So SALT therapy went a little too well and now the therapist thinks i'm making this all up!!!

[hotmamalovespavlova]

Ongoing issues with DD aged 2.9, she is on the path for a dx and the preschool she has attended since January are on board and provide her with funded one to one adult supervision through all her sessions they have also engaged the help of the early years inclusive team who again are helping us with techniques.
She has a very short attention span, does not interact with the other children, finds conforming to circle/singing time impossible, lots of repeatitive play.
She has lots of words but tends to parrot back what is said to her and has little two way conversation.
The preschool use photo cards to demonstrate outside or singing time and this seems to help.
She fequently has meltdowns and reacts by biting, hitting and throwing furniture.

Anyhow back to the SALT today it was a different child in the room, complete angel demonstrating listening and giving clear eye contact and reacting as required.
The therapist asked me who had suggested the dx "Was it actually mentioned by a professional?".
The Senco at the nursery assures me that the paed will not not miss it as she displays lots of traits-but now i'm worried that they won't believe me as obviously SALT will also be contacted.
If you made it to the end of this well done thanks in advance for any advice/comments.

would SALT be willing to observe her in pre-school? Is it just the group setting that brings out meltdowns, short attention span etc - do you find she's better with you 1-1 too? J wouldnt worry about not being believed as you have preschool on side.

I can certainly ask if she would attend or speak to the school.
There is also another decision to make at the moment I have been offered a place at the local intergrated nursery from September initially I was determined this was where I wanted her to be as it is attached to the school I would like her to attend and it has the experience of specialist SN teachers.
But now I am thinking am I putting back her dx as the new nursery would be starting from scratch plus would she lose the one to one which is already in place in her current setting?
Also the inclusion team will not continue at the intergrated nursery as it is LEA funded.
My instinct is telling me to keep her where she is and forgo the link to the school.
Too many decisions to make in a short space of time.
I cannot fault the support her current preschool has offered both my dd and me plus she is very happy there and has bonded with her key worker

I would speak to the SENCO and see if they would arrange for the SALT to go in and observe.

Re changing nurseries, I am not sure I have understood correctly but if it is LEA funded then funding should also be available for SEN. Having said that, if your daughter is settled and doing well at her current preschool and they are actively trying to help her progress I would want to be very sure the new one could offer something better. I made the mistake with my own DS1 of sending him to a preschool that whilst not linked, 95% of the children went on to the local village school with (and at the time I was certain DS1 would go to the local school). It was not the right place for my DS1 at all and the school we have ended up picking to send him to isn't actually our local one either! I was trying to make decisions for what was best for him age 5 when he was 2 when really I should have based my decision making on what was appropriate for him at that time.

one thing that strikes me in your comments about keeping her at nursery is that you aren't mentioning you feel she is learning loads being around her peers. have you been to visit the integrated nursery? have you had a chance to ask them about 1-1? It might be that if the nursery has very small groups and staff very experienced with kids with language delay and other SN that the 1-1 issue isn't as pressing, and the staff will be able to assist on strategies as well as the inclusion services. Or it might be that the more you dig and ask around, the more you feel the current setting is better for her. If she is likely to attend the school anyway, then it may be better for her to change now as eighteen months down the line. I wouldn't worry too much about the new setting starting from scratch, a good nursery will be able to get a handle on her from early on, will ask you lots of questions about her development etc to get to know her

PS - I am assuming by integrated nursery this has some sort of specialised SN provision, correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you both for your comments.

Yes the intergrated nursery is linked to the local special needs school and has placement for children with varying needs from servere to 'normal' as well as my preferred mainstream primary. We are out of catchment for the primary by one street and the HV felt we would be in a good position to argue a place from a disruption point of view if she had attended the nursery.

In am planning to visit the nursery before making any decisions but feel i am leaning towards keeping her where she is as they have provided all the help without it being a battle and I know I am going to contiue to need that support through the forthcoming appointments.

The good primary school just doesn't feel as important anymore what I need is for her to be happy and getting the support she requires.

Re the learning from her peers she is aware of the other children and what they are doing but doesn't initiate interactive play with them.
She has been helped by the routine of nursery.

Another option is to take the place at the new nursery but to continue to pay for a couple of sessions at her setting now but not sure if she will find that toomush and confusing?

btw I made that comment about learning from peers as that tends to be a big factor around parents preferring a mainstream setting, where tbh I found that DS learnt more from 1-1 adult help at that stage. btw my DS was very similar at this age, had severe language delay at 3, was pretty passive so v. few meltdowns though.

anyhow - good luck whichever way you decide re:pre-school/nursery etc. No harm in her attending sessions at both if you and DD are happy with that.

oh - and re:primary "catchments" - if your DD got a statement of SEN then the statement can name the school, so would mean she could go there despite the catchment issue

Is your DD due to start school September 2011 (roughly)? I would seriously consider applying for a Statement of Education this September if you feel your DD has significant SNs. Along with legally tying the LEA and school into providing support (say 1:1 etc) it also gives you more weight with getting her into a school that is not in your priority area. Also worth checking the school's admission polices as usually a DC with SN's will be higher up the admissions priority list even without a statement. So I think I'm saying deal with the school of choice seperately unless there are extra benefits to her developement for moving her now.

Split placements can work for some children, so maybe worth a try?

TC-did your ds have 1-1 or was he given support through SALT, did his language come on to a sufficient level in time for school?
I find the whole process a little bit bewildering tbh.

NFAH-Yes she is due to start school 2011 she is a July baby so will only just be 4. What do I have to do to apply for the statement can this be done without the dx-as waiting list for the paeds is months in my area?

no 1-1 at all! his first nursery was a bit pants, as were local inclusion services - whose sole contribution was to say "follow the SALT plan of work". the second nursery (v good mainstream one) was much better - still no 1-1, but some small group TA work, and a very structured environment that benefitted him. His language did come on a lot between 4 and 5, he got discharged from SALT last year, as within normal range - but still in my view (and of other mothers of kids with SN who have met him, and my friend's husband who is a doctor) has mild language and social difficulties. He had a multi-disciplinary assessment at 4, whose view was it was probably language problems causing social problems, rather than ASD, so to follow up with Salt rather than with paed.

yep, the whole process is bewildering, compounded by the fact that each health authority and lea has a slightly different system of dealing with pre-school support/diagnosisassessment!

I suppose it is very difficult at this age because how much of it is toddler rather than special needs.
I hope that by 4/5 differences become more apparent and the special needs identified.

Did you consider holding back a year on starting school with my dd being the youngest in the year I have toyed with the idea?

What support are you given now if SALT has discharged you?

support - fuck all, frankly, as DS is doing quite well at school, and behaviour OK. problem is I think that school is in a deprived area, so used to kids having low levels of attainment on entry, so I think they expect less than a more nice "middle class" school would in terms of articulateness ...... would have loved to hold him back a year but it was never really an option (tbh I was too shellshocked by it all to contemplate battling the LEA). No harm in exploring that with your LEA, seeing as she's so young in the year.

I struggled through a similar primary school with my eldest daughter they missed the fact that she couldn't read at nearly 10 and were completely shit I demanded support and they kept asking why I wanted to label(spendtheirbudget)my child???
With the support she has made massive progress and is now reaching age appropiate levels, only her spelling is now a little behind.
Thankfully we moved late last year and all the schools are of a better standard so we are very lucky.

oh schoolwise I have an open mind shall we say as to whether he will stay there till 11, but he seems happy for now, and it's a very small caring school, and has very good lunchtime supervision so I am not too worried about bullying (when I dropped him off at nursery at lunchtime I always kept a careful eye on the playground from that point of view)...... I can see that his reading has come on a lot over the last year, so can see from myself they are not bullshitting me over that.

You don't need a dx in order to apply or get a statement as it supposed to be assessed on need. That being said some counties (like mine) are far more likely to agree to do the statutory assessment (1st stage of process) if there is a dx. This is wrong and illegal btw but it is the reality. This website has all the info you need to know about statementing on it IPSEA. If your DD is having 1:1 support at nursery and if she is still needing it come September I think it would be wise to start the statementing process.

I was expecting a battle at every stage when I applied for DS1's but it's all gone very smoothly and they have offered more hours than I thought they would . Statement still needs some tweaking but it has not (so far) been the nightmare I thought it would be. So it can sometimes be quite straightforward.

Thankyou for all the comments it has been as always on this board very helpful