well, we decided to go for it...

[silverfrog]

dd1 started at her new ASD pre-school today.

Dh & I talked it all over, and decided that we can't let this chance go by. dd1 is in a group of 8, with 3 adults (1 class teacher, one SALT and one SN TA). She is going 2 afternoons a week until Christmas, and then in the New Year this will be upped to 4 or 5 sessions.

We now have to move house! eek!

We've found somewhere to rent, and if all goes well, we will be moved within 2 weeks! double eek!

dd1 was happy to go in today, and had a good session, acording to her key worker. She was a bit quiet (not surprising) but NOT totally passive, which is great for dd1. She jouined in the activities, and commented appropriately on colours etc when they turned the light tube on.

Hopefully, this will really help get her on the right track, so here's to an exciting year for dd1

Wow well done your DD and you and Mr Sliverfrog

Never stops amazing me the lengths we all go for our DCs!!

Not that we should have to like but regardless we do!!

Good luck im sure it will be really good for her

Fantastic news

well done and good luck with house move im sure it will be the best choice you make for her x

Thanks, am still that it all went so smoothly

Agree that we shouldn't have to move across the country to get a decent education, but am happy to do so.

dd1 is finally at a school where they value her for who she is. It is the only chool we have seen where they said "can't wait to get working with her" rather than "hmm, not sure we will be able to meet all of her needs..."

now just need to crack on with the packing...

wow, that attitude must be very refreshing, silverfrog. sounds like a great move.

good luck with the move. always lovely to have a smooth first day at nursery.

well, that's another day under her belt - she joined in the singing today, and has apparently been anything but quiet - music to my ears as she is very often so passive when unsure about things, so she must be feeling comfortable there.

AND - she ate some banana! . She hasn't eaten banana for over a year now!

Can't wait to get the move over with (looking like the end of next week) - commuting 90mins each way is not much fun!

That sounds brilliant SF. So pleased she's happy 90 minutes each way though - I take my hat off to you!

Oh, i wouldn't have taken on the commute long term (stupidly, i feel guitly typing that lol)

If the house move goes as expected, it will have been 3 weeks exactly from first viewing the school, to moving - can't quite believe that!

so, hopefully, only two more afternoons of wandering around a strange town in the rain with dd2 (she loves it - we go for lunch in the M&S cafe, and she cons all the old ladies out of biscuits )

We could have moved first, but it got to the point where we just thought we should get a move on with getting dd1 into the right provision...

Bless her sounds like she is doing fantastic!!

Is the preschool part of a primary school?

I ask because DD1s primary school has 2 SN units one in the pre school (DD2 NT goes to pre school) and one in the big (primary) school.

at the 90 mins journey!! and i thought my school run was bad!! i do an 8 mile round trip 3 time a day .

The school is in the grounds of a primary school, but is not connected in anyway.

It's a early years/nursery/pre-school specifically for autistic children - they can take children up to around 6 years old, but more usually only to around 5ish.

so, our move is relatively short-term, and we're not sure where dd1 will go next - it all depends on how she does over the next year or so. which is why we didn't want to hang around any longer, and just got on with getting her in to the school asap!

Wow that all happened pretty fast for you, wishing you all the luck in the world with your move and of cause with your DDs schooling.

"our move is relatively short-term, and we're not sure where dd1 will go next "

but you're doing the right thing to take it one year at a time. Every happy year will surely make the choices for the next year easier. [hopeful]

that's exactly how we looked at it, lingle. There is little choice for dd1 schooling wise where we are. I did get into an awful spiral for a while, wanting her primary schooling at least sorted, but am now of theopinion that we will take what we can get.

She is now at a place where she can (hopefully) thrive and be happy for 12-18 months.

After that, if she has made the progress we hope to gain from this move, there are 3 schools we can choose from, in the new area (ish).

So, we take it slowly, and we have sorted it for this year. One door closes and another one opens, and all that

I'm sure that's the best attitude SF. So much can change in 18 months. We were completely convinced that special school was right for DS2 when he was your DD's age - but over the next year (while gradually getting to know the m/s school he is now attending) we changed our minds, because he changed and became much more accepting of adult direction(Growing Minds can take the credit for that!)

yes exactly Silver,

If I'd lost my battle about deferred reception entry, I still would have kept him in nursery another year whilst working out what the heck to do the following year....was seriously thinking we'd have to move to the USA where DH is from as even they don't have a school start date as absurd as ours.

Good luck. My DS started mainstream pre-school with a one-to-one in Sep and has come on leaps and bounds, hope you get similar results.

what's "growing minds", sphil? sounds interesting.

It's a therapy 'clinic' (can't think what else to call it) who design individual programmes for children with ASD and other developmental disorders. They're good because they're not allied to any one therapy - they use ABA for some children and more 'Son-Rise' type techniques for others, or a mixture. They're based in the US. See here for their website.