Is nursery doing enough for my DC who is hardly speaking?

[Tigerlion]

We are going through the statementing process at the moment for my DS, aged 3, and hoping that he is given a place at a special language unit in September. He turns 4 at the end of August so will be very young for school.

He sees a SALT once a week and the Educational psychologist follows him up on a regular basis. His comprehension is delayed by around 18 months and expression is delayed by 12 months.

The staff at nursery have been lovely and the SENCo has really helped my son but I feel that he is not being helped enough. Early Years said in October that he could have funding for 1 to 1 help starting in January but whenever I ask the SENCO about this she says that the forms have been filled out and they are waiting for a` reply. The teachers have all been at the school for a long time and call me cynical but I think that the head does not want anyone new coming in and interfering (in her opinion) at nursery. DS is left to do his own thing at nursery as teachers have great difficulty making him join in with activities. The EP said that he seems very oblivious as to what is going on. Should they not be pushing him more?

Also, nursery is split into two rooms - one for the younger children and one for the older ones who will be starting school in September. DS is kept with the younger children in the big room which makes me really cross as they are really not preparing him for school.

When I asked to increase his morning sessions to five next term, I was told that they did not have enough spaces. Priority is meant to be given to older children and I know for a fact that a child who is not starting school until 2010 is in the session that I have asked my DS to go into. When I mentioned that if DS goes to the language unit his days will end at 3.30pm from September the head said that all children were in the same boat. The nursery has not yet had a child with SEN and I do not know if I have the right to complain about their treatment of my DS as I really think that they should be preparing him better for school due to his SEN.

I find the whole situation quite a lot to cope with and it really makes me fume that they appear to be making so little effort with him. Am I over-reacting?

Think you need to have some words with the nursery manager. From what I understand you can chase any application etc up yourself ... it does not have to be the nursery - that is your right. It may be if they are bogged down or being a bit complacent 'things' may not be moved along as quickly as you would expect. Ask who their contact is and make a telephone call - backed up by an email as they have to reply to you in writing.

Remember, it is your sons' best interest at heart here, so do not feel you have to pussy-foot around. You can be constructive, firm and effective without upsetting anyone - I'm an expert at it (ds dx ADHD )

this is all (apart from the possibility of 1-1 funding) ringing a lot of alarm bells at how DS's useless private nursery behaved with him (he had similar delays at 3). I found that because he was quite passive and happy to do activities by himself, nursery didn't even bother to look for 1-1 for him. What righted the situation in my case was moving house and moving him to a v. good state school nursery who were very used to kids with SEN. So I don't know whether you would be willing to risk an upheaval for him. You aren't overreacting at all in my view.

In terms of preparation for school, your local council should have an early years service/inclusion service that should in theory help with the transition to school - my city were duff and were no help whatsoever tbh. So possibly if you speak directly to early years about this topic they might help.

Good luck with getting him into the language unit!

He is in an early years primary state setting. I will speak to my case officer tomorrow as the whole thing is getting me down. Shouldn't he be getting more help and attention if he has the language disorder? Surely the answer is yes!

Yes, he should! Surley the earlier the intervention, the more effective it will be. My DD has global developmental delay, and no words yet, but has a one to one keyworker at nursery and now has a statement.

Left to her own devices she would simply roam around, but her nursery understand that is NOT a good thing and have lots of strategies to help her engage. They are a private nursery and didn't have vast experience of SEN when DD came along, but they were willing to admit the gaps in their knowledge and take on board all the advice they were given by the local portage/early years team, even if it meant extra work for them.

Eek! Surely