statementing success

[jerry5]

just got the good news that our son has got the go ahead from the local area panel to be issued a statement re his aspergers under the 1996 education act. He has also just had his school report which is very pleasing-esp maths-but which also emphasises the key role that one to one has played this year in his achievements. Dead chuffed about both!
At least it takes away a lot of the worry we had about his transition to junior school after the summer holidays. To anyone in a similar boat, if your child needs the help then you really need to keep pushing for it, read up on AS, get some hard facts and observations and then target all those who can help be it your GP or (especially) your school SENCO officer. There are still too many teachers who are not properly trained to recognize and deal with sometimes less obvious forms of autism like aspergers and who put it down to simply being "naughty" or misbehaviour and come across as making out that you as a parent are overprotective or else are suffering from Munchausens by proxy !

[AngelaFinn]

Well done. We are having issues with our 8 year old's school at the moment. He has been diagnosed with Aspergers and in November the CAMHS team who diagnosed him are going into the school to watch in at work and in play and they will also be speaking to his teacher. I had a parents evening the other night and she said that his behaviour became babyish when I was around and to be honest I felt that she was say this because I was over protective of him. Although his teacher tries to understand what is going on she just can't (I can't and I have lived with him for 8 years). I do understand that she has 29 other children to deal with but at the same time I think with the right teaching approach he could do really well. At the moment his grades have not changed since the end of year 2 and he is now half a term into year 4 so in my mind the teaching methods are not working.
I am seriously considering getting him a tutor and am looking to find someone who can work with AS children.

[jerry5]

Hi Angela,
Whilst he got his statement it is not as good as we wanted in terms of the amount of one-to one hours we -and his teachers from last year-feel he needs. Basically its all down to funding. Presently he is doing really well in his new year (helped by the fact that though he has moved from infants to junior school its all on the same site and his classmates remain the same so, until "streaming" comes shortly, the changes for him havent been too great). However, whilst I do not want him to become dependant on one-to-one my concern is that, if things take a turn for the worse, the school will not be able to implement the support he will then need quickly enough. On the other hand, he is seeing a raft of other people (dietician/speech and language/occupational therapy) now and I must say the local childrens services have been very good, though its taken a lot of pushing from our end to get to where we are now. If you havent already seen it check out my thread on the Early Bird plus courses that may be available to both you and your son's school run by the National Autistic Society. Cant recommend it enough!To see if theres one near you contact 01226 771 014/ email: earlybird@nas.org.uk Let me know if you have any joy.Good luck and thanks for your response,
jerry

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Sorry-gave out the fax number!!!!Should be :01226 779 218