Primary school auties: summer and beyond - thread 5

[openupmyeagereyes]

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

Thread 4
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3748449-Primary-school-Auties-into-2020-thread-4

Yep that's the one! 😂

Absolutely unbelievable.

I said what I needed to say on there and not posting anymore, not wasting anymore of my energy!

Anyway welcome to this thread we aren't like that on here x

Hi everyone! Our first OT assessment went ok via video chat, DS coped well, but tired him out so lots of science experiments and sensory play for most of the rest of the day! Added parent comments to the EHCNA so that is done. Parents of NT kids have no idea how much we do to advocate for our kids and how hard they have to work just to process this NT world.
Special interest here is still colour mixing, managed to get some soaps that change colour which has made DS very happy, although now getting him out of a soapy bath is now quite difficult!! We have a first wobbly tooth too, which DS has responded to by eating ice...burgh goes right through me!

Lots of posts, will try and read back through them.

Welcome to the thread Realityofsen. I went and had a look at the AIBU thread, an interesting read. I think many people are sympathetic but there are always those who just cannot empathise or see past the end of their nose because they have never had to think about it. My yr1 ds has an EHCP and has been off school throughout. Initially this was our choice (I say that but we were never actually asked if we wanted him to attend) but as his funded 1:1 support has been deployed to one of the bubbles he can’t go back even if we wanted him to. His funding has enabled at least 8 of his classmates to return to school though I doubt any of their parents are aware of that fact.

We have had another difficult week getting school work done. Yesterday he read a reading book with me and did one task before refusing to do any more. Sigh.

Open how is ds with his reading now? X

Sorry that the toilet paper didn't work Danni! It is so frustrating.

Welcome Reality

Open sorry it's been tough. Even though DS will only have been in for 4 weeks when the hols start it has been great respite for me.

DS seems to have gone on reading strike since returning to school (which I know they're not doing at school). I'm going to have another try now - he is currently playing Christmas songs on Alexa. Wish me luck!

Ds is still on level 1 (he reads red at home) they haven't actually given him a reading book since January - they give him pink band at school (I remember it was the week he turned 6 they last sent one home) Liberty! He has his annual review 2 days after he goes back in year 2 it's being mentioned because I don't think it's at all acceptable.

I do the Julia Donaldson I bought at home but he prefers to tear the pages out.

There's a level 5 book in that set open about cats, more milk or something it's called, Mr and Mrs green are the characters, anyway it's that one I'm talking about.

He read that really well one day. Few hiccups but overall I was suprised, but then any of those other books in that level he hasn't a scooby.

Typical.

danni maybe it’s the cats that appealed. Ds loves cats too, he wants a white kitten. You will have to get a collection of cat books

I’ve been doing the Bear Necessities programme with him for 4 months now and his reading has really come on. I’m trying to combine that with the typical phonics that the school teaches as it does have some different di and trigraph sounds. I’ve been taking him through the letters and sounds tricky words too. It’s strange, he’s struggling to pick up some of the last phase 3 and phase 5 phonemes yet is learning the tricky words within a week or so. I don’t really get why that is.

He’s been so resistant to reading books at home and flat out refused Biff, Chip et al (Bear Necessities has its own pages of dialogue as well as lists of words and sounds) but a couple of months ago I subscribed to Reading Chest and he’s been reading these a bit. Anyway, I dug out our OT books and realised that he should be able to read the L3 books based on what he’s reading in BN (possibly beyond that but I thought we’d start with these). When he’ll try he’s reading these with minimal support which is great (I always alternate pages with him to help encourage him). Though when I asked him this morning he said ‘I don’t want to read these, they’re boring’. Not true as he finds them quite funny when he’ll deign to have a go and wants to re-read those he’s already read 🙄. The problem is he quickly learns them by heart and then isn’t really reading.

dimples in truth he’s generally fine except for trying to get school work done. Oh and except for the sleeping. I was just hoping we could make progress with his academics during lock down. We definitely have but it’s been limited to about 45ish minutes a day and we could have achieved more if we could do even 60-90 mins which is not much in the scheme of a 15 hour day.

danni I’ve told the SENco that I EHCP needs to have a target reading level in it for the end of the year.

Good luck dimples. Ds has been watching Christmas and Halloween videos on YT and informing us of all the tat that we must get!

Danni DS read No Milk Today last week too. I do like the Songbirds book they seem much better at helping children get to grips with the same sound. I did get DS to read and he did pretty well. We're now having a Christmas sing a long and dance - our poor neighbours!

Yes ds ehcp isn't worth the paper it's written on the targets are so shit.

It needs completely re writing.

It's things like ds will sit for story time for 2 minutes or more. And the way to achieve this is give him a fiddle stick on the carpet and a 2 minute sand timer. Nothing academical at all really.

I love how low the expectations of him are!

They didn't change his ehcp at all last year just left it the same old shit.

Baring in mind it was written when he was 4, at the next review he will be nearly 7 & it hasn't been changed since it was written just slightly tweaked, so if they think for 1 minute they are leaving it again or doing bare minimum changes they can fuck off!

danni I have never been happy with ds’ educational targets, they were far to narrow and easy. This year I told the SENco that these need to be more comprehensive. I hope that we’ll end up with something like he will work within a year of age related expectations. Have weekly 1:1 time with his teacher, have a target reading level and have planned short, structured work tasks to address any learning gaps in the core subjects. That sort of thing.

I would have a think about what you think is stretching but achievable for him with some effort on their part and ask for it to be included. Use the curriculum as your back up.

And your ds’ writing and drawing is ahead of mine. Ds has started to draw stick people and write names and short caption type words. He’s doing really well IMO

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/01/english-schools-using-coronavirus-as-excuse-not-to-teach-special-needs-pupils

Welcome to the thread @Realityofsen !

@Danni, have you tried "Splat the Cat"? We started getting them as audiobooks from the library, but they do reading books too. DD quite liked them. They are quite fun to read and each book seems to focus on a couple of different sounds so there are lots of rhyming words. Maybe DS would like them if he likes cats?

Hello everyone sorry i keep disappearing this years not really been our year we tested positive for the virus few weeks ago thankfully we all had a mild case.

I wanted to pop on and tell you all 3 attempts 4 complaints and endless fighting later. The LA are finally accepting ds needs and doing a ehcp assessment i know we still have a long way to go but those that know what we have been though will understand how this is a massive victory for us. Thank you for all that have supported us during the horrible time.
I will definitely check in properly later. Thanks again everyone for the support

Thanks light I'll look into that, hadn't heard of those books x

Good to hear about the LA harley x

Right I'm in a situation and I need your advice, I've got a feeling school are trying to pull a fast one and only have ds back part time from September or some kind of reduced hours (which is not not not happening)

No one has mentioned his 1-1 arrangements for September & I've been asking every few days was thinking it was a bit weird no one has said anything as I usually know early June but figured all this school closed stuff would of delayed planning classes etc but he breaks up next week so starting to wonder what they were doing, so this morning I asked again & she said he's got mrs xxxx (a new one!) so I said oh morning or afternoon? And who's with him other part of the day? She looked at me a bit shifty and said oh I don't know anymore for the minute miss xxxx (head teacher) will probs be in touch at some point when everything has been finalised. So I said why? etc. Headteacher never speaks to me.

So I said I need to know what's going on obvs as he breaks up in a few days, so she said we are having a staff meeting tomorrow night so I'll hopefully be able to let you know more after that.

Then I said ok and what are his start and finishing times? (he's been on 9.30-2.30 during this bullshit and I didn't want that to continue) and she said I've no idea atm maybe part time!!!! In other words part time no maybe about it.

Having a fucking laugh. I just said oh no I'm not having him part time and then she looked a bit shocked.

Even with this corona shit that's not legal is it?? also what I'm wanting to know, is, if all the other children are full time and ds is reduced hours then that's disability discrimination isn't it? (Which technically his school have been doing to him for the full 2 years he's attended because he's never done a FULL day at school always 9.15 till 3 or 9.30-2.30 when his school hours are actually 8.40am till 3.20pm.

Things is his schools part time hours are 9.30-11.30/12 like he did the full reception year.

Just not having it.

Once they have given me his proposed hours which I'm not accepting who do I contact? LA? My MP? Who do I ask for?

Thanks, be back later x

Also when I asked a fortnight ago they were having a staff meeting then. I think she tells me that to shut me up

I've a feeling and my mum agreed they are going to give me his hours (reduced) on the last day of term so I can't do anything about it........

I mean there is a reason I'm cynical with them isn't there!

It's technically an illegal exclusion what they are doing to him now. I've just been on I think it was ipsea website and it said even a child starting and finishing later than other children is an illegal exclusion if the parent hasn't agreed to it, and believe me I didn't agree to it, I got an email (which I still have) which just said ds hours from 1st June 9.30-2.30 no consulting me about it.

All other kids attending there usual 6.5 hours a day, ds on 5 hours..

@danni0509 from what i can gather from September they legally have to take all children full time. The government haa stated that they won't accept part time or partial closes its litreally all back to business as it should. I haven't seen much about the relaxed ehcp laws for September though.

Anyway you all know the score with ds school and his hours I been banging on for 2 years to you all

I'm clued up with ds just not on legal stuff other than basic things, What do I do? Who do I contact etc? XX

danni have you ever spoken to your local SENDIASS team? I can’t remember.

I’m pretty sure it’s not legal for him to be part time. I would be seeking advice from SENSIASS, IPSEA or SOS!SEN. The Special Needs Jungle website is often recommend for advice too.

Harley I’m glad you have all had mild cases of CV19. Many congratulations on the agreement to assess.