SEN?

[NeverAgain2]

Hi I posted this in primary education, but someone very kindly pointed me in your direction...

Hello, can I seek your advice please?

Sorry if this is long, but trying not to drip feed.

DD is 7 and in yr2. I have always been a little concerned about her academic progress, and, more importantly about her confidence.

DD was diagnosed with epilepsy just before her second birthday. She had a pretty terrible time, with lots and lots of tonic clonic seizures before finally gaining control with Epilim.

Last year, after two years seizure free we decided to risk weaning her off her meds. This has been successful and she has not had any tonic clonic seizures or absences that we are aware of.

We, and the school had always put her lack of concentration and slow progress down to her Epilim and a big part of me was assuming that once she was drug free she would find things a little easier at school.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. At parents evening in February I expressed my concern regarding her numeracy. Teacher said she was struggling, but I had to really push him to get her expected levels and he said that he hoped she would achieve a 1c.
I asked what the school were doing to support her and he said that she was taking part in some small groups and that this had helped "a little".
I asked if she should be on School Action, or School Action Plus and he said "Not at this stage".

I?m afraid I went over his head and spoke with the head teacher the following day and she agreed that it sounded like DD needed some additional support.
SENCO called me that afternoon and said that after meeting with class teacher she was devising a 1:1 programme and DD would have daily support using 'precision maths' techniques.

I asked that sheets were sent home so that we could support her too. They were for a bit, but not for long and dd now says she has 1:1 sessions for 10 minutes twice a week.

I spoke with the SENCO again about six weeks ago and asked if she thought it might be a good idea to get an assessment from the Ed Psych. Senco said she would speak to the class teacher and get back to me.

Fast forward to today - I spoke to the senco again who informs me that dd is on the SEN register and subject to School Action Plus (I had not been informed of this!) but is still not making real progress and so will be assessed by the Ed Psych, but probably not until Christmas time as she is in a queue.

I don?t want to wait until well into Yr3 to get some targeted support for dd. I think she has a problem with processing and memory. It is not all maths related ? give her a problem, or set of instructions with more than one, possibly two steps and she can not retain what she is supposed to do.
In real life situations she struggles with concepts ? for example we bought a set of 5 lollies, she and her brother had one each. A couple of days later she asks if we still have the 5 lollies, I say no, you both had one each didn?t you. I ask her how many they have left and she can?t tell me.

Gosh, this has been a rant, sorry. My question is (and well done if you have got this far) how do I go about getting a private Ed Psych assessment and do schools and LA?s take any notice of them?

I feel that I have failed my beautiful, wonderful dd by not picking up on her difficulties and doing something about them earlier.

TIA

Don't bother with private Ed Pysch report yet.

Sorry - but her difficulties must be serious to have been elevated from Schools Action to Schools Action + in such a short period.

You've been badly let down by school who obviously were not providing any support until your talk with the Head.

Christmas is too long to wait.

You can shorten this timescale by applying for a Statutory Assessment yourself. As part of the assessment process she would be seen by the LA's EP. Of course school could (and should) apply for an assessment themselves as she's obviously not made progress and will probably not do so until the level of help is increased dramatically - that's what you need a Statement to provide. But school will probably say she doesn't need a Statement blah blah and the LA will probably say that as she hasn't seen the Ed Pysch there's insufficient evidence that a Statement may be required so will probably initially refuse to assess her for one - all of which are hurdles that you can overcome.

So I'd take control here and apply for a Statement myself (see www.ipsea.org.uk) for how to do this.

If they refuse to assess you can appeal - that's when you can get your private Ed Pysch report as it'll be more up to date than doing it now.

Can I just say that I think you're doing everything really well so far. Impressed.

Try here British Psychological Society to find a registered psychologist.

Some schools may take note of private reports, most don't, but if you get a good report it could give you pointers of the areas where her difficulties lie and where to look for support.

It may be worth going to your GP and requesting a referral to a Paed

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

I was wondering about asking my GP to refer dd back to the specialist Paediatrician that she was under for her epilepsy. I just don't have much confidence in him - they initially denied she had epilepsy until I took a video of a seizure. They said she was having febrile convulsions, despite no temperature.

I work for the LA so was thinking I might be able to ask a friend for a recommendation of someone held in high regard or something, but I really can't afford to thow money away - we will probably have to take out a loan for the assessment if we go down that road.

I was in shock to find that she had escalated to SAplus. How can they not have shared that with us?

I will have a look at the sites you have both suggested.

They should have informed you when she moved to SA+.

A private report is just as valid as an LA Ed Pysch's report and a lot more comprehensive but you also have to jump through the LA's own procedures and see their Ed Pysch. Don't expect school to immediately react if you wave a private Ed Pysch report - however it will be invaluable if you needed to go to Tribunal.

If you do decide to go private look for a Chartered Educational Pyschologist - not a standard clinical psychologist.

Personally, I'd apply for a statory assessment.

ime it can take a long time for the school to get EP assessment. We have had two LEA assessments - both of which failed to diagnose SpLDs that have been diagnosed by private EP (different/wrong assessments). We chose a private EP who also worked for the LEA (child protection) and have practically found that this led to an increase in intervention and provided information. We did not do this for years on the basis that it would be ignored but this has not been the case. Hence, DS did not get a diagnosis until Yr 6. Intervention is meant to be on the basis of educational need rather than diagnosis but without diagnosis (and full assessment which the school will not request) ime interventions are not tried and you are stuck with endless debate of whether or not there is a problem. DS has the same problems now (diagnosed Yr 6) as he had then (undiagnosed Yr 1) but this was not accepted and interventions were deemed unnecesary. Things take time - get a referral to the comm paed or developmental paed if you can - even if there are no problems now as it will make re-referral easier if ever there are in future.

Don't panic about the SA+ - it is what DC are meant to be on if there is involvement with external agencies. Escalation is good - you can't get a statement unless the child has had full intervention at SC+ because there is more that the school has in reserve.

Thank you both. I just feel like such a crap parent to let it get this far.

I actually, (work related) have a meeting with the LA's director or education and children's services tomorrow - I may have a 'by the way' kind of chat

Need to think about the best way of proceeding - I don't want one thing to get in the way of another iyswim

I agree it makes sense to get EP report later on if you can only afford one.
Just apply for the Statement. Its a standard letter on IPSEA to get the ball rolling. Its the best way of getting to see an EP faster
Once you send it off the LA will be on the school's back for all their info e.g. IEPs (if they have done any), what support they have accessed (if action plus a professional external of school must be involved so if its not the EP who is it).
You can do a FOI request of school for all the info - although that will not make you popular chances are applying for a statement and showing up how slack they have been you won't be popular anyway.
Ask if the school are using P scales or PIVATS. If she is not yet at a 1c she is working below the level of the national curriculum and should be having her progress measured using P scales or Pivats which measure small steps of progress rather than big bands.
Look at Moondog threads on Precision Teaching which may be what they are referring to - or ask the school for what resources / books they are using. You can probably get some resources to do some work on this at home.
My understanding is any child working below 1c beyond end of Year 1 should have a P scale / PIVAT score and i thought they had to submit this to the LA at the end of Year 1 - perhaps your colleague will know.
It sounds like the school have not been on top of this at all so don't blame yourself.
You can also self refer to the EP. Just ring up and ask to be put on the list. Say school have delayed putting in provision and I am now applying for statutory assessment based on inadequate progress.
Then get a copy of the SEN Code of Practice & SEN Toolkit SEN. It can be obtained free of charge from the Department of Education Publications department on 0845 60 222 60. Its also online but having a copy to take to meetings is useful. This explains all about the process for action / action plus / statements.
Ignore if they tell you a statement is not needed / you are premature etc etc- a statement has a statutory process and even if you don't end up getting one its the only process which has a statutory time limit. Without this process the school and LA can drag their feet.

Agnes, thank you for taking the time to write all of that. Really useful information and I feel better armed.

I will get a copy of the Code of Practice - it does seem that just going ahead and asking for assessment for a statement is the way to go.

I wondered if it might be best to wait until the school give me the results of her Stats, but not sure when this will be.

I will be asking for a meeting with the Senco and head teacher today.

Applying for SA will get an earlier assessment by an EP only IF the LEA agree to assess. DS1 does not yet have a diagnosis and so we based our application on 'lack of progress' (this is another way of saying regression that sounds less scary - eg death = lack of life) or inadequate progress. This is not easy to do - you need to be able to calculate the rate of progress using standardised scores.

Also some LEA EPs are just not very good - they do not read the paperwork properly and place too much weight on their expert observation, the tests they do are inadequately reported and explained and they can do the wrong test. If the problem is bleeding obvious (to the caretaker) they may be OK. We saw an LEA EP last June (inadequate progress, suspected dyslexia, ADD). She did MALS (myself as a learner) and focused on anxiety. She attempted to suggest that this was my fault, I talked about lack of progress, she cocked her head to one side looked at me sympathetically and asked was he REALLY not making progress. Luckily I had all the paperwork with me and so was able to cock my head and reply 'Yeess' and hand her the evidence. She stopped tyring to blame me but the LEA still refused to assess.

Hiya
sorry she is having a hard time...have you thought about having a review by her neurologist? Depending on her type of epilepsy the part of her brain dealing with maths is often affected even when seizures and meds have stopped. There is good evidence to suggest that the drugs she was on will have had an impact on her learning as well...however that does not mean she cannot progress and clearly the great advice given here will be invaluable but a visit to your neurologist may help to explain WHY she may be having some of these problems.
HTH