Hi
I am new to Mumsnet and am seeking advice please. My 9 year old son has ADHD (inattentive predominant) and mild ASD. He was diagnosed officially aged 6 and after much soul searching we agreed to a trial of medication for the ADHD as his concentration was so poor. It changed not only his life but ours also much to our disbelief as we were very against medicating him. In fact not only us, but everyone around us now see's the wonderful little boy that is there. We knew from a very early age he was not neurotypical but took alot of head banging (ours) to get listened to and seen.
He is now year 4 and has only really started reading. However, his literacy and maths skills are incredibly poor as are his phonics, so he can read words he knows but he can't break new words down as he doesnt know his basic phonics. Literacy and maths he is at least 2 years behind, he still struggles with counting backwards from 20, can't add or subtract beyond 10 as he hasn't got enough fingers to use and his writing is illiegible. He has been on school action plus and IEPs and up until year 3 recieved a lot of additional support from the classroom TA, however, that all seems to have stopped this year. The school SEN retires soon so I think she has wound down already, plus he has a brand new teacher straight from teaching college who I simply dont think has enough experience. The girl's on his table are always telling me they help him and he often says one of the girl's told him how to do something.
We are now VERY concerned by his level of learning, we don't feel he is showing any progress. I should add he is actually a very bright little boy so when you speak to him he can lead you to beleive he is at the same level as his peers, he gives the impression of being a proficient reader (he will pick up a proper reading book like Harry Potter, if you watch his eyes, they travel across the sentences and down a page as if he were reading and when questioned he picks out the key words he recognises and tells you what he thinks he s reading about. Ask him indepth questions though or to read some to you and he cant so he has already learnt strategies to convince the world).
I have an appointment to see the head next week but want to go in armed and ready. Can we:
- Apply for a statement - based on him being so far behind
- What should we be asking for?
- Can anyone recommend anything we should be doing, contacting, asking for?
- Is there any national standard we should be looking at to determine how far behind he is?
Any help at all and advice would be so appreciated, I am at a loss, and am determine he is not going to be swallowed and forgotten. To the outside world he is a very normal little boy, and I get very frustrated that ADHD is so little recognised as a disability when it affects his learning ability so much.
As a foot note - he was 9 weeks premature, had 3 brain bleeds (all reabsorbed with no obvious damage), and there has been question marks over his short term memory being damaged but no-one has ever tested this although various people make sounds about it and then never progress it. School always say his work is too inconsistent to worry but dont seem to get the inconsistency arises from which little girl in class has been sat next to him and helping him!
Thanks for reading this far
Vicki