DS with ASD starting school Sept 2018 - I am feeling overwhelmed

[Hurricane74]

Hi

My son has a diagnosis of ASD and is due to start school next Sept. We are in discussion with the LA about an EHCP and have a Joint Assessment Meeting for early December. I had hoped he would go to a mainstream school and see how it goes, with the option of a school with an autism unit or a SS is things don’t work out. But now am feeling very doubtful a mainstream school could meet his needs. We had a report from the LA yesterday based on observations of him at preschool and it makes such sobering reading. It puts his developmental age at 8-20 months for most areas (he is 40 months) and his understanding and listening skills at 0-11 months. (His moving and handling skills are almost age appropriate). His main issues are social anxiety, sensory issues around noise and his lack of understanding and speech. Has anyone experience of a child with similar issues managing in a mainstream setting? If so, what kind of provision did you ask for and receive? Thanks for reading.

On the same course i keep banging on about they recommended this:

https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/03/4ChildrenParentsGuidee2015WEB.pdf

It's a guide to what children should be achieving at various ages. It's the same guidelines they use in schools to track what age a child is working at.

They recommended printing it out and highlighting what your child can do, so that you can see where and how they have progressed through the year. I haven't got round to doing it yet but thought it was a good idea.

It should give you a better idea of what NT children should be doing at various ages though.

Open the draft quantified resources in terms of money e.g. it stated £570 for PE support. I wrote back requesting amendments quoting para 9.69 of the SEN Code of Practice (re detailed, specific and quantified). The revised draft (which I agreed to) was amended to include the quantities of time.

Re the outcomes might it be worth looking at EYFS Development Matters - as I think children are assessed against EYFS at the end of Reception. I guess it depends where you are starting from - according to nursery my son is mostly functioning at a 3 year old level.

Have you agreed a date for the first review - the Ed Psych suggested at ours in Feb school would be better placed to identify outcomes such as write his own name, do simple addition etc.

I didn’t spot that you had already provided a link Liv.

I have done the highlighting for a while now and nursery shares their assessments with me. Generally they match up apart from numeracy which I think is a relative strength for my boy but he doesn’t seem to demonstrate that at preschool!

Dimples you're so on it! I've got the nursery reports with the tracking but it never occurred to me what it related to.

I keep getting a sinking feeling that I should've pushed harder on the EHCP funding breakdown being specific. I guess time will tell if it's a problem. Ugh!

Thanks dimples & liv. We reviewed all of the EYFS tracker detail and highlighted items for the original EHCP application. We included a summary of where he was at for each area within the Learning and Cognition section. Nursery have handed all this over to me this week. So, you’re right, I already have a baseline and can see what gaps there are. I need to get a folder for it and split it all up into sections and ensure that there is a target to close each gap I guess. Plus info from the teacher would be useful.

Ds’s profile is quite spiky. He has moved on in most areas but some are very low because he refuses to eat at nursery and he mostly avoids going to the toilet for instance.

Thanks to ds and a 4:15 start I now have even more time to obsess about this!

I need to avoid trying to push for too much in terms of closing the gap between him and his peers, nice though that would be - it needs to be realistic after all. The targets do need to be SMART though.

Oh wow 4-15 is so early dimples! Do he rest at all in the day?

So just me that had no idea about the EYFS tracker

liv I’m sure you’re not the only one.

He will be tired today and if we were going out in the car he’d be out like a light. Problem is, if he naps he goes to sleep later. Vicious cycle because it doesn’t mean he sleeps later in the morning.

Last day of nursery today. I so wish he had more time there. He’s made so much progress this term. Bloody holidays.

Hope he has a good last day dimples. Hopefully they'll tire him out enough that he has a better night's sleep tonight.

Liv I wouldn't worry too much about the quantifying because if things aren't working you could always change at review/ask for early review. I decided that I'd have one go at changing it and if they didn't amend I would just leave it (as I already had to apply to the tribunal to get them to assess
I had had enough) but I was lucky that they took on board what I had said. I think it is hard at this stage because it's a big change.

Open what an early start.

Thanks dimples that's reassuring!

dimples I have emailed the caseworker quoting the same section of the SEN COP. Hopefully they will send an amended version out to us.

Good luck Open

DH and I have been through the EHCP and lots of the language needs tightening up. My next job is to write it all up for them from my scribbles! I emailed the caseworker regarding the TA provision and she wants all of the changes before issuing a second draft.

I hope everyone is doing well and not melting from this heat.

Just marking my place on this thread if that's ok, I will have a good read through properly when I get chance ,

just in the process of applying for my asd 4.5 year olds echp, he starts school in 6 weeks time with no echp! I've had a letter back from the LA saying it will go to panel end of September that's just to decide on if they will undertake an assessment, it was sent 2nd week of July, does this seem adequate? Haven't a clue on timescales.

He's had early years funding for a 1-2-1 at nursery for the past 2 years, but for some reason it was decided to leave his ehcp application until this late on before starting school

Anyway he's 4.5 Years, development age of approx 2 to 2.5 years, full time nappies, no danger awareness, impulsive etc etc

He's going to a mainstream on a reduced timetable (2 hours per day.) hardly seems worth sending him tbh.

I'm clued up on the autism etc just not the ehcp or legalities of schooling!

Any help will be gladly appreciated.

Hi danni. There’s lots of information on the IPSEA website. The assessment and (further) evidence gathering happens between weeks 6-16. After that the LA will either arrange a planning meeting to discuss the draft plan or will inform you that they are not intending to issue a plan. Obviously you can appeal this decision.

High level time table here.

I should also say that there’s something about a 4 week extension if the school holidays make assessment impossible which may be the case if his nursery is shut? I don’t know much about this as it didn’t affect us.

Hi thank you for replies,

Yes nursery is shut, he's left completely now, so he will need assessments from September when he starts in reception class, he will only be doing 2 hours per day though so they will have to arrange it during that time,

I'm assuming they will assess given the severity of his problems, but who knows with the LA. We have not really had any support of any kind up to now barring early years funding at nursery, so I'm never very hopeful.

That sounds tough. Has he seen a speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, specialist teacher or anything under the early years help? What sort of evidence has already been submitted?

The specialist teacher that saw my ds said that if early years funding is agreed then it’s a good indicator for the EHCP.

He see salt when he was 2, had 6 x 1 hour sessions which were rubbish and she discharged him and said his speech was in line with his global development delay (2 years behind) so no further input was needed at that time.

He's had early years involved for 2 years, people often went into nursery to see him, he has behavioural issues also so the area senco did a lot of visits trying to sort that out with the nursery,

He's had cdc outreach support etc, multidisciplinary assessment at cdc and support plans etc made,

no occupational therapy & not sure if he's seen an ed psych I don't think he has but then again I wasn't told every time someone visited!

The evidence they sent off was his cdc support plan which is quite a lot of info regarding all sorts, his tracking eyfs sheets from nursery showing his development delays, a letter from our pead that says ASD needing very significant support (peads words) & the last 2 years worth of early Years inclusion funding reports. So I think enough evidence has gone off?

I'll just have to wait and see now.

That sounds like a lot of evidence and I’d say you have a very good chance though, obviously, I’m no expert and each LA seems to be different. The fact that he’s only expected to attend school for two hours a day speaks volumes doesn’t it? Any EHCP should have a plan for getting him to a full day. Was a special school ever something you thought about?

Here it is the Educational Psychologist who does the assessment.

Openupmyeagereyes he had early years funding for the full 2 years he was at nursery, for a 1-2-1 for the full hours he attended, once the early years team tried to reduce the funding hours on a lunch time so he had no 1-2-1 at lunch, and my son stole the other children's pack lunches chucking there food around & chucked all the plates cups etc, so they soon got the 1-2-1 funding back for the lunches.

He's been diagnosed as moderate to severe ASD with development delay although I'm told the GDD will soon be changed to learning difficulties.

Not sure how I would even be able to send him to school without a 1-2-1, he's an absolute danger to himself & others unfortunately. X

We have looked at the 2 special schools in our area, 1 was awful the other not so awful but apparently he didn't meet the criteria to go there.

but I felt pushed into doing a mainstream school to start with because he's been 'fine' at a mainstream nursery, fine as in making some progress but not a lot, he's had a lot of issues but been able to stay there so they think that sounds like he's got on fine because he hasn't been kicked out.

I think I know he'll end up in a special school tbh.

Just going with the flow for now, but the older he's getting the more apparent his problems are though.

Its a minefield all this, glad I found this thread.