school - dunno what to do

[pokhara]

hi posted yesterday about ds being on 1st centile for language, he will be 4 next month but language is 2years 4 months. salt said he wasnt suitable for language unit at local school, have left message for her to call back because i think he should go there, paed letter last week said due to his language delay his future education should be built around this, head teacher at pre school does not want to do a statement, so considering doing it myself. but just dunno what to think or do am so confused at the moment, he is 20 months behind so why put him in a mainstream school with no statement, but then why isnt he going to be put in a language unit, does he need a special school, i dont think so, in fact i dont know what to think, got it all spinning in my head and dont know what to do first. which of the professionals involved should i phone first to discuss all this with. Head not screwed on today so cant think straight, if anyone can help please, thanks

Why do the preschool not want to help you re the statement?.

I'd be speaking to the paed and get this person to back you up further. Tell this person what the SALT has said and see what the response is.

I would put in a request for the Statutory assessment yourself asap on your DS's behalf and give them six weeks to reply. You will need to write to the Chief Education Officer at your LEA (the council offices will give you the name). In a year's time your son is at school: a Statement to his name will make the school more aware of his additional needs.

In this area at least you can only access a language unit if the child has a Statement.

in my area they tend to "cherry pick" the children for language unit places - i.e. officially exclude children with learning difficultes and/or ASD. (however unofficially they do seem to have kids on the spectrum from wha I can gather). So possibly this is why you have been told not suitable for language unit. I would do your own research about language units in your area, and phone them up to get more info. Completely agree with attila about applying for the statement yourself.

Hi, dd2 is also 4 next month and her language is around the 2.4 year mark too. We are putting her into MS in September hopefully with a statement (if it gets sorted in time), we have been told to try her in MS for a term and if she struggles then try a Speech and language unit (which is 20 miles away). In a way i am happier for her not to go to the school with the s&l unit as the school is huge (around 300 children), our local school is tiny (100 pupils) so i feel dd2 will get more help being in a small class of 12 children rather than 30.

Put in a request for a statement (which i did), this may take a while (i think at least 9 months) but will be worth it.

ok, just spoke to salt who saw ds in jan and is also the salt in the language unit i was interested in, she said that the unit is mainly for kids with expressive language delay, she said owen has this and comphresion delay and developmental delay, no one ever said that to me before about developmental delay, feel very upset. she said she spoke with the head at owens nursery, who i am seeing tommorow, and that she will give me some options one being an iep and monitor him, i think there was something she wasnt telling me and to find out tommorow, crying now

sorry it was an upsetting conversation, either SALT has made a mistake re:developmental delay or paed hasn't explained things properly to you, either way it's a somewhat unsatisfactory position.

sorry about what your getting ds did not get plce at S&L unit because of devlopmental delaywe tried Ms with support for a term but this failed .Ds is 4.7 so little bit older than yours

but i have recently got his statement altered as thanks to ican have prooved his delays are either down to his langugae understanding and expressive or to physcial problem

But S&l unithave just turned him down for the for his speech problems being to severe

expressive hes below the 1% and understanding is only 2% when all the visual clues are withdrawn is higher when visual clues and signing are used so going be using this in arguemnt .Might be worth you asking is his receptive any differnt with visual clues,

would also highly reccomend ican they did full assment .Ep ,Ot specialist teacher and \salt over 2 days and have a 30 page report to use hitting LEA