reasonable adjustments ?

[thriftychic]

ds2 (14) late diagnosis AS
been in to school today to discuss what they can do to improve things . One suggestion , actually came from ds2 ( not often that happens ) is that he can have one earphone in his ear to listen to music , from his ipod , once the teacher has stopped talking and he is left to do his work . ds2 doesnt want to seem different to anyone else (its a massive issue for him) and as he rightly points out , with his long curly hair and the wire under his shirt , no one will notice

i actually think its a very good idea , that he might actually concentrate better and stay on task like that.

unfortunately school say NO

they proceeded to tell me that it is school policy and even a severely autistic boy they have , that uses ear defenders outside school , isnt allowed to use them in school . i am quite at that .
am i really asking too much ? surely they could give it a go ?

Did you see that clip on Educating Yorkshire?

The boy used music to help his stammer and gave a speech like in the film The Kings Speech. Send the school a link?

But anyway, the school is talking bollocks. It is a reasonable adjustment.

Good grief. It's a very reasonable adjustment and something that's often recommended by OTs.

yes , i did see that boy on educating yorkshire ( made me cry )

seems like they want to appear to be helping by doing things that suit them and in fact dont even help ds2 , whilst completely ignoring what WILL help

what would you do then ? should i go back and ask again / make a fuss ? who decides whats reasonable ?

Just write to them saying that Ds has come up with an idea of something that will help him access his education and are you correct that school will not make this inexpensive, resource-free reasonable adjustment.

See what they reply.

thanks , good points
made me laugh when they said that they actually play zen music sometimes in lessons , i told them he doesnt find that calming as he likes rock music

another battle i'll bet

unfortunately we dont have a lot to choose from , there are 3 in our town , this is the second one hes been at . the other one doesnt sound much cop either

weve never seen an OT polter

Ds old fab school( pity he got too old to attend) found out he found classical music calming, so bought him classical CDs and a portable CD player to use with headphones in lesson time.
Chilled him out , allowed him to complete his work and allowed the other 29 kids in class to work without ds kicking off .
So yes it's a perfect solution and a reasonable adjustment .

they sound great strong ! any ideas how i get school to agree it is reasonable ?

If school say no to every suggestion... what about wireless earphones? if your DS can cover up ears with curls then no one will notice

thats a good idea worriedDad , but i think its more about sticking rigidly to their crap policies than anything else

i sent ds2 in with a note once explaining he needed to wear trainers rather than shoes for a few days due to a toe infection and they phoned me right away to say they were putting him in the isolation room . when i objected very loudly they backed down only to make him wear a pair of their spare shoes , 2 sizes too big , so as not to hurt his bad toe i later found out . good job he didnt fall down the stairs in those oversized bloody shoes , the ridcule from peers was bad enough

i have heard that its much like the one hes at now really but maybe i should go and check it out properly myself