Can I ask for some advice on draft statement?

[schobe]

DS has ASD, largely non-(or pre-?)verbal and goes to special school nursery. Has been there a year and a term and seems to love it. In terms of real progress however, all I can think of is becoming a smidgeon more accustomed to 'circle time' and marginally more tolerant of peers and other adults.

At home on the other hand we have been using PECS for over a year and this has led to him requesting verbally, which is great.

I was at Moondog's ABA meeting (fab) and we are just about to meet an ABA consultant and have some tutors lined up to get started over the summer. I'm already doing some ABA with DS and it's going quite well. It will be an ABA programme on a shoe string really but I'm hopeful we can scrape by.

His draft statement has finally arrived, coupled with a letter telling us that the special school are happy to have him so they will name that school on the statement if we want that. He wouldn't cope at mainstream at the moment (well at least I don't think so).

It's hard for me to know how good the statement is, it's quite detailed but not at all specific about how much of everything he gets. People (eg LEA ed psych, SS staff) have consistently told me it can be like this for SS as they sort out all the staffing and timings themselves. Obv I can tell this is utter bollocks but how much of a fuss do I make, bearing in mind he may not even turn up in September as he'll hopefully be at home doing ABA?

Obviously it would be fab to try and get money towards ABA, but I am realistic about how difficult that would be and have enough to be dealing with as it is.

This is so complicated, I don't even know where to start. Anyone got any advice at all? Perhaps I need to request a meeting right near the end of the 15 days to stall for time a bit.

Have you been to the SS? Do you know what is available as standard?

Do they have a SALT and OT on their staff payroll? If not, you'll need to get that added as it will be extra (provided your Ds needs it).

You need to have the staff:child ration o the school mentioned in the statement too to ensure they don't backtrack, or class size as a rough minimum.

we won ABA school funding by proving that ABA meant dd1 could learn, and the generic SS on offer meant that she didnt.

it was a difficult time - we had to let dd1 fail, and that was awful for all of us. but ultimately it meant that she ended up in the right place, so was worth it in the long run.

if you have a clear cut case, it can be easier to gain funding. in our case, dd1 learnt nothing at all at the SS the LA wanted (and were funding) - as you say, things like becoming accustomed ot circle time etc, but they coudl not state a single thing that dd1 had actually learned while in their care (and were unable to list things we knew she knew from her ABA programme - number work and letter recognition etc). once she was taken out and put onto a fuller ABA programme, it was apparent that this was the only way she learned anyhting, and that was the crux of our case. Not that ABA was 'better', but that it was the only suitable education for dd1 - after all, they had had time to do it their way and had not managed to teach her anything at all.

Thanks both that's very helpful.

Starlight, I have been to the SS many times as he is at the pre-school there. They do have SALT and OT but were keen when I suggested pushing for OT to be on his statement. They said it helps them provide it when it's written on the statement. As it stands OT is not mentioned whatsoever! Strange when DS has multiple sensory issues mentioned on his diagnosis report, throughout all other reports, has no self-help skills and is not toilet trained.

SALT say the frequency and duration of their input will be detailed on the latest SALT report - and the statement has repeated this word for word! Marvellous.

I will ring and ask for a proper tour - it's bloody obvious to do that, but has only just occurred to me after you've said that. Useful to know that they can and should put in ratios and/or class sizes.

Silverfrog, I've read about having to let them fail several times on here - including many of your posts. It breaks my heart and I guess that's what I naively want to avoid.

I wonder if not achieving much at pre-school counts at all. I guess not as they will say that the reception class will be different in various ways. Also they've got a lovely list of what he has achieved in their eyes - 'developing the ability to....' But no evidence or data of course.

I guess that's why I'm in such a dilemma. It feels like a straight choice between writing off any money from the LA whatsoever and risking our programme being crap or us running out of funds OR going full throttle to get money which feels just so completely fraught and horrendous. Is there any middle ground?

dd1 was only at pre school - the first school she went to, wan an ABA school. She was then yr1 equivalent, as we had kept her out of school (due to crap statement support suggestion) to try to avoid her failing (oh, the irony!)

I won't lie - it was a heartbreaking year. we had been running a (informal, very part time) ABA home programme, and dd1 had been progressing well. when we put her into the ASD specialist pre school (as she shoudl have gone into reception; dd1 is an august baby, so she was still only 4, but should have been starting school) we took the decision to let it stand (or fall) by it's own merits. so we stopped ABA.

it was hellish, to tell the truth. dd1 was at pre school part time, learning nothing. she was regressing at home, and behaviour deteriorated.

BUT we gave them enough rope to hang themselves. we had proof of what dd1 could manage before she started there. by the end of the (academic) year, the pre school could not even get dd1 to reproduce what she had already known before starting there. we had several meetings about it - one of the all time classic responses we got to 'can you tell us what dd1 has learned during ehr time here' was 'well, it depends what you mean by learning'

we had proof that what they said they had 'taught' 'dd1 (ie to sit nicely at lunchtime, or to walk nicely when out on a local trip) she could already do before she went there. so they had clearly added nothing.

we re-started our (informal, very part time) ABA programme, and within 2 days dd1 waltzed into pre school, chattering away, and was more relaxed (relaxed enough to particpate fully, rather than continue as the silent, withdrawn child she had been up to that point).

I can't see any way around the 'letting them fail to prove nothing else works'. it sucks, it really does. but the view we took was that one year of failing in order to gain the rest of her education (hopefully) was better than leaving her doing nothing at all for the rest of her education - which is what was happening under the generic ASD school approach.