Primary school Auties: into 2020! - thread 4

[LightTripper]

This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of autistic children in Early Years and KS1. Most of us are parents of children in Reception or Year 1, but all welcome!

Here are the links to the previous threads:

Thread 1: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3080753-DS-with-ASD-starting-school-Sept-2018-I-am-feeling-overwhelmed

Thread 2: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3451020-Reception-auties-2018-19-thread-2

Thread 3: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3628263-Auties-transition-to-Year-1-thread-3

It snowed quite heavily here and did settle but it was all gone by lunchtime, sadly.

dimples I’m so sorry that things are not looking good for your older nephew. What’s the school’s opinion?

Big day tomorrow, I hope that it goes well

I understand what you mean about the sticker. It implies that he doesn’t behave well on other days doesn’t it, whether that was what was meant or not.

Light yes, make a separate appointment to see the SENCO. Parents evenings are ridiculously short and you won’t have time to talk about more sensitive issues. It’s a shame the TA was moved after the commitment taken to attend the course. Very odd.

Ds has mostly had a good week back at school. He had a bit of an emotional outburst this afternoon but in general it seems positive.

Reading and catching up on this thread, have been popping in to see how everyone is getting on but not managed to compose a contribution for ages.

Hope today went well *dimples"! Very exciting

DD had peadiatric appointment today re twitching, thinks it might be absence seizures but could be something to do with discomfort of tonsils (they are permanently huge). We're all really tired and run down here which doesn't help!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Will try to catch up more properly soon!

Thanks LittleSwede and Open it was a very special day.

DS has also been flagged as potentially having absence seizures but I think it was decided that he just zones out in quite an extreme way

How exciting @dimples76! I am full on coldy lurg bleurg! DS came home today with a note in his bag from a girl in his class who has taken to making sure he's ok saying that she loves him! Very sweet. We're off to the space centre tomorrow, hope you all have good weekends!

Sorry @dimples76 I meant exciting about the adoption not the seizures, that be worrying.

Little I hope it’s not seizures. Will they run some tests?

dimples 💖 did you give her the book? How old is she?

Lottie what a cute note. Enjoy the space centre.

A pretty good first week back here. Ds seems to be getting on fine with the new afternoon TA.

I got the reading program that I ordered today, I’m quite excited by it all

Lottie that is so cute!

Open she's 7 months. We have not given the book yet as we have to wait until panel.

DS had a friend to play after school. I am absolutely exhausted. He has brought another crazy spellings list home - prophet, Christopher, phonics amongst others -cue another note to school.

dimples I hope you were able to relax after the play date! Those are tricky spellings, did the school agree for him to learn 5 per week instead of 10?

Ds has found his last group of spellings more difficult and is not doing as well on Squeebles as previously. His attention is the main issue I think as he doesn’t always look at the word properly before it disappears. These are much simpler words than yours though.

We had a good play date after school on Monday. No fighting about toys as the whole thing was superhero role play that my friend and I had to join in

On Sunday Ds went to a clip’n’climb session. He enjoyed it, though did not climb up very far, and we will go back again. We need to work more on his strength.

Hi everyone, lost the trail of the thread a bit! Hope everyone is ok?

Spelling lists sound difficult. I remember hating doing spelling at school. Definitely a useful life skill though.

Ds seems to be having a good time at the moment apparently he was giving all the girls a lift round the playground on a bike yesterday. He was also taking turns setting up and bowling and playing with another boy which is lovely.
It's only 3 weeks till he has his first settle at the new school!

Also 9 months after his annual review I FINALLY got his amended plan back yesterday! Now I have to think about applying for transport etc.

I hope your meeting with new DD was good dimples: when is the panel? So exciting, I hope she is with you soon!

The panel sounds very hard though. When do you hear back? Is there anything more you can do if it doesn't go the right way for older DN?

That sounds great work by DS on the turn-taking Liv?

Play date sounds good open! DD is very into super-heroes at the moment: she wants to be Superhero Yasmin for WBD tomorrow (from a book we got from the library, that probably none of her friends will have heard of but DD will be happy!).

Hope the lurgy is passing Lottie. I have one too and feel like a bit of a pariah though I am 100% convinced it is a normal cold, not corona, but still I feel very self conscious if I'm out or about with it, and washing my hands so much my skin is getting dry! How was the Space Centre? Is that the one in Leicester? We have cousins with similar age kids who live in Leicester, I keep thinking we should find a way to all go together....

We had a good meeting with the SENCO and Head. Apparently the issue is sometimes DD loses focus, and then gets upset if she's missed something, or the teacher moves on and she hasn't finished the work. School are going to try to find a time for her to finish it later, and we'll try to talk to her about it not mattering so much about finishing (though honestly finishing stuff is a big thing for DD, as it is for me, and I don't know how much luck we'll have with that! But hopefully being able to finish later will be fine....) They also have an OT coming soon to make suggestions for a few of the kids so we are adding DD to the list and will see if she has any ideas for what might help.

That sounds positive at school Light. Get the needing to complete things too!

That sounds like a great playdate Open. On reflection I should have structured DS's more - I was going to bake with them but they seemed happy to do their thing at the start and I became complacent.

That sounds like great play Liv. 11 months on and still waiting for current version of EHCP. We have annual review next week.

Speaking to DS's friend's Mum yesterday evening I'm not the only one frustrated re the spellings. DS is struggling to read this week's list and most are not words he uses/is familiar with. I'm not going to practice spelling them - just reading them and understanding their meaning.

liv hurrah for getting final EHCP through! Maybe this means I’ll get ours next month

Light glad the meeting went well and they are going to make some adjustments for dd.

dimples that sounds like a reasonable approach. They don’t even seem like particularly useful words from a writing point of view.

I hope world book day went well for all. Ds’ morning TA came out to talk to me. She had been in his class all day and said he did really well and enjoyed all the activities so I’m really pleased.

Glad you had a good meeting with the SENCO light and great they are getting an OT in.
How much longer can dd stay at the school? Does it finish in year 2?

Maybe you'll get a final copy issued before the annual review dimples! Hope everything goes well with the pane for your possible dd! Very exciting.

Open I ended up quoting the code of practice at them so they would issue! They should send a final version within 8 weeks of the letter agreeing to amend. But when have the LA ever really followed the law
Good that ds had a good day.

All ok here. The new school are coming to visit ds at the current school on Monday, which is exciting.
I also had to apply for transport, so it will be interesting to see when/if that's going to happen. I doubt it will be sorted before he starts next term but maybe I will pleasantly surprised!

liv I hope the visit from the new school went well. Did you get any feedback from anyone? What did ds think about it?

How is everyone coping with everything that's happening? I hope dc are not anxious.

I have bought some stocks of some of ds' foods. As he literally only eats a few specific things I was concerned about what would happen if I couldn't get them (dh and I will eat anything obviously). Unfortunately I can't do this with everything he eats but at least we have something.

Trying to remain in the 'alert but not anxious' frame of mind here!

Yes, finishes in Year 2 liv. I'm hoping she and DS can move to the same school (he will be starting Reception the same year as she starts Year 2).

I hope the new school visit went well for you!! How is DS feeling about the move?

Yes "alert but anxious" is the aim here too Open though I'm probably spending too much time reading about it. One of our US offices was just shut as they have a case. A bright side of the small school (which obviously has plenty of downsides!) is that there are no older kids to put the fear in the younger ones. DD has been spontaneously coughing into her elbow (which they taught her at school apparently) and they are both washing hands more - but neither of them seem too worried yet luckily. I haven't been telling them too much to be honest as there is nothing they can do anyway. DS has threadworms so it's an excellent excuse to emphasise the importance of hand washing to them both in a not too scary way!

We have stocked up a bit, and I also just ordered a printer for home (which I'd been meaning to do for ages: but if I'm forced to work from home for any length of time I will get very annoyed not having one, and I have had too many unsuccessful attempts to get our old one working again, I am going to give up!) Luckily I still had some Amazon vouchers left from my 20 year work anniversary, so it seemed appropriate to spend some of those on it (oooh, the glamour!)

Main concern is for elderly relies but they all seem to be taking precautions and being sensible so I just have to keep everything crossed... This website has some good ideas about preparations you can make: sort of worrying and reassuring in equal measure, but the woman who wrote it was a virologist and seems sensible:
www.flattenthecurve.com/

I'm definitely spending too much time reading about it! I had a meeting this morning but otherwise have done precious little else today but that and drink coffee

Dh tells me that apparently human tests have started on a vaccine which was developed several weeks ago (he works in pharmaceuticals).

Ds kicked his TA yesterday morning, poor woman. He told me he got upset because he wanted to come home. He had been outside for about 45 minutes apparently. He said he didn't today but I won't know until I see the TA again tomorrow morning.

Oh and buying stuff on Amazon... expensive Dettol wipes (even though I have bleach and disinfectant here!) amongst other things.

I did realise that I had the potential to make my own hand sanitiser gel though. I have about a third of a bottle of surgical spirit (left over from a Clutterbug 'magic milk' recipe) and some aloe vera gel

We have EHCP annual review tomorrow - just got hold of last year's (meeting in April, apparently finalised in November and shared with me March). Felt a bit down reading it as I don't feel that DS has made much progress in the areas which were highlighted as most significant - social skills, self care and motor skills. I feel like the short term targets will just remain the same.

That’s disappointing dimples but he’s made lots of progress in other areas hasn’t he? Try and make a positive list for yourself.

Good luck for the review.

Thanks Open. I know he really has developed in other ways. What I'm wondering is whether school/me/other services could be doing something more/different or if I need to adjust my expectations of him.

dimples maybe both?

I am sure that you're right Open. Meeting was fine, no nasty surprises and it is clear that he is held in great affection by the staff. I am ready for bed!

The meeting with the new school went well, apparently they were really impressed by how well ds was able to communicate verbally, which is good. The class TA said his new teacher seemed lovely.

Have you chosen the new school light?

I have my fingers firmly in my ears about it all. To be honest the only thing we HAVE to have in the house is milk, as it's pretty much all ds lives on and it's quite hard to stockpile . I have bought some UHT milk but I'm not sure ds will be impressed with that at all!

Open how was ds with the TA today?

Glad the meeting went ok dimples. We found that with ds at his last annual review, although he seemed to have made loads of progress the actual targets in the EHCP hadn't quite been met. I think it also went in hand with a random regression ds had at the end of the summer term, where he started head banging again.

Glad that school meetings have gone well dimples and liv.

Ds had a good day yesterday but a couple of issues today. He hit a boy from his class for no apparent reason than to, perhaps, get a reaction. He has also been leaving the class without waiting for permission. Today he ran off, went outside and hid from the TA. She found him in the greenhouse, it must have really worried her.

He seems to be going through a period of testing boundaries a bit!