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!

Euro millions won in the uk tonight, 170 million. not me I'm afraid. I won £2.90.

If anyone has the lucky ticket remember I said last week I'd share with you all ok so might not of wrote it but I was thinking it

170 million open can you imagine the states of our amazon baskets?!

@LightTripper thats the impression i am getting that they appear very defensive. Thing is if staff feel vunerable about my concerns they must feel have something to be vunerable for. One of the thing sendiass isn't haply with is the fact that school continue to say even after diagnosis that ds has no needs apart from his soiling and that ds was fully toilet trained in june even after the incontinence nurse has said this has never been the case.

danni I didn’t win either! I had a dream last night that someone gave me £2m so I was hopeful...

What’s in your Amazon basket at the moment? Books in mine - Charlotte’s Web and The Borrowers. I’ve started to buy some classics for reading with ds though not sure he’s ready for chapter books yet.

Harley I would be asking the same questions, you are just looking out for your child. And even if he was fully toilet trained in June they need to understand that regressions happen. My ds was mostly dry at night when he started school. Since then he has not been. We had a couple of good weeks in July and I was hopeful but that’s it again.

I have spent some time this week reviewing the work I want to do at home with ds and organising the (many) workbooks I’ve bought into the order that I want to use them. I also reorganised the groups of words to review for phonics, making sure all the high frequency words are included.

He used the Squeebles app for the first time yesterday. I set a timer for 5 mins and he seemed to find it fun once he got going though I expect to have to bribe him to use it each time. He will need to learn to look carefully at the word before it disappears and then remember the letters rather than trying to spell it phonetically. He also needs to learn where letters are on the qwerty keyboard. As well as spelling I think it will teach him valuable skills including that the iPad can be used for more than YouTube and photos!

Glad the incontinence nurse was on your side Harley.
It does not sound like you have done anything wrong. The school is being defensive because they know they are failing your child and are trying to make you feel bad for doing what any reasonable parent would!

Danni that is so sweet about the post swimming phonecall. It sounds like the school are doing a much better job for your ds this year.

I'd never heard the term 'back chaining' before jeb. It makes total sense.

Hope your ds is ok today dimples.

It sounds like your dd is doing so well this year light.
*
Open* you sound so organised! Puts me to shame.

After having a horrendous week last week we did a massive change at home and cut TV/screen time down to about 3-4hours a day including on the weekend. It's been tough but ds seems to be liking the new structure overall and is behaving much better at school. So hopefully we've sussed it until the next massive development leap!

I'm going to a conference on keeping SEN children's siblings safe from violence this weekend, will pass on anything useful!

Sounds like you have a lot of third party evidence on your side Harley. I don't know how much it helps practically but hopefully it helps keep you sane when the school seem to be trying to persuade you that you're being unreasonable! Maybe just keep a short list of all the actual facts like this on a post-it somewhere that you can look at for reassurance if you're ever feeling bad?

Bad luck on the Lottery danni and open. I actually won £10 in the second ever week it was running: really should have left it there . I used to play it when I knew I'd see the result on TV but now we only really watch recorded stuff so I never see the results and only buy tickets really rarely (if I happen to see a rollover!) I just play the UK one as I don't even know what I'd do with £170m. That's a lot of junk on Amazon!! And they really don't need any more of my money .

Hope everyone had a good night. DS seems to have got back in the habit of staying in his bed and only comes in to me once OH has gone to work (so after 6.15) - bliss!

Bed times are up and down but DD is still happy. They've got a drumming thing in school today, which she wouldn't go near last year. This year I've sent her in with ear defenders and I'm hoping she'll at least watch even if she doesn't want to drum herself! We'll see.

Let us know how the screen experiment and conference goes Liv. I do always feel that behaviour here (DD and DS) is so much better if we're out of the house for at least half the day at the weekends. It's so tempting to have a "lazy day" at home, but it doesn't really work unless I come up with loads of activities so often it's less effort to just go swimming or to the library or something. I'm hoping as they get older we can start to have some lazy days with just a bit of crafting or a movie or something. I remember loving those days when I was a kid .... but I was probably older!

I will reply to everyone in a while when i have more time. I just had to come on and say ds had a poo on the toilet whoop whoop!!!

YASSS!!!! Go DS!!

He just did it again!! Well proud of him!!!

Everything I just typed disappeared when I accidentally tapped the wrong button...

So here is an abbreviated version!

Dimples hope your DS had a good day and stayed awake throughout the school day.

Liv the course sounds really interesting! Hope the new routine helps your DS.

Danni so lovely of the school to call re swimming lesson.

Open like the sound of the squeebles app! Hope it helps DS with spellings etc. Sounds like you've got lots if books and strategies to help him.

Will type a second message as scared of loosing it all again

Harley yay for your DS pooping in the toilet!

Jeb like the sound of back-chaining! Will try it.

Light sounds like your DD is doing really well with getting into school and putting things in right places.

DD is doing ok still, the dinner ladies are 'looking after me' she told me yesterday, so presumably she's being given done extra attention. We have our first non uniform day tomorrow! Will see how it goes... It's Hello Yellow for World Mental Health day so I've suggested she wears her Yellow Hey Duggie sweater, which she loves

Harley that’s brilliant news!

Little so annoying when that happens.

Yes, I have lots of books, a subscription to Twinkl and I love watching home ed videos on YouTube for ideas and information. the tricky bit is getting him to cooperate! For most of his reception year he refused to do any phonics practice at home. It was only really the last month or so of last term that he started allowing it so I’ve capitalised on that and try to do a couple of different activities with him daily - phonics, maths, writing and now spelling too with homework at weekends.

I hope non uniform day goes ok. My ds is fine with it but I know many aren’t.

Light I hope drumming went well. Great that ds is sleeping better.

liv I’m glad ds is having a better week. I hope your conference is good.

Ds had a great morning at school but was very tired by pick up and I had trouble getting him to the car because he was fussing about something in school that he wanted.

At dinner time he did some phonics and blended the 10 words I gave him really easily. I can’t wait for him to actually read his first word. I’m hoping it won’t be long.

Open the squeebles app is it the £3.99 one? Is it a one off fee or monthly? Just checking I'm getting the right one.

Ds is ok with non uniform, I could dress him in a bin bag and he would neither notice or care.

Well done harleys boy

Little swede have you heard the hey duggee stick song? YouTube it

danni it’s Squeebles spelling test. Just a one-off cost as far as I know.

You set up your own lists and record the sounds and other messages.

Our day didn't start to well. I was roused from a deep sleep at 04:30 by DS shining a torch in my face. First school run with the four without any violence (between them!). Liv sounds like I need that course.

Open it sounds like you might get your wish soon.

Good luck with non-uniform day LittleSwede

Light sounds your daughter is getting v good at school routines.

Oh dear dimples, I hope you had a better start today and that the school run is going ok.

We’ve had a rubbish week of sleep, another 3:30 start this morning. Dh and I are trying to brainstorm what we can do about it. We can only hope it’s developmental and he settles down a bit soon.

Oh, and I’ve just ordered a wobble cushion for him to use at home. I’m hoping it will help him to sit better at the kitchen table for meals and for when we do homework.

Does anyone else have one?

I wish I could take the two of them out of the house on my own light, I definitely think it would help. Ds needs pretty much 2:1 when we are out though as he's still a runner. It's also very upsetting for dd to think we're going to do something then have to turn around and come home because ds can't cope. Hoping as they get older it will be easier.
I remember quite tv days being really great too.

Great news Harley.

Good luck with non-uniform day today littleswede!

That's great about ds's progress, not so great about the sleeping. I think there's a chapter I. 'Fall down seven times get up eight' where he talks about his early morning wake ups.

Dimples hope you got a better night's sleep and no violence this morning.

So I did two school visits yesterday. One local mainstream with great SEN support but a 4 form intake. It was lovely but I can't really see ds in a school that big.
In the afternoon I saw the autism school. It was amazing! They split primary into similar needs and academic ability then in secondary they have two wings, one for more academically able children and one for more severely affected children. They then have a post 16 programme as well, including a mini bedsit flat where they can practice life skills.
It's now all I can think about!

I had lots of compliments from the school yesterday about ds's behaviour, which means the new rules at home are doing the trick. Having said that ds was quite violent yesterday when screen time finished and seemed very disregulated this morning, so not sure what today will bring.

liv the school sounds great, do they have spaces available?

I’ll take a look at the book, thanks. I have it on my kindle.

Yes I hadn't really thought properly Liv - because we're both only around at weekends we're pretty much always 2:2 which is OK (DS is a bit of a risk taker but DD isn't any more - this time last year even 2:2 often didn't feel enough!) Hopefully the running will calm down or they'll get easier to deal with at home (or both!)

Very promising on the schools though! I also worry about DD in a big school setting although the advantage is that there are so many kids they should know DS's "type" and there should be some other like minded kids for him to hang out with. It's a tradeoff between sensory and social, and I guess you can only make it on a "what's best for now" basis and see how it goes.

Did DS go with you to both visits? That's probably quite a big day for him if so ... hopefully he'll settle soon. What would you need to do to get into the SEN school?

Sorry about the early start dimples and open. I'm a bit sleep deprived but it's my own fault because I worked very late and then my mind was wound up and kept whirring until about 3am. I was probably just dropping off as you were being woken up! DS came in before 7 so I'm fully caffeinated today....

They only opened in September so they are adding more spaces over the next two years. So currently they have 70 kids but will increase to over 100 in the next two years, plus movement between the years so hopefully there is a chance he could get a space next year.

That's exciting! Will you go for it do you think?