Starting out on statementing process

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

DD2 is 2.10 and deaf/hard of hearing. Obviously it's early days but right now she has a significant (using 'significant' colloquially I don't know whether it has a technical meaning) language delay she has a few individual words but prefers sign, although she's behind chronological age in sign as well (she has a few three-word combinations in sign, mostly involving toast).

We're starting down the statementing process now because we're thinking ahead to starting school in Sept 2015 -- we would like her to go to the ms school in our borough that has an attached Hearing Impaired Unit but we are far enough away that the only way she'll get in is with a statement that names the school (there is an attached nursery so if she did get a statement she'd probably get a place there from September 2014 as well). Currently she attends ms private nursery 2 mornings a week (but she gets a lot of informal 1:1 support from her keyworker or the SENCO) and we have support at home/nursery from a Teacher of the Deaf and at home from SLT. ToD and the Sensory Support Service think that the HIU is the right place for DD2 and have kicked off a referral for statementing now (owing to its taking a while and also that they feel happier negotiating the current process than starting with the new one in September this year.

Right now I'm at the point where the EP who's picked up the case and I are playing telephone tag so that she can "discuss how we can best support DD2".

So, what do I need to be watching out for/are there key phrases I should be using/what am I likely to be missing that I ought to be thinking about? I'm told that the NDCS have good advice on statementing, so I'll give them a call -- but I also know MNSN knows everything there is to know about statementing, more or less.

Contact IPSEA and/or SOS SEN. Check when the request for statutory assessment was sent in and make sure the LA is kept to the 6 week time limit for making a decision on this. In general, you need to be emphasising that that DD's needs cannot be met within the resources normally available to schools and that she needs a specialist resource. Think also about what therapy needs she has, including speech and language, and ask for a speech and language therapist with particular experience of hearing impairment to assess her.

Thank you for those points. Our current SLT is a specialist hearing impaired SLT (she does a lot of work at the school we want DD to go to, as it happens) so I hope she'd put in a favourable report when it gets to that point. I've certainly talked to her about DD's future and visiting the school and so forth, but I don't know her as well as the other professionals we deal with (only been seeing her since this September) so she's more difficult for me to read, I think.