LA EP tomorrow for statementing - any advice

[bjkmummy]

not looking forward to it as last time we met was at ds tribunal. tomorrow is about his twin sisters assessment for a statement.

he phoned me a few weeks ago and said he wouldn't be assessing her again as he could see she had had a lot of assessments already (yes all indie ones done by us!) he wanted to use my dyslexia EP report which was fine as it was a full report so made it sound like he was doing very little in the way of further standardised testing with her even though the 6 months since the last report have now passed but class teacher mentioned to me that he had told her he was going to do osme cognitive tests with her.

by the sounds of it class teacher/senco also going to be sat in the meeting as well!!! shes the one who says everything is fine - a miracle has happened last week that my daughter after months and months suddenly learnt her 7 x tables - shame if you ask her now what any of them are she cant tell you - but I digress....

dh wants to say what we want - I think that's the wrong approach cos I don't know what she needs hence the assessment - looking forward to secondary there is very little choice and so far looks like neither can meet her needs. the EP will probably not be looking for evidence she needs extra help but the contrary - she needs a lot of OT has poor handwriting, poor working memory (2nd centile) poor across core curriculum subject, poor receptive and expressive language, poor motor visual skills - by poor all of these are the 2nd centile. shes struggling socially, is a loner now, cant cope in the class with the noise of 12 kids, has a staff ratio of 1:5 so has a high level of adult support but made barely any progress, we are paying for an hour of specialist teaching a week but specialist teacher wants to stop next year as she is retiring

not sure whether to play cards close to my chest so my words cant be used against us further down the line or be open and honest. why is it in these meetings my brain will freeze and I end up sitting there not having a clue what to say as the questions always confuse me.

hmm I wouldnt disclose now what you want - the LA EP is likely to then find loads of evidence to dispute this.
I would just say you are unsure at this point as you arent currently aware of all of her needs. Once you have the LA EP report, take the evidence from it that supports your placement. ( for example the LA EP is unlikely to suggest a specialist placement but could pick up on your dd being easily distractable within her current class. you could then highlight this as evidence that she needs a specialist placement, as otherwise her limited attention span will continue to be a barrier to her learning.)

BJK your dd seems very similiar to my dd. my dd is 8 and has average IQ and general intelligence but is making v limited progress (P8 - 1C). she has very poor working memory and phonological processing (1st centile for both), expressive and receptive lang difficulties, dcd which has effected her handwriting plus sensory and modulation difficulties. she is currently in ms with no slt, ot or specialist teaching .
my indie slt has also recomended a specialist placement but it means dd would have to board . the school would be perfect for her though as they employ specialist teachers to teach every subject and also the children also have their own assigned slt and ot, it couldnt be any more perfect.

yep - our daughters could be twins! mine is 10 nearly 11 in year 5 in a school of just 24 kids - shes about a 2B - she too has phonological processing issues.

my SALT report was good but generic as she was testing her in areas that she normally doesn't do as my daughter we felt wasn't asd and average IQ - plan is to get her seen by margo sharp to get a much more detailed and experienced look at her needs. the specialist teacher is amazing and she wrote a good report for the last tribunal - she ends her report by saying that my daughter needs a school which truly embraces dyslexia across the whole school.

can I ask which school you are considering ? im having a huge headache about that at the moment - pm me if you would rather not say on here. we have not a single specialist school in county so I have no option but to go out of county. there is a good day school but the travel cost would be enoromous so im thinking more dyslexia specialist boarding school and if needs be we will transport her there to cut the costs down.

I will pm you BJK.
Our dds sound scarily similiar! Have u also found that there are hardly any schools that cater for their needs? There arent any in my LA or neighbouring LAs.

My indie SLT and OT were amazing, their reports identified all of dds needs and made me realise just how complex she is. Indie slt used CELF4 plus asked dd to retell a narrative, identify idioms etc.

We have a sendist hearing at the beginning of September just for dds support in ms (hr a week of slt, ot and specialist teaching), as our previous hearing was adjourned at the request of the LA.

Good luck today

so glad that I was made to fight all the way through tribunal to finally get the assessment and the EP assessment consisted of an hour interview with me which I don't think was that helpful, he asked me what I wanted?? which secondary school I was considering and when I mentioned her qwirks it was of course all to do with her twin brother. the question re her blooming hearing and not being able to spell cos she cant hear sounds came back again so said again she has no hearing issues at all. hes using her previous EP report we had done 6 months ago so did not testing with her except a tiny check of her reading which he showed me and was two sheets of words and that's all he was going to do. he said wanted to check her progress as school said she had made progress. he also said about her auditory processing and how a child with that and poor working memory will struggle so on balance I do think we may just get a statement but have a feeling it will be pants but at least if we get a pants statement one less tribunal to worry about. he spoke to my daughter for 30 mins and class teacher for 30 mins so that's that - 6 months of my life fighting for 2 hours of an LA EP time and that's the whole assessment that they are going to do............. and I also get the feeling hes not a believer in dyslexia but that's another story