Transition difficulties hfa

[Skylar123]

I'm wondering what type of help your child gets with transitions, what strategies are in place at school, home, etc. also how does it manifest itself once at secondary school and the transitions are more frequent.

Dd3 doesnt get enough support with transitions at school. This year I had a 20 minute meeting with her new teacher 2 days before they broke up. Very little of my advise was acted upon and Dd3 literally fell apart in September.

She only had to move to the room next door!!! This coming September she is moving to a massive secondary school. We are trying to get her a statement. She is going to need support during the many transistions that happen every day.

So far we have been told she will get a pass to leave the class 5 minutes early to avoid the crush but that is not going to help her because she wont be able to cope on her own.

Transistions can be a massive problem for our children and I feel that this is seriously misunderstood by many schools.

Sorry if that is negative its just my experience.

Not negative I appreciate your view thank you .
Sch recognise my Ds transistion issues although not always but at least partly I'm just wondering what I could suggest to help him. Tbh the transistion issues were only recognised by the autism specialist not actually the senco or teacher. Our class teacher really doesn't give a stuff I don't think she just nods and says oh were already doing that. I'm really sorry to here about the struggles you are experiencing I pray you get a statement for secondary.

I get told "oh yes we are doing that" too bit when I ask Dd3 she has no idea what I am talking about

The school she is at is brilliant in general, most of the staff have been very switched on.

The ones I find tricky are the ones who think they know it all. The teacher that we have had the most trouble with is on amission to prepare all the children for secondary, sadly she uses a brutal one size fits all method

Does your Ds have a Communication Passport, One Page Profile or a Personal Factsheet or anything similar that gives info about his issues and the best was to support him??

Agreed I get cross with certain professionals that think they Ds better than I do. Most arnt like this tho. Our sch have really stepped up a gear recently and are beginning to recognise that a) I will not go away and b) they have a responsibility to act and try to input some of the recommendations given by other profs. I'm now on very good terms with sch senco but we've had our battles. Al I wanted was for her to listen to me and stop thinking I was a crazy person. I'm not sure if she is just covering her back now.
I haven't heard of any if those things mentioned in your last para can you tell me more about them pls thx

DS, Aspergers started Secondary in September. He had problems with transition at primary and to be honest, it has been easier in Secondary as he has his timetable written in his planner and he says "he always knows where he is supposed to be". On the odd occasion he has to go to a different room for a subject, he writes himself a note in his planner. He looks at his planner every morning on the way to school and says he gets " in the zone" on the way to school. The only problem we have had was when the drama teacher decided to take them off outside in the middle of a lesson, which totally threw him, but this is one incident in a whole term.

You can google One Page Profile and probably Communication Passport too.

Basically it is a booklet or sheet with info about your child and their difficulties. It should include info about what they find difficult (so transitions could go in) and strategies that staff can use to support them.

It should also include info about who or where staff should go to seek more info about the child.

Dd3's also names 3 key adults, chosen by her who will support her if she needs help. Although that has been the least successful part for her because she cannot access the support.

They are brilliant if staff remember to use them and are especially beneficial for supply staff.

Dd3 has one in the classroom, one in the school office and one at scouts.

Sunnymeg that's really reassuring and I'm glad to hear your Ds is coping in secondary sch. I hadn't thought of that, what with the planners and timetables they have on them all the time in secondary, that would be good for my Ds too.
What about socially, any issues with bullying and not fitting In. I read that the bullying rate of kids at the higher end of the spectrum is quite high in ms secondary schools. That is in my area anyway according to a recent survey.

Thanks ineedmorepatience. Who's responsible for drawing this up . Is it me, the school, both? I will google it too. Is it similar to the IEP ?

No not similar to the IEP it is more about giving info.

Dd3 makes hers with a TA on the computer but the info is provided by the SENCO and SALT and Dd3 of course

Ok thanks for info. My Ds doesn't know is dx yet. When did you tell your Dd3? Sorry maybe that is too personal feel free to ignore!

Ok thanks for info. My Ds doesn't know is dx yet. When did you tell your Dd3? Sorry maybe that is too personal feel free to ignore!

Not at all, I told her in the summer holidays just before she was 10 bit she was only Dx ed on her 9th birthday!

I was given conflicting info about telling her tbh. The Mental Health nurse at camhs said we should wait until she was older but other people including many on here with experience said it might be better to get it over with.

To be honest telling her was the best for her. She went a little wild for a while and displayed some interesting behaviours as if she had read a book of possible symptoms but she clearly felt that she didnt have to hold it in anymore.

She is comfy with her dx now. She has issues with people not understanding her even when they know she has a dx but I can understand that.

Obviously you have to do whats best for your family but for us having Asd out in rhe open is a positive thing.

Good luck

I've heard it is really hard to get girls dx . We don't have nhs dx yet just private but all the services are involved that would be under nhs dx so no different really. We are awaiting nhs CDAC assessment march/April this year. Just been referred to CAMHS too. Ds got his private dx back in August 2013 I went private as I knew that ds was on the spectrum and felt nhs were going to dither and hither judging by our very first paed app back in April 2013. Plus school weren't acknowledging anything back then so went for private dx. Shown them all how wrong they were now though...something extremely satisfying about that.
I'm glad to hear your dd is comfy with get dx, it must help a lot. We will tell Ds this year . X

Yes it was difficult to get her a dx, most of the proffs who met her just saw a bright child with a loopy mother

Thank goodness for my diary and one sensible Paed who knew she didnt have the expertise to unpick Dd3 and she sent us to CAMHS who diagnosed her a year later.

The whole process took 3.5 yrs.

I am glad you were able to get your Ds dx'ed earlier it defo helps.

Good luck with the NHS

Wow 3.5 yrs !
I have seen a nhs dr recently as sch felt Ds had dyspraxia so I asked gp for referral to a paed to discuss (not the paed who is involved with the nhs asd stuff) I don't like her one bit, but pretend too. This particular paed said he knew within 10 mins of talking to Ds that he was on the spectrum , it sounds crazy but it was so refreshing to hear . He did a very good report that I copied to our current paed.
It's a long battle isn't it but where would we be without are dc's. Good luck, fingers crossed your dd gets what she needs.

Hello again

DS has had a few problems with reacting to low level teasing (crying) and when an incident has occurred he has talked it through with his form tutor and the SENCO. It does seem to be easier than at primary as he is in different sets for subjects so he sees different children every lesson, so if an incident occurs with a child he may not see that child again for two or three days, so he gets his own space to calm and refocus.

He has the opportunity to go to a quiet room of a lunch and break time and he does that quite a lot, but more because he has made friends with others that go there, rather than a need to keep out of the way of people who annoy him.

He also has a pass to get out of lessons a couple of minutes early, so he has more time to get around, but he only used it for the lesson before break and lunch, so that he can get first choice in the canteen

I don't want to sound too negative but my dd who has AS and dyspraxia had a terrible transition to High School. I really regret underestimating how hard it would be for her

I'll tell you a few things which I hadn't anticipated, but please don't let it worry you. You have the benefit of getting stuff in place and learning from my mistakes!

She struggled with lockers, how to open and close. She didn't understand which stuff to leave in her locker so she ended up carrying everything around with her.

She got very muddled with homework and due dates and such but there is a teacher email set up which helps.

She got lost quite a lot between lessons.

The cafeteria has a payment card system. I found out that people were asking dd to buy them (a lot of) snacks and she was going along with it. Also she often queued for so long that she had to rush to eat so she takes packed lunches. She still buys snacks but is more controlled now.

Sometimes lessons were moved to a different classroom last minute and this would throw her. She once "went missing" she was in the wrong lesson and no-one had noticed

Sadly dd relied heavily on her friends for practical help and put so much strain on them they all fell out with her. It was heartbreaking but they are friends again now.

Curriculum support is really helpful for breaks and lunchtimes when it all gets a bit overwhelming, she still uses it now.

We found using this transition pack from Leicestershire County Council to be invaluable in Year 6 even though we are nowhere near Leicestershire!!!

www.leics.gov.uk/autism_transitions_parents_pack.pdf

I showed it to the SENCO at primary and she agreed it was the best pack she had seen. I found out about it on another Mumsnet thread, so thanks to whoever posted about it first!

Thanks for all this info it's very helpful. I wish I had a crystal ball!
Sunnymeg& thornrose I take it your dc's didn't have statements when they transferred to secondary.

I can see my Ds not knowing what on earth he is supposed to do and when at secondary. Saying that he is on the high end of the spectrum and is a capable boy in many ways. It's hard as he is not severe enough for special school but not completely NT to fit in without issues at MS. I'm guessing as long as the right help is in place a statement won't be needed. I'm going to give it another 6 mths then decide what to do I will see what happens for the remainder of his current year 3 in primary and how he copes and what arises between now and then.
Thanks for the transition link sunnymeg

My dd did have a statement! I think everyone was lulled into a false sense of security because she was doing so well at her middle school.

Skylar, my DS2 is 14 now, with ASD and a statement of SEN. His secondary school transition went well, having a statement helped a lot. It meant that I had a pretty free choice of which secondary school he went to, so I could choose the one best set up for SEN.

My DS is average academically, better than average at maths and is supported within MS lessons. He uses the SEN 'club' at break and lunch etc. He liked secondary years 7 and 8 but in Y9 the work is getting harder and the bare minimum that he does isn't acceptable.

You are a few years behind us, I guess. If your DS doesn't have/won't get a statement, a lot of the adjustments and strategies would still be useful, so do come back and ask closer to the time.

Anything to help now? My DS used a visual timetable. A vertical strip with velcroed cards for each activity with words and symbols. In fact, the other DC found it so useful they started to use a class one instead. Same type used in each class.

Eg on the edge of the whiteboard, 'guided reading' 'literacy' 'assembly' 'playtime' 'maths' 'lunchtime' 'quiet reading' 'geography' 'PE' 'home time' To help my DS, they would take off the card at the end of the activity and put in a 'finished' box. No times in case they overran. DS didn't like it it the time wasn't exactly right! Also a 'changed activity' card if things had to change during the day from the plan.

DS is on School Action Plus.