What help should a school offer?

hello I have a 8 year son who has been diagnosed 6 months ago with asd/Aspergers. His school seem to be very laid back in their approach to his educational needs. I have been told he won’t get a healthcare plan as his needs are social and emotional but he is struggling in class with the pace of the work and his teacher does not seem to acknowledge his need for sensory breaks and that lack of routine and structure is very upsetting for him. He also struggles with fine motor skills but I’m told that he has limited one to one as they have a lot of children needing attention. We have a meeting with the senco and teacher next week and we are trying to arm ourselves with as much information as possible before we go. Can anyone shed any light as to what they should be offering him and where we can go for help and support. He is at the point where his sensory overload is high and he doesn’t want to go to school because his teacher doesn’t ‘get him’. Sorry for the ramble but we at a loss as to what he is entitled to. Thank you 

Parents
  • The first thing you need to organise in the UK is an Educational Psychologist's report ....please look up Non-Verbal Learning Disorder ...this is an educational diagnosis which almost mirrors Asperger Syndrome exactly ....it also falls under the umbrella term of Dyslexia.

  • Hi NAS35532,

    Interesting point you have offered.

    I did attempt to research NVLD as you suggested.

    The American Psychological Association, The National Institute for Clinical Excellence, The Royal College of Psychiatry and the NHS Database all turned up no results when I searched for NVLD, Nonverbal Learning Disability, Non Verbal Disability, Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Non Verbal Learning Disorder, NVD, Nonverbal Disorder and Non Verbal Disorder.

    However I did find some websites which had articles about NVLD from a basic Google search. From what I have read (from my Google search) there does appear to be some degree of commonalities between NVLD and ASD.

    However, very few (if any) disorders, disabilities or illnesses have entirely unique (standalone) symptoms. I think therefore it is important to clearly acknowledge that sharing a certain degree of same and/or similar ‘symptoms’ or ‘traits’ in this way does not mean NVLD and ASD are the same thing, even if a certain amount of similar or same challenges may be faced by both parties.

    For example, social communication deficits (which are seemingly highly prevalent in NVLD) and can often also be prevalent in the ASD community too are equally often only one component of establishing a diagnosis of ASD.

    It appears that medical research is trying to establish this clear differentiation between ASD and NVLD using Neurobiology. I have taken the following quotes from Michigan State University Research Centre:

    “Children with nonverbal learning disabilities and Asperger’s can look very similar, but they can have very different reasons for why they behave the way they do,” said Jodene Fine, assistant professor of school psychology in MSU’s College of Education.

    “The researchers found that the brains of children with nonverbal learning disability responded differently to the social interactions than the brains of children with high functioning autism, or HFA, suggesting the neural pathways that underlie those behaviors may be different.”

    [Ref] http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/shedding-new-light-on-learning-disorders/

    In this respect, all chickens are birds, and therefore share commonalities such as feathers, wings, beaks etc., but it does not therefore follow that all birds are chickens.

    Thank you for inviting me to consider this further though, it has been really interesting.

    Best wishes.

Reply
  • Hi NAS35532,

    Interesting point you have offered.

    I did attempt to research NVLD as you suggested.

    The American Psychological Association, The National Institute for Clinical Excellence, The Royal College of Psychiatry and the NHS Database all turned up no results when I searched for NVLD, Nonverbal Learning Disability, Non Verbal Disability, Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Non Verbal Learning Disorder, NVD, Nonverbal Disorder and Non Verbal Disorder.

    However I did find some websites which had articles about NVLD from a basic Google search. From what I have read (from my Google search) there does appear to be some degree of commonalities between NVLD and ASD.

    However, very few (if any) disorders, disabilities or illnesses have entirely unique (standalone) symptoms. I think therefore it is important to clearly acknowledge that sharing a certain degree of same and/or similar ‘symptoms’ or ‘traits’ in this way does not mean NVLD and ASD are the same thing, even if a certain amount of similar or same challenges may be faced by both parties.

    For example, social communication deficits (which are seemingly highly prevalent in NVLD) and can often also be prevalent in the ASD community too are equally often only one component of establishing a diagnosis of ASD.

    It appears that medical research is trying to establish this clear differentiation between ASD and NVLD using Neurobiology. I have taken the following quotes from Michigan State University Research Centre:

    “Children with nonverbal learning disabilities and Asperger’s can look very similar, but they can have very different reasons for why they behave the way they do,” said Jodene Fine, assistant professor of school psychology in MSU’s College of Education.

    “The researchers found that the brains of children with nonverbal learning disability responded differently to the social interactions than the brains of children with high functioning autism, or HFA, suggesting the neural pathways that underlie those behaviors may be different.”

    [Ref] http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/shedding-new-light-on-learning-disorders/

    In this respect, all chickens are birds, and therefore share commonalities such as feathers, wings, beaks etc., but it does not therefore follow that all birds are chickens.

    Thank you for inviting me to consider this further though, it has been really interesting.

    Best wishes.

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