Question about Statement process

[QuestionsaboutDS]

Hi. I'm a longterm poster on the general boards, nc for a specific question which I hope someone can help me with please.

A bit of background. DS (age 7, end of yr 3) has HFA. At home he's a joy - behaviour is strange but liveable with, in terms of maturity and responsibility he's about a year or two behind his age, but making steady progress (not catching up, not losing ground, remaining a couple of years behind ITSWIM).

At school though, his lack of maturity is compounded by the fact that he's a July baby and the school is struggling to cope. Academically his reading and science are excellent, his maths is average for yr 3 (real average, not normal for MN). But he will not write without one to one coaxing on a word by word basis, he will not do PE without one to one support, during music he'll hide in the corner or yell, in assembly he runs around etc etc. the basic problem is that he lacks any motivation do to what everyone else in his class is doing. If his class were at Wembley watching the FA cup final he'd be turning around and lifting up his chair to examine a bit of lichen he'd found on the floor.

The school have essentially opted for self-directed learning in parallel to the rest of the class. He is very gradually becoming more integrated into the class, and it's pretty successful except that he is not learning to write, and without additional resources for one-to-one support it's not going to happen at school (I can put the hours in at home, but that's a separate issue - and no, typing is no better).

Hence the school have started the statement process, with our full support. SENCO has sent a very full statement to LA, which we have co-signed, with a short note to say that we agreed to the SENCO's description.

LA have now sent us a form for our agreement to statutory assessment which also contains a section saying "I agree to statutory assessment as I am concerned about.....".

My question is, how important is the way I fill in this form. Can I just say "I am concerned that my DSs ASD makes it impossible for the school to motivate him to join in / produce written work without one to one support" and leave the SENCO's detailed report to do the rest, or do I need to make a full case for additional support in that space? I've asked for an appointment with SENCO for advice, but I'd really like some advice from people who've been through it please.

And if anyone with relevant experience has any thoughts or tips on the other issues in my post please feel free to comment. Many thanks.

My LEA looks at you answering the following
" with the support currently in place, what barriers remain to him accessing the national Curriculum? "

The form I was sent had lots of sub categories for me to fill. - I don't know if you will get something like this later but it was the following - and it may help you to think like this - It won't matter if you repeat yourself in later advice to the LEA.
A: The early years.
B. What is he like now?

1. General Health

1. Physical skills
2. Self Help
3. Communication
4. Playing and Learning at home

Activities outside

1. Relationships
2. Behaviour at home
3. At School

C Your general views

We had to write about what he is able to do and what he has difficulties with compared to others of the same age under all these headings.

My first letter incorporated some of this, but was a list of his difficulties supported where I had it by quotes from the professional reports and referencing the page and paragraph no and including the photocopies of them with the letter.

It was what was recommended by the parent partnership to spell it out and show that others agreed with me so that they had grounds on which to say that he should be assessed. The help I got got me an assessment first time and we got a statement first time too- but then there was the battle to get the statement right....

But for you one step at a time.
Add as much information as you can and try to relate it back to problems in learning at school.
EG problems with writing, with concentrating, with sensory problems, with being upset due to social and communication difficulties so he can't concentrate/ disrupts others. If he has a meltdown does it cause a health and safety issue? etc. etc.

The stuff you write on that form will be looked at BUT the LEA will not hold much store by it, in my experience. They usually use it to build a short profile of the kiddie at the beginning of the Statement.

Thanks Alison. The letter from the SENCO was broken down into sections like that and ran to pages and pages, but the form I've got leaves me a single space for my concerns, about 4 inches long, with "continue on another page if necessary". I'm just not sure whether I need an essay, and if they might just ditch the application if I don't give enough detail.

So he sounds passive. My son with autism is very passive. All the motivation has to be external, its not coming from within him.

So you can say that his extreme passivity is a major barrier to learning because he lacks the motivation to do tasks not if his choosing. He will therefore need a careful behaviour, motivation and reinforcement (reward) plan developed and overseen by a specialist to enable him to learn unpreferred skills. He will need a statement as specialist behaviour support is not available within the normal resources of a school. He will also need a high level of 1:1 support to implement the plan as without a high level of support he would withdraw to his own preferred activities.

We spent a year fighting a tribunal to get ABA and the whole year I was writing reams about the triad and how that stopped him learning. It was only a few months into a proper ABA programme that I realised what a huge impact being very passive had. In many ways it is the main problem as for eg while his language is very behind, he uses only a fraction of the language he has.

He will also need programmes to desensitise him to situations and build tolerance to situations he finds difficult. And programmes to build interest in the activities and peers. He may need pre teaching of new skills.

I presume there is probably also a need for social skills and perhaps developing social interest.

I would continue on as many sheets as you need . Surely better to have too much information than you to be turned down as there is not enough.
You can always adapt some of the stuff the SENCO said if it is appropriate and they are your concerns too.

Hi - we're a bit further down the line - here's what I did (though it may be different with different LEAs?)

Got a letter from LEA asking for our agreement for assessment just like yours. With my reply I sent a simple 1 side of A4 letter outlining our concerns and basically saying we supported the school in initiating this.

We then got a letter (about 4 weeks later) saying that they'd agreed to go ahead with a statutory assessment and it was at that point that they sent me a form, with the catagories Alison describes above. I wrote them a 5 page report based on the headings suggested - which was harrowing (as, yet again, you're focusing on all the negatives) but I guess necessary... SENCO, EP, SALT and CAMHS have also sent in reports in our case, and DS is being seen by the Comm Paed for a 'medical' assessment (goodness knows!) tomorrow...

Hope all goes well

WW

Thanks everyone. I think I can now cope with this. The school have been so supportive but now I feel a bit alone. I'll settle down to draft something this evening.

The full supporting comments we wrote for our son can be seen on the link below (look for the 'Supporting Comments' link at the top). Might be useful.

www.autisticson.wordpress.com