Nursery against autism referral

[noidea22]

Hello. My 2 year old has been flagged by the health visitor as showing signs of autism in his 2 year 4 month assessment.
He has been put on the assessment route, so will see a speech pathologist, have a hearing check etc, before forms are then submitted to his GP for referral.
It came as no surprise as my husband and older child are both on the spectrum.

My 2 year olds nursery are in disagreement with it. They say that there are no signs of it, as he likes hugs, moves between tasks and does not have melt downs at pre school. They seem to be really going out of their way to have the referral cancelled by contacting the health visitor and trying to put a stop to it.

Does any one know if there is any benefit for the nursery in not having the referral go through. Is it just too much paper work for them? Would they need to hire more staff? I would love some understanding of why they are pushing back like this. Has anyone been through this before?

TIA

I had this, it was speech and language support myself and the Health Visitor were trying to get. We moved nursery and found better support and understanding elsewhere. My DS is now 8, diagnosed as Autistic with ADHD and still has a speech delay. His needs were obvious from 18 months old but he was cuddly, friendly and knew his colours and numbers so that satisfied nursery that there was no extra support needed!

Have they done anything? Added to the SEN register or started any referrals? Applied for additional funding. Are you in contact with the Sendco or talking to the staff in room? For Autism assessment in our area I think t is something like 2 terms worth of evidence that is needed, I'm sure it is a lot of paperwork but that's part of what you pay for... there would be no requirement to hire more staff because of an Autism diagnosis but that might come from a future EHCP although that would also have funding. You can ask for that now ahead of any diagnosis. I would get in touch with your local Sendiass for some additional advice and support.

Unfortunately, some nurseries don’t understand autism and how it can present. As you will know from your older DC, liking hugs, not having meltdowns at nursery and being able to transition between tasks doesn’t stop someone being autistic. Not all nurseries (or schools) understand this. There is usually input from nursery which some nurseries don’t like, especially if they don’t understand the different presentations of autism. A diagnosis alone wouldn’t result in needing more staff. Support is based on needs, not diagnosis.

Be careful with SENDIASS. Some are good but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies.

I had this. Staff don’t get training and unless you have a child of your own who is on the spectrum then staff only know classic signs of boys autism. I had an autistic boy in my class when I was a senior teacher and he cuddled me and sat on my lap every morning. I have an ASD girl diagnosed and playschool treated me like it was me. She did 3 months in school part time and I had to take her out to home ed. The system rarely knows about ND kids

SEN teacher I meant