New to all this, please help

[Ahhhcantthinkofagoodname]

Hi, DS is nearly 3 and has a speech disorder, he can barely say anything and his speech therapist (nhs) has said he will need regular and intensive therapy for some time. Also we are waiting for an appointment to a social communication clinic as he has poor concentration and only makes fleeting eye contact with people. So there's a chance he might get an autism diagnosis but from what we've read, we think this is less likely, tho obviously we'll let the experts decide.

On the whole he's a happy little boy but we wonder how he'll get on when he starts school. He'll go into reception in sept 2014, unfortunately as one of the youngest. he currently goes to nursery part time and gets on ok there.

Right here are my questions....
Should we ask the council for an assessment of his needs and look to get a statement? Will this mean we can choose any primary school we want if we do get a statement? What kind of support might we expect when he goes to school if he can still say very little? any other advice from anyone who's been in similar situations?

Thanks in advance for any suggstions...

Yes and yes. It would be better for you if he gets an autism diagnosis as the more complexity the more likely he will get a statement. LEAs don't just hand out statements. Unfortunately its a long hard road. So, starting in September go to all the primaries, talk to all the sencos, get a feel for which school is going to be the most supportive. Your nursery can start the paperwork for statutory assessment. Look on SOS SEN website and IPSEA websites for advice.

On a positive note, once he gets some good speech and language therapy he will come on leaps and bounds.

Hi,
My ds 5 has a disordered speech disorder, Sensory processing disorder, hypermobility and ?asd.
Yes I agree with pp. start things going now, it takes ages and is very rarely straight forward. Definitely go round the schools and meet the Senco's, a good Senco is worth there weight in gold.
You can do a lot of speech therapy yourself at home and can integrate it into day to day life. My ds has been having weekly salt and his st has advised me who what we can do at home. He is slowly improving, his Granny can understand a lot of what he says now. For a long time only 1 of my dd's could understand him ( I have no idea how! ) now I can understand nearly all of what he says.
Sorry I have got carried away. What I'm trying to say is it is a long hard battle but with lots of little victories along the way.
I hope that helps and good luck.

You can start the Statutory Assessment process yourself. www.ipsea.org.uk has a template letter, which you can use, then send to your LA's Chief SEN Officer.

The reality is that your child will need a statement to get suitable provision.

Provision will depend on your DS's needs at the time of statementing and or starting school. He may be given 1:1 support from a TA, who may be trained in Makaton and/or PECs, depending on your DS's communication. You may want to consider a Special School - but obviously it will depend on whether your DS has any learning disability alongside the Speech and Language issues.

Ditto others.
I would also get private help as much as possible while you wait for the state to assist. Also would keep a detailed record of his progress and behaviours

Thanks for the replies

Mumof5 - does your DS get much support from his school? Thanks for all your suggestions.

Anyone else out there?!

Cerebra offer £500 voucher for private SALT but this is only available if its a neurological condition eg autism. If is being assessed for autism and you have a letter to that effect you might meet eligibility. What SALT are you going to get? My son has autism so NHS SALT was useless as all advice was not geared to take into account social deficit at all. All we got was half termly visits to school / nursery where they gave very very basic 'advice' to staff. We got nothing at home to help us with his speech. He does get 1:1 support fulltime in school but that is because of his autism / behaviour / we went to tribunal he would not have got anything like this for just the speech problem. Do you have any speech units? If so I would seriously think about this, a year or two of specialist input and then a move to mainstream if things improve is worth thinking about. I have been very disappointed with what the school has been prepared to contribute to my son's education, they have done very little to make adjustments for his speech delay - thankfully he has excellent 1:1 who does it but the school and teachers etc do nothing so all homework, letters, lesson plans etc have not taken his speech delay into account at all. Even now in year 1 when we have asked for them to give him written instructions to follow they write 3 sentences where 5 words would do. Are you anywhere near an ICAN school or similar???

My dd has a phonological speech disorder and is in year 2. So far the provision she has recieved from NHS salt has been absolutely rubbish :( dd was dx in 2011 and since then has recieved one set of therapy but was then discharged as she didn't engage :( dds speech is affecting her ability to read and write and is also causing her social anxiety. Dd is on the waiting list for NHS salt now and we have been told to expect an 18 week wait for assessment :(