Firstly I apoligise if you have read my rant in the Mood Disorder Thread, as this is bascially a kind of repeat without the rant.
I know it's a bit early as my son isn't back at school for another 5 weeks, but I am thinking alot about this. My son is due his second appointment with a paediatrician in September to assess him for developmental issues, she has said it is most likely Asperger's. I have started to write a list of things I forgot to say to her last time, and issues we are having in the interim period between appointments. So now on to the part I need advice with.
I know it is a bit early to be presuming the teacher will not fill in the froms satisfactorily. But she made me so angry when she suggested all my son needed to do was focus more. His previous teachers had noticed some issues, as had the headmaster, what should make her an expert?? It took me nearly 5 mins to convince her to take the forms off me and fill them in. She even took them off me opened them up and looked through them quicly saying there was nothing she could write down to any of the questions!! (I would also like to point out my CPN, and my sons social worker and behaviour therapist all wanted him assesssed for an ASD). So my issue is, what if I go to the appointment in Setember and she has filled in the forms saying nothing is wrong with him in class (also like to point out that there were times he was over an hour late from school because he wasn't having a good day). Now I know his behaviour in school tends to be better, but he is in a more structured environment, though this hasn't stopped him with some problems communicting, even the parents of his classmates know him as the child who doesn't talk. SO II suppose my question for you is, if I'm unhappy with what the teacher has to say can I question it? Would I b allowed to ask the paediatrician (though I know she is only looking for how he is in school) to speak to other teachers for an opinion, or do you htink it would make much difference?
It's just taken us so long to get to the poing of actually receiving help I think I'm working my way up for somethign to go wrong and me lose the support I need for him.. I'm really not sure how I will deal with just having to cope on my own without any other form of support. I know the paediatrician was going to ask own of her pysch colleagues would they see him before a formal diagnosis is made because she felt it was needed. I suppose I'm just worried all this extra support and understanding I am receiving now will fall through and I will go back to giving up hope. It took me a long time to accept that his behaviour wasn't a product of me being ill, is it wrong to need some sort of vindication?
what happens in school is only one aspect of his life. i know my brother's psych sees him in school and deals with a whole team of people including social worker, my parents, his teachers (he's at secondary school), his head of year and the headteacher as well as his senco (special educational needs co-ordinator) and his sen aide.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
Yes you can question it!if youre unhappy with anything the teacher does,go to the headteacher and if the headteacher doesnt listen then go to your local education authority.
As his parent you have every right to question everything that goes on involving your child. Remember you can access anything written about him and any form of action thats been taken. Is he on school action/school action plus or statemented? Do they do anything for the transition for him?If you want to you can PM me and we can talk more in depth about it :) xx
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
Does your son have a statement hunny?
If he doesn't i would say look it to getting him one yourself because that will offer your son all the support and everything he needs at school.
My brother has had a statement seen's he was 5 and it was my mum who has had to get it for him, it has done joe the world of good and it has kept him in mainstream school.
if you wanna talk anytime pm me hunny.
xoxox
" my precious, precious child, I love you and I would never, never leave you during your times of trials and suffering. When you see only one set of footprints it was then that I carried you" you were carried out of are lifes into the next and when its my time to leave this life I know i will be carried into the next life with you.
I wish i had my world complete again.
'Can we protend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, i could really use a wish right now' BoB
Thank you for your replies. I'll look into getting a statement for him, at the minute the only help I get with him in school is if the teacher thinks there is something wrong. So hopefully going into P4 and getting a new teacher might make a bit more difference. I'm just aware that they get reports from his previous teacher, and every time I speak to her I get the feeling she thinks I'm overreacting.
From what I understood the doc said when she gave a diagnosis he would get help with the transition between primary and secondary schools. If he needed help moving up years would they be able to help me there as well? It's just he is normally a lot less communicative at the start of the year until he gets settled, which normally takes til at least halloween, and I fear he gets overlooked sometimes becasue he just doesn't talk. I put him in a small school hoping he would get on better, and though I think he does than if he was in a larger school, small schools still have there downfalls as well.
a statement entitles him to a certain level of help depending on the level. my bro is fully statemented meaning he is supposed to receive one to one help in every lesson, so essentially has his own helper. every time there was an incident (his headteacher sounds a lot like your son's teacher, refused to treat him like special needs and just kept on expelling him for minor things such as pushing past a teacher or being rude) his helper was never there, either off sick or helping someone else or in some lessons he just didn't have a helper. we questioned this with the school numerous times - why wasn't his helper there? why wasn't someone else there? why were events left to escalate etc and they weren't bothered.
the school he is in now has its own special needs department and if shane's helper isn't there for some reason then he goes into the SND until she is back. there are some lessons (french and welsh) where he doesn't do so well - not sure if its because he didn't like his old teachers, or if he isn't so good at languages and as a consequence didn't like anything to do with those subjects - so he is allocated a place in SND for those subjects and his helper has a free period.
so depending on the school, funding etc, statments are carried out or not, and if they're not it seems not much can be done about it. Shane is a foster child, he had 2 social services (the one where he comes from and the local one), local education authority, a SEN at his old school (family friend) and my parents battling to get his statement fulfilled... unsuccessfully.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
i urge you to keep fighting for it,and keep going to them, bug them till they do it because really it may affect them but it affects him more....i know were chatting about this in PM but yeh :) xx
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
