What does assesing a child for special needs mean?

[alison222]

DS was sent home from nursery early yesterday for hitting - see behaviour thread.
On speaking to the classroom assistant this morning it seems that they have already spoken to the special needs teacher, want to set up a meeting with her and albel him as having problems. Basically he is a bit emotionally immature in that he is very bright but gets frustrated very easily if he cant do something first time. He likes things to be done how he imagines they should be and can get upset if you tell him no. He is not violent at home and it seems that the incidents in the playground are him lashing out at people if he gets tripped or pushed regardless of whether it was an accident. He always knows its wrong afterwards adn hides because he knows there will be trouble.
Does it sound like he needs help or are they over-reaciting?
I am very upset at this and don't know if I can talk to them rationally at the moment.

Blueteddy is the one you should talk to about this ... she probably wont be around till tonight but i will tell her about your post

alison, my ds1 was exactly like this, but the encouraging thing is that he has become much much better over the last year since starting school. Please don't worry about him being "labelled". I bet there will be several other children in his class who will be regarded as needing some degree of extra help and attention, but that isn't broadcast to the other parents.

When is the meeting? How much time have you got to prepare?

all children have special needs, some just need more help than others

Sorry you are upset about this - sounds like they want to help tho. He won't be labelled as you put it cos even if you all decide he could benefit form some special help no-one else will know about it. The first step for them is just hearing your side of it as you of course know him so much better. Hope the meeting goes well for you

I'm waiting to hear from the teacher about when the meeting will be.
The main teacher usually works mornings which is when he is at the nursery, but at the mo is only there mon-wed and there is a cover teacher there.
Apparently he had been very good today so no problems there at least today
It seems that they have already spoken to the special needs teacher so its going to happen whether or not I want it to -so much for the "with your permission of course" that I was told this morning.
I guess I just want to know what the procedure is and what it entails so we can prepare ourselves before going.
I will look again this evening in the hope that blueteddy is around