Meath school, would you push yourself to the limit for it?

[someoneoutthere]

That's it really. We are considering it for DS who is almost 8. It will mean being away from DH for the next three years. DS's main difficulties are speech, language and communication although he is on the spectrum. He has functional language, but no conversation skills. We are conscious that DS is almost 8, so he can only go to meath school the next three years. His language is very disordered, he struggles to find the right word when talking. We are hoping that the school will give him the push he needs. What do you think?

Hi Someone, I don't personally know this school but if you believe this is the right school for your ds, then yes, an absolute yes, you must push yourself to the limits and beyond. The school is a place for 3 years and it might really help to help him get to the next stage or get him best placed. I can only suggest as someone 'else' who pushed beyond her physical/emotional limits for my ds's schooling, which means I'm still recovering over a year later, but I can say it was worth it; I'll fully(plus) will recover and ds couldn't be in a better place for him. Do it, you know you can.

I would consider the options. For me, ds not achieving what I feel he would be able to at that school would not be an option, but I would also consider that that achievement could be made other ways and weigh up the options iyswim.

At the moment DS is in a mainstream school with ABA 1:1. His social skills are improving, he is quite independent with classroom routine. But four years of ABA (admittedly not the best ABA) has not done much to his language skills. We are about to change school where we will lose the ABA support. We feel that the time has come to make some drastic changes.

Starlight, I am aware of how much you have been through to get Your DS the support he needs. In fact, I convinced DH to consider meath school by telling him how hard you fought to get your DS the right support. In our case, it does not have to be the meath school, but considering Ds's main difficulties are speech and language rather than his autistic character sticks, this might be the right place for him.

Float62, we don't know much about the school either. We are visiting the school soon, because we are in a fortunate position to get funding for the school fee. First time I have heard about the school was on MN, and am relying on the wisdom of MNSN parents.

Have you had assessments to see how realistic your goal is and what the root of the language issues are?

I think you need to consider the impact on you all if you make this huge decision and your ds does not progress as you hoped.

Lougle, we are having a full assessment done by the educational psychologist before the school visit so that we can make an informed decision. We will make a final decision once we do both hoping that the educational psychologist will be able to tell us what he needs. It's interesting that you talk about the root cause of language difficulties. Up until now I suspect all the professionals considered his language difficulties to be associated with autism. We never thought that there may be another reason. I do think he has a language disorder, although it has never been diagnosed.

If DS does not progress as we are hoping, then probably we will feel that we have done everything we possibly could to help DS.

zzzzz, I remember your comment about biting your hand about this school on a previous thread. To be honest, I have been thinking about the school since that thread. I will let you know about our impressions once we visit the school in July. We are not getting funding from the council or charity, it is DH's work which will pay most of it if he continues to work abroad. I do understand your problem with balancing the other children's educational needs, I always feel guilty that DD comes second most of the time. I say this as I know how much DD will miss DH if we make this decision, but for DS we see very few options.

Sorry to hear about your kidney stone.

The professionals involved with ds identified a language disorder that was over and above that which would be associated with autism.

I'm not sure I care for the distinction tbh but it did mean that the intervention became more focussed on language.

Whilst ABA SHOULD be addressing the whole language thing I am aware that with children with autism there are lots of things to address and many of them more rewarding and less complex. I feel personally that a good few ABA professionals are avoiding this area because it means more work for the same money, and also, the money seems to be more readily available from the parents of young children immediately post-dx and the more simple behaviours and imitation skills are the focus.
For this reason I think there is also a shortage of expertise.

Behaviourally trained SALTs are very rare indeed, though there are some behaviourists that are training themselves up in SALT things now.

I need to point out here too, that one of the reasons we fought so hard for ds was because we were fighting our way out of a hole, so getting out was not just proactive but defensive and we really felt we had no choice.

With real choice, we might have done things differently.

What I mean is, my family were being attacked quite aggressively and these were the conditions in which we had to make our decisions. They had to be fast and determined iyswim.

That is exactly what we are planning on doing zzzzz. Only that our home in the UK is ideally located for Meath school, so no need to rent. So yes, we will be with DH during holiday times.The extent of DS's language disorder is so bad that I doubt in one year, the school will be able to make much difference. If we go for it, we will have to stick to it at least for couple years to see progress, I think.

Starlight, I feel the same way about ABA professionals and speech. They somehow seem to lack the expertise on this. They were brilliant when DS needed help with imitations skills, compliance and other behavioural interventions. But once those things were taken care of, his progress remains static. This is why I am not considering the ABA schools, although I am aware that I might be limiting myself.

Does Meath take children with ASD?

You should also look at BH to compare.

Well, when I called, they said they did and arranged a visit for us. What does BH stand for?

Blossom House

So all ASDs then

Mmmmm, I fancy some concider! Is it like cider but better?

That's okay. In know you can spell, and I'm grammatically-challenged so wouldn't throw stones.

I just read it and thought 'yum!'

Does the stent stay in?

DS spent a few days at Meath school as ICAN carried out a multi-disciplinary assessment. I was very impressed with it, and DS felt comfortable there, although he has severe anxiety due to his ASD. It wasn't right for him in the end, as his needs aren't so focused on language, but the staff had a very good understanding of his needs and the assessment helped us get a place at a different ASD specialist school.

They do have pupils who are funded through statements, so I'd encourage you to look at statement funding even if your DH's company can pay. A statement would protect you at the transition stage in case you wanted to continue to another non-maintained special school (ICAN run another school which goes up to age 19), and of course there is always the possibility that your DH's company might stop that kind of funding or your DH could be made redundant.

You could start him at the school funded by the company, but still push to have it named on a statement later - in fact it's probably more likely to be named once your DS has started and is already settled there. Plus if you could get the LA to fund, then your DH might not have to work away for so long. It will probably be tough for you to have him working away and have to deal with all the dc on your own, and three years is quite a long time. And flying back and forth will have an impact on the dc's social relationships if they're never around their schoolfriends during holidays.