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Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

Original poster

Staggering pronouncements from "professionals"

27 replies

NoRunAround · 19/07/2014 12:17

I'm sure you've heard a few Wink. My most recent experience made my chin drop with its sheer egotistical madness Angry Shock

DS has AS and suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Home tutor sessions were often cut short (by him and me) as he became too tired to continue. The sessions were meant to be 1 hour long or 2 hour max, but were often booked for longer due to tutor availability.

Anyway, this said tutor accused me of cutting the sessions short because I wanted to have 1-1 time with her to play cards Shock

Beat that!

OP posts:
NoHaudinMaWheest · 19/07/2014 12:46

Good grief! That's so wrong on so many levels.

What impact will this rubbish have on your ds's provision.

PandasRock · 19/07/2014 13:25

That is a shocker.

I was told, when dd1 was 4 (so not actually even old enough for formal school yet) that I would have to accept that dd1 would never learn anything at school. Yep, the whole 14 years of her education written off and discarded because one crappy school couldn't engage her.

I really, really want to drop by casually with dd1 now, 6 years on, and show her off, as she has worked so hard, and developed beyond anyone's expectations (even ours, and we weren't ever selling her short!)

Original poster
NoRunAround · 19/07/2014 15:26

Well done your dd PandasRock (and Pandas do rock Grin)

NoHaudinMaWheest Luckily ds doesn't need a home tutor anymore. This is only part of a long story though Hmm

OP posts:
billiejeanbob · 19/07/2014 15:33

I was told by the LA SN rep that my dd would never be on par with her peers and that my expectations of her are too high!
6 months later and dd is achieving at the same level as the rest of her ms class Smile Smile Smile

alteregonumber1 · 19/07/2014 21:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

frizzcat · 19/07/2014 23:26

Very recently in a meeting with an ed psych, ds is 9yrs old dx ASD

EP: Ive read your whole file Mrs Frizz and obviously read about ds traumatic birth

Me: what traumatic birth?

EP: well he was an emergency section and then was hypothermic....

Me: right let me put that in perspective, ds was delivered by EMC because I was ill, not because he was. Everything was very calm and I went to theatre having been in hospital for a couple days, there was no rush to surgery, it was just the decision we thought was best. As to hypothermia, he wasn't hypothermic he was cold and he went into an incubator for an hour to warm up. Can you tell me how ds birth is relevant to his education.

EP: well, we know that he was predisposed to possibly having disabilities, due to him having a difficult birth.

Me: Really? Is there an evidence base for that assertion? Does it link to ASD specifically or just disability in general. Was it a big study? Can you give me some links or info on the research, I'd quite like to have a look at that?

Que much back tracking and hole digging....

MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday · 20/07/2014 00:00

DS2's first Paediatrician diagnosed him with Zellweger's syndrome. Which is fatal. He didn't have it...

She also wrote on her first meeting with him "I think it is highly likely he has an intracranial abnormality and will have severe disabilities'

Fuck you paed... he can walk , talk, read. Yes he has autism and hypotonia and LDs... but you wrote him off at 4 months of age.

Original poster
NoRunAround · 20/07/2014 11:44

Wow Shock

I have another:

Ds was a school refuser at his old ms school, but now attending FT at SS. LA EP said, "he can attend because you believe in this school".

OP posts:
theDudesmummy · 20/07/2014 11:51

From so-called "consultant" paediatrician in child development clinic: "ABA? What's that?"

(Actually he did not have required registration to be a consultant, but that did not deter him from him signing himself as such).

Icimoi · 20/07/2014 21:26

From an EP: it was perfectly fine that a child was spending most of his time shut away in a cupboard tiny room with an LSA "teaching " him because, well, he's got complex needs, he needs an individualised curriculum, what do you expect?

billiejeanbob · 20/07/2014 22:21

Another corker - head of LA SEN to judge at tribunal - 'I dont understand how a piece of paper stating that the SLT is qualified, is any different from a TA implementing the provision!'
The judge replied 'would you let a surgeon operate on you without the same piece of paper?' lol

Bilberry · 20/07/2014 22:46

Not on the same scale but I loved our EP saying that during an assessment my ds 'couldn't spot a triangle or a square in the room', she went on to admit that neither could she! Nothing like setting a child up to fail and why then bring it up?!

Bilberry · 20/07/2014 22:47

Billie Grin. Those judges must hear some things!

Glittery7 · 20/07/2014 23:14

From paed about DD aged 3 at the time. "We can't assess her for ASD as her IQ is too low".
Utter bollocks according to special needs SALT.
Diagnosed with "moderate" autism aged just over 5.

Expatmomma · 27/07/2014 05:50

From a pediatric neurologist who assessed DS then aged 3

"You just need to be much stricter and smack him when is naughty"

3 years later he was diagnosed with hypermobilty, an auditive processing disorder, ADHD and Autism.

Quick disclaimer this was not in the UK but in another very developed Eurupean country with an outstanding medical system ... So no excuses for this being a cultural difference.

streakybacon · 27/07/2014 08:15

Autism Outreach teacher: "He'll never get more than a D for English. Autistic kids never do. Here, have a look at these functional literacy courses instead".

Four years of home ed later, he sat IGCSE and got A*.

Expatmomma · 27/07/2014 08:20

Congrats to Bacon Junior

Original poster
NoRunAround · 27/07/2014 09:24

Fantastic achievement by you and your son streakybacon

OP posts:
streakybacon · 27/07/2014 10:35

Thank you. We were fortunate to have the most amazing tutor for him - an unqualified, inexperienced English student at our local university who did more for ds than any of the professionals he encountered throughout his time in schools. Some of them are too bound by policy to think outside the box, and often that's what our children need Sad.

Icimoi · 27/07/2014 17:20

LA rep opposing request for statutory assessment: well, it's not surprising that dc is so far behind at school, he's got major developmental delay".

Icimoi · 27/07/2014 17:24

School opposing request for statutory assessment: "X is getting loads of support, he wouldn't get any more with a statement and he doesn't need one."

Parent: "How can you say that when you send him home within an hour of arriving every day?"

School: "..................."

streakybacon · 27/07/2014 17:56

Blimey, how's that for contradicting yourself?

I'm sure there are a lot of professionals working with special needs who haven't the slightest grasp of the issues. It's rarely about genuinely meeting the needs of vulnerable children, and mostly about budget juggling Sad.

uggerthebugger · 27/07/2014 19:17

"So how regularly does one review and update the statement for a child like [X], and how does one do that?"

  • SENDIST judge, at a hearing for my friend's DS this time last year.
Icimoi · 27/07/2014 19:34

I have a feeling they sometimes draft in judges from other tribunals in the summer, which might account for ugger's experience. Even so, they really shouldn't be as staggeringly ignorant of the system as that.

uggerthebugger · 27/07/2014 19:44

I think that's what happened here too Icimoi - the LA team played him like a fiddle, by all accounts.

The judge didn't apologise or make his lack of expertise clear at any point.
I'm sure he'd have been only too happy in future to have his open heart surgery performed by someone who the plastic surgery team felt they could spare....