Starting primary school 2023

[LDB0383]

Inspired by another thread… our 3 year old is awaiting a MDT assessment for autism. She is due to start in reception class next September and I’m really apprehensive about how she will manage. I’m aware of the challenges that are ahead and have created this thread as a place of support for others in the same situation 🙂

Hi! We are in the same boat, we are awaiting an assessment, we were told 9+ month wait in December so I’m expecting something towards the end of the year if we are lucky. DD will be 4 in September - I’m really glad we have an extra year in preschool.

How’s your DD doing?

We were told 18 months to 2 years wait for the NHS assessment so have a private assessment booked in for September.

We have a September birthday too, so like you are glad of the extra year in pre school.

She is at pre school 2 days a week whilst I’m at work, she has a lot of 1:1 time there which they struggle to provide. (I had to drop from full time hours as they couldn’t offer a full time place) She’s having speech therapy, her difficulties are more communication focused which we are working on using PECS etc.

How is your daughter getting on?

Oh wow, that’s a long time. But I guess we could be waiting that long, they’ve just given us a 9+ Month guidance, probably very much emphasis on the PLUS! 😂

DD first presented some “red flags” on returning to nursery after a lot of time out during the pandemic. We thought maybe just a language delay because of the time out - but it became obvious it was more than that. She had lots and lots of words, so we’re lucky with that, but wouldn’t use them in context. Had good understanding but wouldn’t respond to questions/conversation/social interaction. She did (and still does, to a considerably lesser extent) a lot of echolalia, wasn’t really interested in playing with other kids, had very fleeting attention and had some repetitive behaviours.

She was referred to SALT and also had some privately, we are currently awaiting a reassessment to see if they’ll give her more. She’s made a lot of progress, but still with more social communication & still isn’t too bothered by other kids, though her turn taking is improving (albeit learned rather than natural, if that makes sense).

She is now at preschool 5 days a week (term time only) and it has done the world of good for her. They are really working on her attention and interaction, and give her good 1:1 time so we are lucky there.

My biggest concern is her not having any friends. I know that probably won’t actually bother her so it’s purely a selfish concern I guess, but she ignores other kids even when they try to interact with her. When I pick her up, I hear kids saying her name to their parents, but I don’t know any of their names. We had an NCT friend over with her little girl and it was heartbreaking watching her try and try to interact with my DD and getting nothing back. I know one day, kids will just give up 😔

Reading your post I could’ve written it myself 😞

We’re having some private SALT and working on the exercises at home and at nursery.

We’ve an older daughter who is extremely popular, play dates, sleepovers etc and I’m sad she may never experience the same.

Have you had any thoughts about primary school applications/EHCP’s?

Sorry for my late reply lovely. I’m hoping that if she is eligible for an EHCP, that we will have it in time for her going to school. I think she’s currently progressing well enough with interventions that she would go to a mainstream school, but I guess I’ll have to speak to schools I see and the people involved in the MDA to see what they say. She’s fine in her preschool, with some support for the more structured stuff. But she has shown a lot of improvement since being there from September… and I’m hopeful with another 1.5 years there, plus reception, we’ll see a lot of improvement. Her nursery got the request for info for the MDA this week, no idea how that means we are progressing down the list.

What about you?

How are you getting on lovely? We got our diagnosis today of autism, much quicker than expected. Any news on your assessment?

So sorry, I didn’t get a notification for your previous message.

How did they diagnose/what was the assessment process?

Our private MDA should be July/August, NHS is approx 1-5-2 years. We’re staying on the NHS list though to keep us in the system.

@LDB0383 It’s taken about a year for us. We first got referred for the first step towards diagnosis in April 2021 so it has happened a lot quicker than we were told to expect. As I mentioned above, we were told in December that she’d been accepted for an MDA & it would be 9+ months wait, but then got our assessment four months later. So you never know.

I was quite surprised the MDA was a single meeting though - paediatrician & SLT came to observe her at nursery. Paed had half an hour with her then had over an hour’s discussion with us while SLT did more observations. They then went away to discuss their observations for 10 mins and came back to gave us the diagnosis.

I understand there has been a lot more groundwork than that - they have in-depth nursery reports plus the historical info from us and a report from her initial SLT referral. I don’t disagree with the diagnosis but was just shocked at how quickly it was made considering I would say she is more mildly affected across the board. I wasn’t expecting it to be a single meeting from what I’d read but I think the lack of interest in other kids and repetitive behaviours secured it. They acknowledged her progress compared with what previous reports had detailed but said what she’s showing now alongside historically is enough to diagnose. Now to wait for the report and start the EHCP!

How’s your DD doing with private SLT? We were considering starting up again but unsure what they’ll do - before they just did loads of attention and turn taking exercises with her & nursery do lots of that with her already.

Our initial NHS meeting has come through for early August, I’m going to send over the paperwork I’ve completed so far prior to the appointment for private assessments and hopefully that will speed up the process.

I’ve read so much on EHCP’s trying to prepare! IPSEA is a really useful website for additional guidance.

We’re still doing private speech therapy but have dropped to once a month, as you mention above, it’s lots of turn taking and focused attention activities which we do at home and nursery already but we thought in the interim it’s better than nothing. We’re also looking into OT privately, which I’ve read can really help.

@LDB0383 Which meeting is that? The first one with the council’s Early Years department? Different counties could do it differently I guess but we only had that one meeting in April/May 2021 before the MDA on Tuesday. Or is this part of the MDA?

I was told we can self refer for OT but I’m still trying to get my head around what they might do for her. The paediatrician didn’t mention it at all.