Please or to access all these features

SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

Taking time of school for autism and asthma

1 reply

jknight97 · 19/03/2024 08:13

Hi everyone, just looking to get some thoughts on if I'm doing the right thing.

My 5 year old daughter was diagnosed as autistic when she was 3, she struggles daily with a range of different things and communication of her feelings if a big part, she was actually mute up until last year where she started talking more, her speech still isn't her age level but it's better.

Recently she was also diagnosed with asthma, she takes a brown inhaler 2X every morning and night and has a blue inhaler for breathing difficulties.

For the past few months she's really been struggling with both, her autism affects her at school and she struggles in the classroom to learn up to the standards of her peers and gets very agitated and anxious when she gets anything wrong causing her to breakdown, the school have since hired a new class teacher as her old teacher had an operation and is thankfully only out till after the Easter, my daughter has really struggled to like the new teacher as she finds it very hard to trust new people and because of this it's really hard every morning to get her to go to school, I know she is only 5 but when your child is breaking down and telling you she doesn't want to go to school I just want to let her stay home, if I don't she will put her ear defenders on and go to school but have a bad day then a bad night and this is really affecting her sleeping and I worry that it's affecting her mental health.
With her asthma that has also flared up and it's keeping her awake most nights even though her doctors tell us it will go away on its own, because of this I have been keeping her off school when necessary when she hasn't slept through the night, her attendance at school has suffered because of this and I worry that the school/local authority will not see my reasons as good enough reasons to be keeping her home, even though as a mum to an autistic child I feel I am 100% in the right.

Am I doing the right thing and are my reasons enough?

OP posts:
Headfirstintothewild · 19/03/2024 10:43

If DD genuinely can’t school then she can’t attend.

However, if she is frequently unable to attend, I would be looking at what additional support can be put in place. (And I say that as someone who has 1, soon to be 2, DC who are not educated at school due to their additional needs, so I am not pro-school attendance at all costs.)

For example, if DD regularly can’t attend because of her autism, what support is she receiving? What support has the school put in place? Have you spoken to the SENCO? Has an EHCNA been requested? If your area has a specialist teaching service, has the school requested advice from them? Has DD had SALT and OT assessments? If DD is compulsory school age and unable to attend school full time, is alternative provision in place?

If DD regularly can’t attend school because of her asthma, she needs an asthma review. You say recently diagnosed, if once you have given the current preventer inhaler sufficient time to work, DD’s asthma still isn’t controlled, her medication needs altering and she needs a hospital referral if primary care input isn’t sufficient.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page