Ds starting reception on tuesday......

[boocha]

.....and i feel so anxious and stressed for him, he only turned 4 in july and has a severe speech delay, after a lot of assessments over the last 2 years by a social and communications assessment team he was dx with a specific language inpairment, however the final report did not totally exclude asd, tbh I think they were a bit baffled by him! In some ways he is textbook asd in others not at all. His main problem I feel is his understanding, his speech has improved greatly over the past 6 months and he is now talking in 5/6 word sentences, he does have a few little quirks and can be quite obsessive and repetitive, he doesnt seem to quite 'get' how conversation works.
The team that have been involved with him though have been fantastic and we have yesterday recieved his final statement for him starting school which is 16hrs 45 mins per week along with 1.5hrs speech therapy per week, at first when the prospect of a statement was mentioned about 6 months ago we were horrified that it had come to this, now though I thank god that it will be in place!
The headmaster is ringing me tomorrow for a chat about things and he has told me already that he also has a son with a statement so I am hoping we will have a good relationship (he is also senco)
All I want is ds to be happy and to enjoy school, he wont even pick up a pencil(god knows I have tried!) but this doesnt really bother me as I know this will come in time. He is such a happy boy and always has a smile on his face, I am so scared that he just is not ready for school and that the other kids are going to be cruel to him.
I am not even sure that he even understands that he is starting school, he just replies yes every time I ask him about it.
He does half days for 3 weeks and as for having lunch at school, omg dont even go there, I am dreading it. It is all going to be ok isn't it?
Sorry for waffling I feel a bit better after putting it all down, dh is sick of me fretting!!

The foundation stage of the national curriculum is based on learning through play. When children start in reception the year is generally given over to settling them in. There will be many children from many different backgrounds and their parents will have very different ways of doing things. Teachers spend most of the reception year just bringing children to an even level. Of course that's my experience as a parent.

My daughter has SEN and I would like to add that it is important that your teacher treats your son exactly the same as everyone else. I had to prise the assistants off my daughter, they tended to mollycoddle her. I feel that this marked her out to be different. It's something you might want to think about anyway. But don't worry that he won't be able to keep up or do well.

thanks for replying mrsmarvel
I understand what you mean about mollycoddling. When ds went to 2 induction afternoons at school his teacher seemed very laid back and when I told her that ds would have a statement she didnt really seem that bothered. I was horrified but dh sees this a good thing because she wont really single him out ( I do have confidence in her though,dd also at this school)
Headmaster has also mentioned that he doesnt feel it productive if t.a. totally shadows ds as he also has to find his own way.
I just hope he is able to make friends as he cant really converse and what he can say is hard to understand.

My dd had communication problems too. It depends on the school and the children going. Her school had very verbal children but they were also quite polite and kind children so that helped. Her brother's school was different in that there were many children who were not very verbal or spoke a different language. Children with SEN fitted in more easily there because all the children were different in some way or other.

I know exactly where you are coming from. my middly starts on Thursday, he has severe speech delay, ie 2/3 words and they are intelleigble unless you know him. Am very worried as he gets very frustated because he can't make himself understood and ends up being violent to get what he wants.

we have just got a statment through which i have rejected at moment.

am lucky that there is only 10 in class and one teacher and a teaching assistant in class already plus middlys TA.

but am bricking it, don't think he is really aware what is going to happen, just hoping that the other children like him and play with him.

we have already been isolated from nursery as he never got invited to any parties beacuse he couldn't speak and was naughty was what one parent said to me i was so upset

anyway enough wish you well this week

Have that anxious feeling here too, my ds2 starts on Thursday.
He has no statement in place so the school are funding his support while his statement is sorted. I feel a bit better that we have partly cracked the potty training over the hols (fingers crossed).
Your ds's school sounds fantastic, having a school with right attitude is half the battle.

I hope he enjoys his first day

Good luck for tomorrow, Boocha.

Hi everyone
Well, thats it, first morning done and it went really well!
Ds was first into classroom and promptly fell flat on his face over the door frame going in, he picked himself up though and it didnt seem to bother him.
We now know who his t.a is and are really pleased that she has experience with communication problems and seems lovely.
Headmaster has told me that for the first 3 weeks it will be a kind of assessment period so ds wont recieve too much support because they want to know first what his strengths and weaknesses are.
Tbh he has really amazed us today with the way he has taken everything in his stride and more importantly the way he has seemed to get the gist of what was going on.
He ran out of school with a painting (well,paper with a big red blob on it!) and this is just brill because he just wont paint at home. I asked him what it was and he replied "Lightning mcqueen, kapow!" I had the biggest smile on my face until a boy walking behind us said "well it certainly doesnt look like him" you should of seen the dirty look I gave him! oops!
When we got home I gave him his school lunch box and he unwrapped everything with my help and we packed it all away again when he'd finished, I reckon if we can do this together for the first 3 weeks while he is part time he'll be ok when full time.
hope everyone else with children who started today have a good day.
All I can do is remain positive and hope everything continues as it has started.
After all the worry of the past couple of years I relly feel like a weight has been lifted , I know we are going to encounter lote of problems along the way but we can cope.

I'm so pleased that it all went well.

LOL though at the dirty look. I can just imagine it.