Moving to London from San Francisco with child with mild ASD

[roxmck]

Hello,
My family and I are moving to London from San Francisco with an almost 4 year old son who has mild ASD. It mostly manifests through some behavior issues at preschool (not listening, being rowdy on the play yard, and also being behind in speech/communication). We are just starting him in ABA Therapy and he's been in Speech Therapy and showing some improvement.

I've been researching and it seems that ABA therapy is not as widely used in the UK and that every nursery is equipped with a special needs coordinator. Is he likely to get the help he needs in a mainstream day nursery? Any advice/recommendations to ensure he gets the help he needs and can remain in school? Both my husband and I work full time and he'll need to be in all day care.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Roxanne

Hi. I'm not an expert on ABA, so cannot help you there. Although I think there are nurseries and perhaps schools that use ABA. Do you know where in London you will be?

Will you be looking at the state or private education, because I guess he will be starting school in Sept? UK state primary school admissions applications close in January. Will you be here by then?

Community/sure start/children's centre (ie public sector) nurseries will have a SENCo, but they can be of mixed usefulness. Private nurseries will on the whole be useless and sometimes actively unhelpful/try to get you to leave. There is apparently some specialist private provision.

Maybe try another question here about a specific area of London or type of nursery or school. I'm sure you will get more help. Might just take a while!

Thanks outputgap for your post. We'll likely be in the Richmond upon Thames area - so far that is where we are targeting. We won't be there by September - likely March/April time frame. I think we'll likely need to go private considering he'll need full time care.

Do you know if there are private nurseries that are more geared towards providing this type of extra support?

Thanks.

It might be worth talking to some local ASD service providers in London to see if they can help advise on schools and childcare too. We use Beam for distance ABA (advice over Skype) but they do also provide physical ABA in London and might be able to put some feelers out on schools.

Richmond should also have an EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) SENCO. They will be looking after children in nurseries with SEN and will definitely have views on which state schools are best for different types of child. They may know something about private schools. State may well work for you though. They should be good in Richmond and a lot of them will have breakfast and after school clubs, depending on how well you think your DS will take to that... So it would be worth contacting Richmond Council and explaining your circumstances and see what advice they can provide.

Best of luck with the move. Richmond is a great area, I'm sure you'll find something that will work for you.

www.richmond.gov.uk/local_authority_sen_support_to_setting_sencos
May be worth trying the phone number on this page as a starting point?

You could also try contacting this school: may not be the right place but they may well be able to help explain local provision more generally: www.richmond.gov.uk/the_peartree_centre

Thanks Light Tripper, that gives me some hope. Will follow up on your suggestions. I’m hoping we will be able to find the right place for him because he needs more help than the average child his age.