DS to be assessed by Early Years Advisor/Senco

[mummytosteven]

Hope you don't mind me posting on here, if I am treading on toes, let me know and I'll put it onto behaviour/development instead.

DS is 2.10 years old, started nursery back in October. I've been concerned about DS speech for a while and nursery are now agreeing (apparently he barely utters a word when he's there, at home he has plenty of single words and the odd phrase but not speaking in sentences). I have been fobbed off by both GP and HV when I've gone to them about it, but I intend to speak to GP in next few days about nurserys concerns with view to finally getting a SALT referral.

I was a little thrown to be told in passing on Friday that they were going to have him assessed in the next month by Early Years Advisor/Senco (not actually sure whether they are one or two people!). Is this usual for speech delay? Or does this imply they think there is something more amiss developmentally?

Don't worry about treading on toes - this is a great place to come as there's so much experience. I think that different areas have different protocol so it may not mean anything that your son has been referred to Early Years rather than straight to Speech Therapy. If it's anything like here you'll get a quicker response from EY!

Is there anything else worrying you about your son's development apart from his speech?

Post away!

My guess is that the assessments will be done so that:

1. The SENCO can see what help (if any) ds may need while he is at nursery. This will help when it comes to advising the staff about IEP targets if ds needs an IEP at any point.

2. It helps to have an outsider who can see what is happening. There are things that the staff might miss while they are dealing with the rest of the children.

3. They will know what to look for and what to mention in a report that can be passed on to the SALT or Paed (only with your permission of course).

It doesn't necessarily mean that your ds has any other issues but it's more about getting a full picture of what is going on at nursery.

My dd (2.11) also has a speech delay. An acquaintance, who is a SALT, told me you could self-refer. FOrtunately I didn't have to (I have a very good, pro active HV), but it might be worth considering if you get no joy with your GP.

Has he had his 2.5/3 year check or whatever it is now?

Thanks Sphil and Coppertop, you've helped set my mind at rest (ish).

Behaviourwise - can't think of anything that particularly concerns me, apparently DS is a bit rubbish at taking turns and sharing at nursery, but I think that's normal for a 2 year old (or the ones I know). Only other thing offhand is: he does seem to repeat lines from telly programmes a lot (i have let him watch too much ) and occasionally he can be really awkward about change (stopping one activity for another)

and thanks becky, cross posted with you.

blatant what the hell bump to this

Hi Mummytosteven,

Just thought I would add that it may be that an Area SENCo will be visiting to do an assessment. This is someone from the Early Years Dept, who specialises in Special Needs and they visit nurseries and pre-schools to provide advice and support to staff, as well as parents and the children themselves and often observe and assess individual children. This can only be carried out with your written permission though.
Hope that helps.
Kind regards,
Scooby

The SALT told me the same thing about self-referrals (same as Becky's post, I mean). She said that parents can phone the main SALT office and ask for their child to be put on the list. Alternatively you can put the request in writing.

The assessment/observation should be fairly straightforward. Ds1's report was basically a general commentary on what they had seen and what they thought it meant, eg " became distressed when he got paint on his fingers, displaying tactile defensiveness."

thanks scooby and coppertop.

and /thud at realisation that I could have self-referred S 6 months ago and he'ld have been seen about now. Why oh why didn't my HV tell me this .

I had no idea either until the SALT told me just before Christmas.