Auties transition to Year 1 - thread 3

[LightTripper]

This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of autistic children in reception year at school, going into Year 1 in the autumn. All welcome (also parents with older or younger children who want to ask questions or share their wisdom!)

Welcome!

Harley it's so sad to hear your ds being so unhappy. it's worrying that other parents are noticing whilst the school are turning a blind eye and just not cooperating with you. I have no idea what to suggest further but if school can't provide then it's time to look at other options perhaps. All children have a right to thrive, be happy, healthy and develop at school and it sounds as if this isn't happening for your DS. In the ideal world there would be someone at the LA/SEND department who could support with this situation and guide you towards the next step but I really don't know if this is the case in reality. If school can't provide then the next step is EHCP, but this can take 20 weeks plus. What to do in the meantime? I teach kids who are waiting for EHCP, named schools and specialist provision but I don't know the path they are on and how it all works (I should know really!). Hope the weekend brings s restful break for you all and maybe some

Apologies about paragraph fail...

Harley that must be awful to hear. Do you have a meeting set up with school and SENDIASS yet?

LittleSwede it's hard when you can't get a clear picture of what is happening at school isn't it. DS's school are not that great at communication. I emailed the other day to ask for a copy of DS's current short term SEN support plan but nothing so far.

That is tough Harley - but I'm glad the other parents are being supportive and school have hopefully stopped making a big deal on uniform at least. In the end, what can they do? They cannot really exclude him due to non-uniform without breaching disability discrimination protections I would have thought/hoped? I hope you can get your SENDIASS meeting set up soon.

We had our first Early Bird Plus today. Not bad. Out of 5 families there 3 had girls, so that was a pleasant surprise as it would be great to know some more parents of girls on the spectrum nearby. The course itself felt a bit old-fashioned (e.g. a couple of references to "mindblindness" which I think is being rethought, and also several references to how "we" think versus "them" which seemed to overlook that a couple of slides before they had said autism is genetic: so high chance that there will be autistic parents in the room!) A lot of the materials were exactly the same as on our local authority course last year.

But actually the trainers seemed good and generally positive. I wrote an essay on my feedback form because I literally cannot help myself ... but apologised when I handed it in and told the leaders I'd enjoyed it so hopefully they won't hate me .

Actually the main benefit was getting some time to talk to DD's TA. It turns out he has an adult son on the spectrum so it was interesting to hear his experiences too, and he seemed to be getting ideas about ways to support DD in the playground, and it was just nice to hear some sides of DD and her school experience that we don't otherwise hear about (parents evening is so short! And Year 1 is so different anyway!)

Little I’m glad dd enjoyed her party and her birthday. Hopefully you can find out exactly what’s happening at lunch and your dd can recharge over the weekend.

Harley not a stupid question. It’s sensory circuits. Here’s some blurb from t’internet:

‘Sensory Circuits is a fantastic new programme of physical activities that provide regular and controlled input to specific sensory-motor systems enabling children to be energised or calmed so that they can get the most out their day’

I’m sorry that your ds is so sad at school. The sooner you can speak to them the better. I can’t remember if you’ve been in touch with the LA’s area SENCO? Are SENDIASS still going to attend a meeting with you?

Light I’m glad aspects of the course are useful and that you have someone experienced able to help support your dd in school. I don’t know if I mentioned that ds’ class have a new TA who has a 21 yo ds with ASC? she told me that ds is just like her son. I haven’t talked much to her yet but I’m sure she would have a lot of advice.

Ds had a great day at school today including doing really well in the family assembly.

This morning he slept until 6am! He initially woke about 3:45 and I thought that was it but after about 15 mins I got him back to sleep. Unfortunately it took dh and I a bit of time to go back to sleep but it was nice not to be woken only 30 minutes later.

@dimples76 the incontinence nurse contacted school monday to arrange a date for the meeting am still waiting to here.

@LittleSwede i think ds would be better suited to a sen school. The school don't actually seem to disagree with me on this. When my older ds was at primary he has autism too the school was very clear mainstreams fine now for 5 year old ds they haven't said the same. They are still saying theres not enough evidence for an ehcp i am currently working though adjustments and more detail for the ehcp request i am doing.
@openupmyeagereyes i have spoken to the la senco and to them mainstream wise hes in the best school for sen needs and they won't discuss sen school but i do wonder if thats because school has a high number of sen pupils but a low number of ehcp plans againts national averages.

Ds came out of school and broke down into tears i calmed him down and he did it a further twice. I decided not to ask him anything just let him chill. My friends dc told me that he'd been in his own world alot today and very confused. I didn't even ask her my friend said just take dc to meeting they will tell them everything she can't help herself 🤣

Well I didn't win the euro millions tonight

I had some big plans for that money !

Watch this, you may of already heard about it! Amazing.

I watched that then spent yesterday afternoon YouTubing kodi, and he needed dressing and everything when he was 11. I watched a video his mum said he had 30 tantrums a day at that age etc etc.

Then he wins America's got talent this year when he was 22!

This is his final song with Leona Lewis. Bloody brilliant, I'm so pleased he won!

And yes I cried lots yesterday watching those.

Ooh, danni will watch tomorrow.

What plans did you have for the Euromillions?

Harley have you told the area SENCO how this best school are treating your ds? It’s appalling and it sounds like there’s more than enough grounds for a needs assessment.

Just the usual open, buy load of shit from amazon, open a few autism schools, hire a behavioural therapist to move in and sort ds out

I got one number....

buy load of shit from amazon

Thanks for posting those videos danni, I hadn’t heard anything about it. Their faces when they heard him sing for the first time. I love that they all went up onto the stage at the end to meet him too, I don’t know how typical that is. Maybe they do when the golden buzzer is used. Wonderful.

Oh my goodness, Kodi made me cry happy years! He is absolutely gorgeous!!!

I recently read an interview with Greta Thunberg's mum Malena Ehrnman (she's a famous opera singer/public figure in Sweden) and she spoke about how at the age of 14, Greta was shut in her room, struggling with an eating disorder and coming to terms with ASD diagnosis. Two years later Greta now describes her Asperger's (she uses this term) as her 'super power' and how it's helped her to focus on her environmental campaign and helped to inspire thousands of school children to support her cause.

Greta is amazing. Love the Kodi video too. He obviously loves performing and he is so good!!

DD had her friend over to stay last night so am currently sat in bed with three children while they watch Superwings on the ipad... Top parenting skills!!

You’re brave Light, I hope they had a good time.

Early start here though dh got up with him today.

Have a funny one. Ds in supermarkets likes to hide on shelves. Yesterday in tescos ds took it one step further and decided to climb in a fridge and open a packet of cakes 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️😂

Hello all! Can I join? My DS has just started Reception and only turned 4 in August. He was referred to early help by preschool and we had an ed psych and speech therapist assessment over the summer. It came back saying neurological difference, but as he has an intent to communicate and a sense of humour, wasnt judged to meet the threshold for asd diagnosis, although us and school pretty much think it's this!! He finds the noise hard in the classroom but enjoys it overall and joins in with painting, drawing, stories etc which we are happy about. The class started phonics this week,however,and he just couldn't cope. The problem is, on a 1 to 1 basis, he recognises letters and numbers and can count. But the listening and quick response times needed for the phonics session are too much for him, the teacher said, and he just keeps shouting 'what are they doing'? (One of his learned phrases!) So the ta is doing other stuff with him but now I'm worried about him not learning stuff. He's so bright but I don't think the teacher always sees it because he's less verbal and more sensory at school (repeated phrases, spinning mostly). But his long term memory is insanely accurate although he struggles with processing things. Anyway, just wanted to say hi!

Oh dear Harley, a new development!

Welcome Lottie. Can you talk to them about slowing down language for him? If the TA is helping him then that’s good. It may just take him a bit of time to get into the swing of things.

but as he has an intent to communicate and a sense of humour, wasnt judged to meet the threshold for asd diagnosis

This seems strange to me. All the children I know with ASC, and all those on this thread, communicate and have an intention to do so. My ds also has a very good sense of humour. He’s still autistic. It makes you wonder where they get their information from.

Harley did it take you long to find him?!? Well done DS for identifying the cakes so quickly and accurately though ... good priorities! I hope it wasn't too awful coaxing him out and dealing with any fall out!

Welcome Lottie - I agree with open, DD also has an intent to communicate and a sense of humour - what a strange thing for them to say? Modern thinking on autism is more about communicating differently rather than not communicating (in fact I was getting teary at the weekend watching a YouTube channel I follow where their 3yo non-verbal DS was communicating using an iPad app and also spelling out words with cards - just shows how wrong our assumptions about what communication should look like can be!) He may be non-verbal but nobody can say that boy isn't communicating, and I've seen him messing around with his parents and laughing - so does that make him not autistic because he has intent to communicate and can joke around?

I do wonder whether there are a lot of boys who have what is currently thought of as a more "female" presentation (very verbal, trying to fit in, but often overwhelmed) who don't get picked up... I would think it's worth pursuing further. What is his school like? Do they have good ideas about how to support him and make the phonics sessions less overwhelming? Maybe the TA could be doing phonics with him somewhere quieter and at a slower pace?

@LightTripper luckily he was easy to spot. And definitely had priorities right although i don't think the tesco worker agrees with that. The little monkey wouldn't stay out he climbed in 3 times in bed i had to walk away. We ended up coming home with only 2 items for there i had to go on my own shopping again yesterday 😂.

Harley Tesco were trialing a sunflower lanyard for invisible disabilities in Hertfordshire, I’m not sure if or when they plan on rolling it out nationwide. It may help staff to be a bit more understanding when they do. I have a friend with a ds that is quite challenging in these situations and it would definitely be useful for her.

I haven’t taken ds to do a big shop since he stopped wanting to sit in the trolley, which he did quite happily for years - I was very lucky. Now the biggest problem is the toy aisle rather than cakes for us. We tend to take him only if we are willing to buy him something as a treat.

danni how are the full days going for ds? I hope you’re enjoying your down time during the day.

Another early start here (3:30), I took this one. Hopefully ds got enough sleep for him to get through school without sleeping. Yesterday he slept through until 5:30ish, I wish he could do that every day.

Sorry been really struggling to keep up with this at the moment! We've been having some awful behaviour from ds recently, including throwing a chair at a TA today. I only heard from his 1:1 and the school have not contacted me about it yet, which I'm dreading. I'm hoping that it is just a phase or developmental stage.

I'm currently looking for new schools for him but nothing seems quite right. Going to an autism specialist school next week so hopefully that might be more appropriate.

I hope everyone else is getting on ok.

Hi Lottie.