Just spoken to the Principal Ed Psych about DD2

[lougle]

She thinks ASD, although their service deals with issues not labels. She's encouraged me to get school to refer. She said that if they can't do that, they have a community boookable service - a 1 hour appointment that I can go to with DD2 and someone from school (pref. SENCO) to discuss concerns, etc -which I can book directly.

That's good Lougle. I know this is all taking much longer than it should but I am regularly amazed at the comparative provision in your LA. Hopefully you are well placed and enough of a veteran to get to the heart of the issues fastish and begin to move forwards.

Lougle this is brilliant, you are really getting somewhere. Our school Ed Psych made great suggestions, even without a full cognitive assessment.

I would however be pressing for a full cognitive assessment via the school (which will take over two hours). When we did this it showed both the academic potential and the specific burden of language processing. Both will lead Ed Psychs to make the right suggestions and give the Paed (or Psych if CAMHs) an easier way to clarify SpLD from ASD.

If they don't agree to do a full cognitive profile, all is not lost if you have a good Paed, good EP and good school.

Everything crossed here.

Thanks Star - I know what you mean about comparative provision. You don't get told about it at grass roots level, though. It's only when you start wanting people to spend their time on your child that they tell you about another service that may help .

Handy thanks, that's useful. The Ed Psych, when I said that if it was a general 'low intelligence' I'd be fine with that, but I really don't think it is, replied that it "definitely isn't general low intelligence. It's a very specific issue." She asked me if I had any ideas and when I said 'ASD' she said 'that's what I think'.

She was brilliant, actually. She looked up DD2's school and confirmed that they have a Service Level Agreement with the EP department. She told me what to say and what to do if I get nowhere.

She said that DD2's anxiety is enough of a trigger without anything else. The very fact that she's not sleeping is a red flag for them.

Thats great news lougle your Dd2 is so lucky to have a great mum fighting her corner for her. Keep going you will get there!

Good luck

I believe we may be in the same LA (have changed names). My school arranged a bookable consultation and the SENCO and class teacher accompanied me. It was beyond shite and just another hoop they make parents go through to delay an EP assessment.

When I asked for an EP assessment after the bookable consultation, I was told the school would have to fill in and submit a long for moderation by a panel before they decide if you meet the requirements. When they finally agreed to assess ds, they wouldn't commit to a timeframe. However when I said I'd applied for SA, they said "that changes things" and arranged an assessment within 2 weeks.

The EP was inexperienced and incompetent, and worse, selective with assessments. An independent EP later reported that he found it hard to reconcile her findings with his. I am considering a complaint to the HPC.

I hope you have a different experience.

That's encouraging

Sorry you've had a bad experience. I hope I can report differently. Perhaps you can PM me the name of the EP you used, if I need it?

I've just had a telephone call from the Speech and Language Therapy department to apologise on behalf of the service for not responding to my email The SALT had gone on Maternity Leave, so my email didn't get actioned, but a different SALT is going to go in to school with a colleague who is very experienced with pragmatics. They've also offered to let me know when that is (probably after Christmas) so that I can go in and talk to them.

You are on a roll! Do you know if they will assess or observe? Or both? Do you think there's any chance they could do communication checklist?

At very least all these referrals will keep your dd2 on the school's radar.

More good news lougle , keep them all moving forward

Have pm'd you, Lougle.

Well done Lougle - this is down to your persistence. Celebrate the victories along the way - it helps you keep on keeping on

DD2 is lucky to have you fighting for her

Thank you. It's also down to you lot encouraging me and saying 'we believe you'.

Handy, I think it's initially an observation but the SALT also said 'we might hopefully even get a bit of time with DD2...'

I said that I'm concerned that she masks at school and asked how they will deal with this. She has assured me that she will speak with me after the observation/assessment and take my concerns into account.

The salt that observed Dd3 fairly close to the start of our journey recognised Dd3's stress levels and commented on her breathing patterns.

All the salts we have come into contact with have been quite switched on about girls and their masking skills.

We could just be lucky I suppose but have everything crossed for you

I really hope so. She's asleep on the sofa, again. Couldn't go to bed because she's so stressed about school tomorrow, but so dog tired because this is the 4th night in a row she's been up worrying, despite having INSET days on Friday and today.

She's written a note for her teacher:

"I have a woree about my snack pot. I want to be the first person out at play time so nobodee stairs at me."

Bless her, its horrible when they are so stressed

We went to a workshop for girls on the spectrum at the weekend and anxiety around school was one of the main issues we talked about.

Keep talking to school and hopefully you will move forward with this.

Good luck

Lougle I just want to wrap your dd2 in a blanket and pop her in my pocket.

Do you think school might make a few simple adjustments while you wait for the professionals? I know you've just had parents' evening but can explore this with CT/SENCO?

The snack pot was the first strategy [Sad]

oh dear re: snack pot, what was the aim with it?

She was anxious that lunch was taking too long to eat. She's asked us for more in her lunch box because she gets hungry, then leaving fruit, etc. in the fridge because it takes too long. Her friends finish lunch and go out on to the playground, so by the time she's finished, she goes out on to the playground but can 'only see blue' (the colour of the uniform) and can't see her friends.

The SENCO thought that if we gave her an extra fruit snack at break time (so a fruit snack in addition to the class-provided snack) then she would not be as hungry at lunch time and lunch would be quicker to eat.

But I didn't realise she was so shy about seeming 'different'.

She actually asked me if she could have police tape around her, without the word police, so that people couldn't crowd around her

It's just so unnatural, isn't it, that a 6 year old would only want to go to school if 'there are no other children there.'

Polter thank you for your kindness. I feel useless. I feel that I should be getting private assessments but there is no way I can do that.