School meeting tomorrow - a bit of advice

[sencop]

I have name changed for this but I am a regular poster!

I have a meeting with school tomorrow to go through DS's (ASD) IEP in advance of a visit from the EP on Tuesday.

We have a Tribunal in a month. One of the issues is hours.

School are giving DS full time support and want this reflected in his statement. DS is not 1:1'd all the time but his needs are very variable.

I went through DS targets with him today in preparation for the meeting. School had not done this nor had they planned to. I had spoken to DS about the targets myself when they were set last year.

What came out loud and clear is that DS does not feel understood. He feels that things which are agreed are reneged on and that he is forced to do things when it has been agreed he need not.

I have also had experience of the teacher/TA treating every incident as 'naughtiness' and wanting to know how to sanction it rather than understanding that the behaviour is inevitably ASD related and that punishments are futile.

They do follow my suggestions about positive behaviour management but this quickly disappears once things are back to normal. So that when DS tries really hard, like staying in the classroom all day after three weeks off , this is not even greeted with a well done.

I think it is down to lack of understanding and there are a great many wonderful things this school does.

But my problem is, how do I tackle this without upsetting everyone? There has been some training (they went on an Ambitious about Autism course) but every time he does something like not follow instructions or doodle on his book, they want to know how to sanction him. It's like they have not taken in anything about his difficulties and that as soon as he fits back into the class, he is expected to be the same as everyone else.

I feel the pressure to be the same is actually quite damaging as he is starting to feel that having an ASD is a negative thing and something which annoys people.

How do I approach this positively?

That is so frustrating Star but I can really understand it as it can be a daily challenge to get people to understand that, yes he looks the same, but he is different and no, you can't tell someone has AS by looking at them.

We have the LA Ed Psych coming in tomorrow as we have a Tribunal in a month about hours. She says she may talk to DS but will be guided by me.

Would you tell her about the ABA?

Its not the 1:1 who does nothing - its the teacher!
His ABA 1: is fab and will fill the time with ABA programmes - but that is supposed to be mixed with school work! ABA do not take the lead on academics - the school should plan that (although the ABA staff will implement and break down the work the targets etc should come from the teacher)
ABA set all the behaviour, language, social targets etc
We've explained the roles so many times I can't understand what the block is.

DS can access phonics in a big group but needs other things broken down / done 1:1 / small group. Actually if they spent 20 mins with him 1:1, he would be able to access much of the numeracy in a big group too. But I think they are frightened of working with him themselves.
As he's not in school full-time they 'forget' to teach him when he is.

So last week teacher asked his 1:1 to take a small group and do addition - the teacher has not taught ds addition, he does not know any of the language around addition, they have no idea if he can do it or not, yet they wanted his ABA 1:1 to run a small group on academics they had not taught him.

He can do it if they taught him, but they can never find the time to teach him.
So now he has progressed to being able to access the same learning as the other children, they are so used to not planning anything for him they don't bother.

We are in danger of having to ask a SS or outreach teacher / EP to come in and set his academic programmes because the m/s teacher has not bothered - and our history with outreach is pretty horrendous and truly I would have to be really desperate to go down that road.

I can't believe I am going to have to have a meeting to remind them now he's made progress and in school more that they should remember to include him in their planning and teaching. I really thought that should be obvious.

How frustrating. It is never ending isn't it? I find the stress of constantly having to advocate for your child really draining particularly when you go over things again and again.

'can't believe I am going to have to have a meeting to remind them now he's made progress and in school more that they should remember to include him in their planning and teaching. I really thought that should be obvious'

It's because a common use of a TA is to keep the difficult child out of the teacher's hair to allow her to teach the rest of th class until she gets around to setting work for the SEN child, which she never prioritises and simply hands over to next years teacher with a mixture of guilt and relief.

I had a year of ms without ABA but full-time 1:1 and this is what happened, in an outstanding school, with an excellent teacher.

I think you are completely right. That is why teachers can have so little understanding of behaviour management themselves. Difficult children are left to the TA.

I have got so many meetings over these two days and I end up repeating myself all the time.

I am hoping that the ABA therapist will help! Would you tell the Ed Psych about it?

I think that depends on whether you want ABA to feature in the package you are asking for.

On balance I woukd tell the EP, unless it will gain you very little but risk the LA digging their heels in about the other stuff. LA staff find ABA very frightening due to a mixture of fear of the unknown, myths about brainwashed parents and in particular about the accountability the 'measuring' aspect brings.

Thanks Star. I am not wanting this as part of the package at the moment as Tribunal is in Feb and we have not started it so have no evidence on its efficacy. I am sure that will come!

You are right about the myths. The school have ABA for another child and the head told me the LA told him he would get in to trouble as ABA meant he would have to restrain the child and force him to do things!