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Recently arrived in the UK

Breizh

Hello,

We arrived in the UK from France last month with our 7 year old son Benoit. Bristol seems a pleasant town to live in. We are adjusting to the British ways of doing things and are enjoying the sunny weather while it is lasting. Smile

Our son was diagnosed with autism when he was 3. We have requested admission to the local school and a SEN Assessment as soon as we arrived mid-August, as I believe this is standard practice, but we are now wondering how long this is may take and what problems we are likely to run into.

Benoit was in mainstream school in France for 4 years from reception to year 3 and his troubles got less severe over time (no more head banging or fits when faced with routine disruptions). With one-to-one help in class and speech therapy outside of school he managed to start reading, writing and adding, but he still has a considerable speech delay and needs help and guidance to be able to follow in school (especially as he will have to deal with English in addition to the rest of his difficulties).

We would be pleased to meet parents members of the NAS around Bristol and discuss experiences with education.

Thanks for any assistance.

Christophe

 

 

  • Thanks.

    I went to BAS support group last night. They were great.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi both,

    have you seen bristol autism support at 

    bristolautismsupport.com

    this is the organisation that the NAS directory listing was about that i posted before. There should also be local NAS parent/carer groups but i expect that you will find the same groups whether you go through NAS or through the bristol website thing.

  • Hi Christophe,

    Welcome to Bristol. It is a great place to live. I have been here most of my life. I am a mother of a 2 1/2 year old boy with autism. We only got our diagnosis last month so I am coming to terms with it, and desperately trying to find good local resources.

    Please forgive me if I am telling you info you already know..

    I have got some good information and support from the local Portage service (though they have just been through a bit of a reorganisation so when I called they found it difficult to give me all of the information I need. If I understand correctly they should be able to help you get the new 'education health and care plan' (can't remember the exact name) in place to help with additional needs at school. (Please correct me someone if I am wrong, this is all new to me too.) If your son still needs speech and language therapy then you should be able to access this through a GP, although as the waiting list is so HUGE in our area we are tightening our belts and going private for our son for as long as we can afford. There are some good private speech therapists in Bristol (try googling Childspeech Bristol). They have therapists who 'specialise' in helping children on the spectrum.

    I believe that schools etc all have access to SENCO (special educational needs coordinators). Maybe it is worth speaking to his school direct? It is their job to organise additional support where needed.

    I have been told there are some wonderful parent/carer support groups in Bristol, but I am yet to track these down so I can't help you there. These should be good sources of information from parents who have 'been there done that'.

    PoP

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Welcome to Bristol!

    try this link...

    www.autism.org.uk/.../19476.aspx

    Hopefully they can introduce you to some parent groups!