Posted in Chat but reporting here as busier :)

[JulietBravoJuliet]

Ds is 7.5 and has always been a bit of a handful; nursery were at the point of trying to get him a statement at one point as his behaviour was dreadful back then. There have been issues throughout school; refusal to join in certain activities, complete lack of concentration in class, reluctance to do any written work, knocking things over deliberately then not knowing why he has done it etc, but just lately (since starting year 3) it has got so much worse.

His teacher has expressed concerns and has suggested getting him assessed, as, like he says, if nothing is "wrong" with him, we need to work on him sorting his behaviour out, but if he gets a diagnosis, we need to learn how best to handle situations and manage him.

His behaviour at home is hit and miss. If it's just me and him, he's generally fine, but throw in anyone else and he just can't seem to handle it. He shows off to extremes, acts the clown, talks absolutely non-bloody-stop, pulls faces constantly, won't eat a meal without a fuss, completely ignores any pleas to calm down a bit etc. He flails his arms around A LOT and seems completely incapable of sitting or standing still for any length of time; queues are a nightmare as is walking round shops etc.

He has a certain number of foods he will eat, anything else takes bribery to try just one bite. He can take hours to eat a meal, cannot follow instructions to get dressed, clean teeth etc, which is causing problems at school as well. Today, I picked him up to be told that he had a complete tantrum at PE time as he couldn't find his pumps so they told him to take off his socks and do it barefoot. It took three staff members to calm him down and remove him from the classroom as he was screaming, kicking and sobbing

Don't really know why I'm writing all this here, just struggling to cope with it all I guess. We have a doctors appointment on Saturday morning to get the ball rolling but I just don't know what to expect or what timescales I'm looking at. Is there anything specific I need to tell them?

*reposting even!!!

Bumping :)

To give you some idea of timescales we were referred in April, seen by CAMHS in October and the Community Paediatrician in December and received a diagnosis the following April and I think we got through the system reasonably quickly as both school and parents were screaming for help. We were alerted by ds1's teacher after he showed similar behavioural issues and he now has a diagnosis of AS.

Is your son on School Action yet? If not this should be started straight away and does not need to wait for any diagnosis. My ds's are now statemented but school action is the first line approach - perhaps ask for a meeting with the class teacher and school SENCO to investigate setting this up and to ask for strategies to be put in place to help your son.

Ooh no-one's mentioned school action - is that the step before a statement? He had something put in place when at nursery but it's never been mentioned since.

This is my understanding of the system

School Action. child is given an individual educational plan ( IEP)with three targets. Could focus on academic issues but also social and emotional and behavioural targets. The help the child is given to achieve these usually comes from the teacher or class TA.

School Action Plus. Child is moved onto this if greater difficulties and the school seeks the help of outside agencies such as speech and language, educational psychologist. Child still has IEPs written and reviewed every term. I think school action and school action plus a re being merged at some point.

Statement: Asked for if child continues to have major difficulties either academic or behaviourally (the keep the latter a close secret to most head-teachers). There is a myth that the child has to be on school action plus for at least two terms before a statement can be applied for.

There are a couple of threads about today asking questions about IEPs so have a look at these to give you a better idea of what they involve.

Thank you, I've saved that into my iBooks so I'll have a bit of a read :)

My limited understanding is the same as oneineight.

However, our experience has been a bit different and I'm led to understand that our situation is unusual. DD2 is 2y 5m and has just been awarded a Statement of Educational Need. She has cerebral palsy and I applied direct to the LEA in preparation for her going into nursery. So we didn't go through School Action or School Action Plus so I don't think these steps are necessarily a prerequisite. Happy to be put right if I have that wrong if your child is already in school.

Our statement timescale: I applied personally to the LEA on 1 June 2013 and dd2 statement was issued in Nov 13 (just come through). Apparently our case was straightforward (already had a diagnosis, supporting medical evidence and numerous therapy inputs) and was very quick.

Good luck for saturday. Just tell the doctor (GP?) all the things you mentioned in your OP and any other evidence you can think of that gives you cause for concern.