Referral accepted by Early Years Service. What now?

[KitKat1985]

Brief background: DD1 is 3 years and 8 months. No formal diagnosis but lots of warning signs for autism (developmentally delayed in all areas, unable to independently speak sentences for example, but will 'parrot' lots of things she has head from us / TV; doesn't interact with other children, makes a 'humming' noise a lots, very distressed by changes to routine etc). We're awaiting a lot of appointments right now including SALT but there seem to be long waits for everything, and we have no formal support in place for her right now.

Her nursery referred her to the Early Years intervention service (the local council education support service for pre-schoolers) and we had a letter through last week to say her referral had been accepted, and she would be assessed in a couple of weeks time (they are coming to see her at nursery and at home). What are they likely to offer us in terms of support? I'm new to all of this and I'm not really sure what help we should be expecting and what the process is.

For us it involved specialist SALT assessment, then an appointment with a paediatrician and SALT at the Child Development Centre where we got a diagnosis of ASC. After that, specialised playgroups and a SEN parenting course for children with social communication delay. We have also applied for an EHCP assessment which was agreed. His nursery applied for SENIF funding to pay for 1:1 support. We are in Cambridgeshire.

Okay that's great thank you for replying. Can I ask how developmentally delayed your DS is to get the 1:1 support? DD1 had her language briefly assessed last week and they put her at about 18 months behind her peers as they felt she had the language skills of a 2 year old (hence agreeing to make the SALT referral).

I've got to think about schools applications later on this year and I'm really starting to worry about how she will cope in a mainstream school. In particular her 'humming' noise that she always makes when she is concentrating on things is really quite loud and I don't know how a mainstream school would manage that if she was expected to be working quietly and not disturbing other pupils.

He is 18 months + across most areas. He had a particularly difficult time last term with a fair amount of challenging behaviour which, I’m sure, contributed to the funding decision. He seemed to have had a developmental spurt over Easter and his behaviour is much improved this term, thankfully.

We thought about deferring him but my feeling is that the school we have chosen have more experience with SEN than his nursery and will be better placed to support him, hopefully with an EHCP - we are awaiting the assessment. It’s a small village school with a very experienced teacher and, seemingly, good pastoral support. Only time will tell if it was the right decision!

He has a lot of language but has a social communication delay so he doesn’t get SALT from the LA. The SALT has visited him at nursery a few times and put strategies in place for them to work on as well as attending team-around-the-family meetings and writing a detailed report to support the EHCP application. The playgroups are to support social communication. We waited until last week to see an LA occupational therapist but, again, they give advice but no therapy. We have private SALT and OT working with him.

Okay thank you for replying Openupmyeagereyes. It's been really helpful to hear some 'real life' experiences of what to expect.