I've finally got DD2's paed report. It's a bit meh, tbh.

[lougle]

So, the long-awaited paed report has arrived.

Firstly, despite me telephoning to ask that they change her attended school and them confirming that they would do so, it's been sent to old school, not new school .

Secondly, it is fairly accurate but the conclusion is 'not overly worried about her, but would like to keep an eye. Didn't see ASD symptoms, but she is passive and didn't initiate conversation.

The referral to audiology is made but the referral to SALT isn't explicit, although SALT is copied in.

It majors on the clumsiness, etc., when I feel that it is language etc., which shows DD2's biggest issues.

Arrgh..I don't know. I had prepared myself for it to be a bit 'meh' but now it is...am I making a fuss over nothing?

An example of comprehension:

A story book I was reading to DD2 has a black and white picture of two girls. One is wearing a dress and the other has a pair of trousers on and is holding a top.

The text says:

"Rachel was wearing a pretty purple party dress and Kirsty picked out a pink sparkly top and a pair of black trousers."

I asked DD2 'which one is Rachel?' She couldn't tell me. I repeated the text six times. Then she finally realised that Rachel must be the one wearing the dress.

Another example:

A black and white picture of a sign saying 'Rachel wins'. (DD2 can read that)

The text says:

"flashing green letters spelled out 'RACHEL WINS' on the screen."

I pointed to the picture and said 'this bit is the screen. See it says 'RACHEL WINS?' 'Yes'.

'What colour do you think the letters are?' 'white'.

Ok....I repeat the sentence. Over and over again. Finally she got the hint that they were green, because I put massive emphasis on the word.

"flashing greeeen letters spelled out 'RACHEL WINS' on the screen."

She's 5.7 - she should be able to do that by now, surely? DD3 can and she's 3.11 - I checked, and she hadn't been anywhere near us when I was doing it with DD2. In fact, even DD1 could do it, and she goes to Special School!

The trouble is, she'd pass a screening test with literal tasks such as 'put the green ball in the small blue basket'. It's once there isn't a picture or objects to refer to that she falls apart. The pictures above were black and white. If they'd been colour, she'd have seemed to understand because she would have matched green-green, purple-purple, black-black.

Lougle - I really do think that you would have a clearer understanding (as would the school) if you had assessments carried out. DS1 was extremely passive and compliant in school and attained above average at KS1. But he did not work in school and so despite claiming all was well the school shared their concerns with OT and SALT and requested further assessment. The SALT assessment was very brief and did not carry out the assessments necessary to uncover his difficulties. This stuck with him though and was worse than nothing.

On the other hand DS2 has had lots of SALT assessments. He had pronounciation problems when he started school but over the past couple of years the school have requested assessment (from OT and EP as well) because of particular problems that they had such as not following instructions etc. The SALT results of assessment matched the problems that the teachers were having. For example his single word understanding is on the 99th percentile but his whole sentence understanding is poor, this manifests as delayed narrative skills in comprehending the meaning of text and problems with the functional use of language due to difficulties transforming semantic meaning into pragmatic action - ie not following instructions.

Also DS1 has auditory processing disorder (assessed by GOSH) but this was never recognised by teachers because of his passivity and because it was normal for him only to catch a few words of what was said and try to guess the meaning. He can't hear when there is background noise like in a classroom and would differentiate people by what they looked like because he was not distracted by listening to them. He would frequently misunderstanding even when you had his attention. But he has ASD as well and there is overlap. APD is suggested by the SALT assessment where DS1 is below the 1st percentile for understanding spoken paragraphs whilst DS2 is on the 93rd percentile.

DS1 and DS2 both do not follow instructions but for different reasons DS1 does not hear them/understand them on a semantic level, DS2 understands on a semantic level but this does not translate to action.

Rather than focusing on a literal use of language and trying to work out the possible cause, maybe it would be useful to shift focus to how her difficulties manifest in all areas of her life?

Inadequate progress over time takes time and DS1 has suffered - his latest independent EP reports his anxiety scores as extremely elevated and depression scores as moderately elevated and talks about future potential serious mental health issues. Failed transfer to secondary, unable to attend school, tribunal in May. DS2 is a doddle in comparison from my pov but for the school DS1 was a doddle and DS2 is a pain.

Unless DD becomes a pita for the school in some way that matters to them you will end up paying for assessments anyway and I would strongly advise that you do not waste time trying to persuade them otherwise. You need noticable (by the school) manifestations before assessment is requested as there can be mutiple causes with different interventions which are more or less effective in each case.

I wholeheartedly agree, keepon. I think the reason I've been focusing on the literal use of language is because it is so very 'obvious'. The other stuff is all more subtle. Today, she looked happy to be listening to the story, she looked engaged and she was making the right faces. It's only because I asked her questions that I knew she hadn't understood at all.

I'm going to have to go private, aren't I?

Yes, you really are. Hope you find a wonderfully talented SaLT. They are worth every single penny.

Go to www.helpwithtalking.com

Good luck
Xxxxxxx

I think a Test of Abstract Language Comprehension might be useful in your DD's case Lougle when asking your private SaLT to assess.

I'll have a look, Handywoman. Thanks Wasuup..I'll look it up.

For Lougle:

dd2, aged 8 (with functionally 'normal' language, poor higher language skills, working diagnosis of ASD), on looking at rays of sunshine in the distance today:

"what good manners the sun is doing"

Just to show you are not alone!!!!!!!!

Ahh how lovely! I posted this on a thread all of it's own, but this is what I'm up against:

DD2 said 'I played with X and Y today. We played 'doggies'. I was X's doggy and Y was the burglar.'

I recognised the plot so I said:

'Ooh, like 101 Dalmatians.'

DD2 frowned and said 'No!'

I said 'Was Y trying to steal you?'

DD2: Yes.

Me: 'Well....in 101 Dalmatians the burglars were trying to steal the doggies, weren't they?'

DD2: Yes.

Me: 'So it's like 101 Dalmatians...'

DD2: 'No, Mummy! There weren't lots of them. They didn't have spots and we. were. human .!!!!

This morning we were driving to school and it started to rain. DD2 decided it wasn't raining because:

a) It hadn't been raining when we left home.
b) She couldn't hear rain.
c) There was no rain on her car window.

The fact that I had my windscreen wipers on and there was clearly rain pouring down onto the windscreen was, apparently, irrelevant!