to develop the foundation skills she needs. Ds wasn't able to make enough progress but your dd might.

my thread on this - 'why isn't ds progressing?' might be worth a look at as it provides some good advice on assessment etc

Thanks I saw that thread, will take a look, thanks. I hadnt even thought of repeating reception till this thread, is your DS already five too then? DD is not only oldest in her year but huge, wears 7-8 clothes. So am bit worried she would look out of place but actually she mostly plays with the younger ones so it would mean she could keep those friendships.

OTOH maybe the thinking about year one will mean the LEA have to take seriously the rubbish provision they have. School is doing an amazing job but on only 15 hours funded one to one atm, shortly to be increased to nearly full support-they are actually already giving full support as it wouldnt work otherwise so I have been very impressed witht hem and the sensitive way they have dealt with everything. But lone term if DD doesnt do some amazing progression she won't be mainstream forever.

ds is has just turned six. He is quite small size of 4-5 year old. Thinking about it - that was a factor in the ed psych 's decision as to whether to recommend the year delay - he looked right for reception.

You may be right about being better to go up to year one in order they can't deny they are failing her.
in my experience lea's hate allowing kids to repeat years so if you request that they might be more willing to look at funding out of area provision

It depends what you mean by "cope" if you mean academically keep up with her peers then yes there is a fair jump in the class work & structure.

For us ds2 copes & indeed does make progress at ms primary, he is happy & is learnig BUT we realise that he is still working at reception level & will never manage the same work as his peers.
He is fully statemented with 1 to1 support.
However we do not believe he would make any more acadenic progress in an SN school.
Secondary i imagine will be very different as i cant imagine even with 1 to1 support he will cope & be happy with a large ms secondary school so SN school will be the place to go.

I guess what i'm trying to say is for us its more about the coping in class with the day to day demands than the demands of classwork.

Word of warning about repeating or being held back a year, please ensure that it is fully approved in writing by the LEA & not an informal agreement with the school otherwise your child will still have to leave primary at the correct age, potentially never having been in the same class as her peers & effectively missing the last primary year, iykwim.

I think then that the ed psych may not recommend dd staying back a year. Also I have been thinking that possibly a smaller class size will help as, lovely as the foundation bit is, its two year groups so lots of noise and DD struggles to concentrate when there is lots going on-ICAN recommended small class size (not that it will be as small as they meant but it may help).

Also hadnt thought of the leaving primary bit so thanks for pointing that out don'trememberme. By cope I am worried about her coping socially as much as anything, she struggles to sit still and can't understand the same as the others and although thye support her by pre tutoring and props etc its still not on her level to begin with.