STATEMENT SUCCESS! [grin]

[adrianna22]

I just had a call from the statement people. They said yes that DS will be eligible for the statement and this was my first application.

They even said that they want DS to be assessed at the language unit, though his information has to be referred. I know the primary school- didn't know they had a language unit. Though I'm not keen on the mainstream school and I have started to like DS upcoming school, which he will be going into september.

Would he able to do a split placement?

well done on getting them to agree to a statement - it may be worth asking about a split placement - my sons had them when they were much younger

The language unit ( if he gets accepted) is attached to the mainstream. So I'm wondering if he can go to our local mainstream school, but then maybe twice a week, attend the language unit, instead of him attending to the language units mainstream school bit.

Well, IME, if they are talking to you about a language unit, then he must have some fairly obvious SEN.

In my LA, there were 70 children put forward for 6 places, and they were only the ones who met the criteria - which included there being no behaviour problems, except those secondary to the SLI and expected to settle down once they were in the right environment. Children with major behaviour or attention problems, thought not likely to benefit from the intensive provision on offer, weren't even considered! The idea behind language units in my LA is that children get 2 years of intensive remediation, and then they can be returned to mainstream.

Many parents were never told what a language unit is, never mind where they are; or that their child needed a language unit. Speech therapy reports were written, IMO in such a way that parents did not understand the significance of them, such as:

"On CELF-3 UK, X has a standard score of 65 on receptive language....."

Whereas the professionals knew that this meant X had a severe receptive language disorder."

Many parents are put off language units, because they tend to be in primary schools in more deprived areas. Its just a fact that only under-subscribed schools are going to have room for them; and SEN children are not going to stick out like a sore thumb in them, because some of the other children will have language delays, etc for different reasons.

I sent my DD with a receptive and expressive language disorder at 4 to a language unit, 10 miles away in another town in a deprived area, because I was told that she barely understood a word anybody said without visual clues and she would only cope in mainstream for another term or two! Our local primary was outstanding in the league tables; but not outstanding at SEN!

Does your child has a verbal dyspraxia? Read the article by Pam Williams, Chief Speech Therapist at the Nuffield on verbal dyspraxia on the Dyspraxia Foundation's website, if so. In a language unit, the speech therapist can deliver say 10 minutes of speech therapy to your child three times a day, or whatever they think is required.

If your child has a language disorder, the pace of learning can be tailored much more to the individual, than in mainstream. A language unit is used to say doing division; and then having to go back to it the next half term, because the children struggle with concepts, mathematical language, attention, etc; whereas in mainstream the pace of the curriculum does not allow for that - if children miss a key concept, tough!

IMO, there is no point having a split placement for a language unit. If you want mainstream, then you might as well just get as much support in class and direct speech therapy as you can. As a friend of mine, a top class speech therapist said on this subject:

"Why give a child a crutch and then take it away some of the time?"

Either a child needs to be in a class of 10, with a high staff ratio, intensive speech therapy, a specialist teacher, etc or they don't!

If they are talking to you about a language unit , I suggest you give it some serious thought - if your child's problems are remediated, they can always return to your local primary. Try ringing the Afasic Helpline, where you can discuss this question further.

Hi tempe, even though your post sounds depressing, I see where your coming from.

DS has a severe language delay says (10 words), but with no behaviour problems and has very very good understanding. His SEN is not obvious as he is quite mild in that respect. But has a severe language delay, it is quite obvious in that respect.

You are absolutely spot on, the language unit is in a deprived area and the mainstream attached is not a good school at all, I need to have a look at the language unit as the schools website says nothing about the unit.

I guess because the lady said that somedays he would be in the mainstream class attached to the language unit some days. I figured well can his classes be at our local school, instead of the mainstream school and I do know some parents that have suggested it.

DS will be going into reception.

Thanks, I will try to call Afasic.

But of course the language unit has to accept him, so we will see.

How did your DD do at the language unit.

Thanks

Forgot to add one crucial thing! DS has ASD too. I did wonder why the team were offering me a language unit rather than an ASD unit. But the lady said on the phone that DS was very mild to consider an ASD unit. That he would not be eligible as the ASD units are very hard to get in, tend to take kids who are more behavioural and don't spend a lot of time on language. She said DS main needs are his speech and language, but if I want an ASD unit, they will refer my details on.

This maybe could be, when talking to the doctor (when she assessed him for the ADOS) that DS only scored 2/3 of the triads of impairment. So they were going to give a social communication difficulties diagnosis. But opt for autism instead, as theres more support???

I tried not to be too depressing!

Yes, in my LA children with SLI and ASD were taken into the language units, but the ASD label counted against them! They cannot have a language unit full of ASD children.

I can't comment on your ASD diagnosis or not. I certainly have come across many children with 2 out of the 3 in the triad. A professor at GOSH told one of my friends:

"We only have identified half the syndromes children have. It could be in 10 years time, someone says your child has ABC syndrome, until then we don't have a name for what your son has!"

Yes, LAs set up language units in all different ways. It could be what you have is actually a language base - children are in mainstream most of the time and withdrawn for sessions of speech therapy or specialist teaching. In a unit, they are in a class of 10 and integrate into mainstream for say art, PE and music - but they have a language based approach to all the academic side with a specialist teacher.

Every speech therapist who saw my daughter said she could not possibly cope in mainstream and she would be completely lost. I never regretted sending her to a language unit. I refused to send her to a language base. My local school would have made her feel a complete failure - but then she was aware of being different.

Ask to see the language unit and ask about how it is set up - how much integration is there? And how much speech therapy!

My ds has just started at his language unit. They have a six week assessment to start, after which he could be transferred to a SEN unit or back to mainstream if they thought the LU wasn't right for him. Apparently this is uncommon but has made us a bit twitchy until his six weeks are up. There are two LU round here. One in a more deprived part of town and one in what is a 'lower middle class' area. We preferred the one in the more deprived part but got the other. My ds has a 10 mile journey each way by taxi. We are still on half days but seems to be doing well.

In our area SLCN have to be the main issue but they do take mild ASD. Last time a child was moved after the six week assessment was because he had ASD and they decided Speech and language wasn't his main problem so was transferred to a SEN unit.

Hi Tempe, yes we preferred what you call a unit but got what is more like a base. He is out of his mainstream class most of the time but I wasn't so happy with it as he has to be 'taken out' of his class which means he will find it even harder to make friends/socialise and is 'different' to his classmates. There is only one other child in his year group in the base/unit. Unfortunately we weren't offered the other unit and it is so difficult to get in anyway that we had to take what was offered (the alternative was an SEN base so out of class but without the specialists).

Hi Tempe, no depressing was the wrong word. Your post was an eye opener and reminded me about DS needs.

I'm not sure if it's a language base as the SEN team said that DS has to be assessed first to get accepted in the language/ base unit whatever.

Yes I'm guessing that's why DS will have to do the assessment there first as they can't always take kids with ASD.

Most of the ASD units that I've seen did not focus in language at all! A speech therapist only came in once a week, half day and I didn't feel DS would be best suited there. I'll have to look around some more.