Help - having a panic! (statement related)

[KOKOagainandagain]

Not a good day statement-wise yesterday. LEA knocked back my request to extend 15 day limit, half-term so the head of indi ss that is advising is on holiday and advocates for children are suggesting that the diagnosis that I have from DK and Margo Sharp is not sufficient. That I need a clear and unequivocal diagnosis either from GOSH or Guy's or that I obtain a report from a Clinical Psychologist (around £1,700) specialising in ASD. I've got 7 days left to completely rewrite the statement. Any advice is appreciated. Oh, and I have the first appointment with comm paed and parent/teacher consultation this afto for DS2. [panic emoticon]

Similar story to IE for Newcommen. (the St Thomas's mob, your advocate is out of date as the neuro team moved from Guys in April this year) They clearly delineate between clinical diagnosis and educational support. Defining educational support is not their job, they are medics iyswim.

I think this advocate is in danger of over stretching herself.

What perhaps might be useful would be an independent educational physcologist report to define the support needs of your child in an educational setting. I rec' Linda Miller as her report was written in English so plain noone could possibly twist her words or misinterpret them. (LA tried & I had no legal rep at my Tribunal).

The key question the tribunal will want answered = What support does this child need in order to access the NC in order to receive an adequate education?

An educational pysch performs a completely different role to a clinical pysch, you perhaps confusing the two?

You have the medical evidence - do you perhaps need to beef up the educational portion of your evidence pack?

In your shoes I'd ring IPSEA, as I'm not 100% certain this advocacy service are giving the best advice. (Don't tell em, or they'll feel offended btw).

Could your advocate have got her clinical psychologists confused with her educational psychologists? Or might you even have misheard?

There is little point wasting money on a third opinion from someone belonging to the 'medical world'. A diagnosis is a diagnosis, and the LEA aren't qualified to over-rule one. What they can (and often do) is argue that your child's medical history is irrelevant because it isn't affecting their educational progress.

And only an educational psychologist can counter that one easily. Parents and their non-ed-psych experts may not be considered educational experts. Occasionally the overwhelming evidence of prolonged failure to learn over many years speaks for itself. But you don't really want to get to that stage.

hot atm the statement is crap - 10 hours LSA in ms. The objectives are all ones he has done for years and they are poor eg 'development of his writing skills' or 'access to a TA in class who can help explain the task and help him record his responses' and focuses exclusively on literacy and numeracy skills, working memory and information processing and self-esteem.

maria We already have evidence of prolonged failure - ratio gain during Wave 3 intervention is only 3 months per calendar year.

Thank you IE for reminding me that it is not necessary to have a diagnosis. boc When I saw a consultant at GOSH APD he said it was necessary for someone to take an overview not to have piecemeal medical assessments and that the correct people to do this were educationalists not medics - that educational advice was beyond their remit.

Trouble is that both MS and DK ruled out ms which has the problem of making detailed s&q somewhat irrelevant - especially with regard to 1:1 as DS does not need 1:1 in ss but is totally dependent on 1:1 in the ms.

DS was administered WISC-IV in July so I would need to wait. On one of the subtests btw he had gone from the 63rd percentile in 2009 to the 0.3 percentile in 2012. Is this normal? If so, wtf does it mean - is it indication that interventions have failed?

Oh btw the comm paed said she still does not believe that DS1 has 'social communication difficulties' and it is a shame that he got this diagnosis. At least she recognised that she can't challenge it. She also asked if I was going to have the same independent assessments for DS2 - not atm as I am hovering up free SALT, OT and EP assessments. Leonie I might take you up on the offer of a good smacking

Smile sweetly at comm paed, and say how delighted you are that his SC difficulties are so very well scaffolded as to be invisible to a non-specialist. And you dont blame her for having missed it, after all, complex dc can be much harder to understand.

And of course, you would never have bothered to have him correctly diagnosed by a sub-specialist if it hadn't been essential to help him to continue being taught compensatory strategies. Then smile even more sweetly, and ask for an item of advice (any topic which she does know about, doesn't matter whether it's something you already know)

Then hide Leonie in the car park ready to bash her with the carrot

Whereabouts are you keeponmoving?

If you indeed need another report by a clinical psychologist, I was given details of a Dr based in Surrey. Not that I have been to see her however she comes highly recommended. I will google the details of Daphne Keen/Margo Sharp.

Best wishes, you sound so calm, respect to you!!!