My son had a visit from someone from the Early Years Team - opinions?

Early years team are asked to help and support a child under 5, they can come into school or home and work with the child. They also can make the necessary referals to get the statementing process going.  Bounce had the privelage of this before mainstream nursery.

I would firstly phone or write to this womand supervisor or manager and complain about her. If you have a dx you can also enclose a copy of this in the letter making the manager/supervisor aware of your childs dx.

I personally would contact SEN Parent Partnership and get them to help you start the statementing process has you will not be able to get your child in a SEN school without a statement. Whats the schools opinion on your childs needs and difficulties??? Has SENAR would be asking them for educational advice once the statementing process gets up and running.

When you do send parental views into SENAR enclose has many documents (copies) of doctors reports etc so they get a better view of what is going on.

Some people can be quite ignorant and rude when it comes to speaking to a parent after seeing a child for assessment. Bounce ASD was ignored for 3 1/2 + years due to regression and ignorance and he had been attending paed for 3 years and nursery since he was 18 months!!

I am assuming your child has a diagnosis, if so, who is the teacher to think she knows more than the doctors?  

There is a lot of ignorance out there.  It is very common for children with aspergers to not display emotion in the same way as NT children.  Therefore, your child may in fact be distressed and unhappy at school without adults realizing it because they are expexcting him  to react in an NT way.  My child, for example, when crying, has no emotion on their face, makes no noise, and can only be noticed as crying when you see tears falling down their face.  Otherwise they will look exactly how they look the rest of the time.  The only way to know exactly how they are feeling is to ask them and that isn't foolproof as they aren't always sure how they are feeling.  And in primary this was a problem as because my child was very cognitivly able, many teachers could not get their head around how someone so clever could have problems with common sence kinds of things.  

Just because a child isn't complaining to teachers, it does not mean that the other children teasing them is not effecting them, it can have a huge effect on their self esteem. The biggest problem with ASD children is that they will beleive the teasing that is said to them.  So if several children are saying they are fat for example, when they clearly are not, they will beleive the children.  If several children are telling them there is something wrong wth them, they will beleive them.  They will not question it or compain to a teacher, they will accept it as fact.  So it needs to be dealt with seriously.

I would also like to add how very very very very vefry common it is for Aspergers children to act completely different at school than at home.  It is very common for them to be compliant at school and then come home and rage or withdraw completely to release the stress.

Technically, ASD is a disability, and technically those with ASD are considered more vunerable.  Therefore, the school should be taking you concerns seriously.  So IF you do have the diagnosis, you are in a more powerful place to get help.  You could contact your counties educational psychology department and tell them the issues your child is having. Parental refferals are allowed. You could also ask the school exactly what reasonable adjustments they are making for your child.  You can ask what social help they are giving him, such as facial expression recognition, what is a friend, ......  You can point out that a disabled child (such as one with Aspergers who has a life long condition which does effect their every day life) does not need to be on the SEN register to qualify for reasonable adjustments as the disability legislation covers it.

hi - shocked as all the other posters are about how you were treated.  What was this Early Yrs person's job title?  I presume you child has been diagnosed so why on earth did she think her opinion was more relevant?  What a let down.  I thought the days were long over where a parent was blamed for their child's condition.  Thought that had died out in the 80s.  Just what you don't need.  I understand, but please check it out via the nas site or ipsea site, that you can apply for a statement yourself.  If your son has been officially diagnosed, then there'll be a load of written stuff which shd hopefully put the EYIT person in their place.  As I sd, unless a well-informed posters pops up soon, check things out.  Good luck.  The school you have in mind sounds much more suitable.

lol that made me laugh and thats rare thing  latley as i said the exact same about my little boy that its not bad enough hes ginger lol hes my ginger winger. I would request the sent somebody else out that nos what there talking about nobody can have a full understanding of anybody after an hour,  and she definatly had no right questioning you and your parenting skills she doesnt even no you,and mammy always nos best i dont think no doctor, teacher or anything will ever no better than a mother when it comes to her child

It is very frustrating and I'm not sure what my next steps are from here.. I'm not really one for making complaints, but I would really like to on this occasion!

Do you know if 'The Early Years Team' essential for getting a statement?

I can't believe that such arrogance still exists!. You must, quite rightly, feel very angry with this woman and upset - as I would myself if this happened to me. Aspergers is an 'invisible' condition, and we often bottle up our feelings, only to vent them when we get home. I was labelled 'shy' at that age, teachers called me 'an enigma', but thought I was a nice little girl who was simply emotionally and physically immature. I only got diagnosed a couple of years ago.

My parents felt as though they were being blamed, too, and my mother was given Early Learning books to teach me basic maths and handwriting. She felt as though she should do more, which let the school off the hook.

If you ask me, this woman you mention should not be practising if she comes out with things like this. You would do well to complain - I would.