Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all, hope your all well. I just would like a bit of advice. I have a daughter who is currently 2 years and 3 months, she has been diagnosed by her paediatrician with developmental delay and is awaiting a diagnosis of ASD, (waiting on SALT report). My daughter has severe sensory issues. She struggles profoundly with noise, bright lights and large groups. I recently applied for an EHCP for her but was declined due to “her meeting the criteria but as the paediatrician report wasn’t finalised we haven’t got enough evidence of her needs” the EHCP panel also advised me to put her into nursery to “see the impact of the support that’s ordinarily available”. I have now put her into a nursery which she is not coping in. She’s currently done 4 sessions and each time she has cried uncontrollably and when I get her home she has had severe meltdowns. I have explained to the nursery numerous times about her sensory difficulties and why she struggles and even though we have reduced her sessions to just half an hour she still can’t cope there. I really don’t want to send her back as I can see she’s struggling to cope but if I take her out now and reapply for her EHCP they are going to say I’ve not left her long enough in nursery to get used to it. I would like your advice on what you think I should do, also if I was to take her out of nursery how long would I have to leave her in there so that they can’t just blame it on her not having time to adjust. thanks
I think some children just need more time, I think we often push children into these school type environments far earlier than they're ready for. Maybe take her out entirely for now and try again in a few months? Nuresuries are always going to be noisy and overwhelming places and for someone who's already struggling it may just be to much for her. If the place she's going to seem unable or unwilling to meet her needs then maybe a different one if thats possible or wait until she has an "official" diagnosis before trying to get her to go again?
My son struggled with nusery and he's NT, he was very clingy after going and screamed as soon as I left him and screamed as soon as he saw me when I went to collect him, it did get better, but it took quite a while, so don't beat yourself up about it.
TheCatWoman Part of the issue is that this nursery has many children who are autistic and know how to deal with them however my daughter just cant cope there and nursery staff don't seem to be able to deal with her as she has very high needs. Anyone that knows her agrees that she will need a special school when she is of school age however in order to get her into a school that will meet her needs she needs an EHCP, however its proving really difficult to get them to agree to give her an EHCP. I have paid for private SLT for her and the lady is going to write the SLT report and send it to the paediatrician so hopefully she should be diagnosed really soon. If I pull her out of nursery now the EHCP panel are going to say that all children take time to adjust into nursery and that I haven't gave her enough of a chance there. However I'm really struggling to send her back into nursery knowing she's suffering there. There isn't much point of changing her nursery either as its nursery in general she cant cope with, there is too many children, too much noise, and too many bright lights and it overstimulates her. I feel really angry and upset that I'm being made to put my child into a nursery where she's suffering just for them to give her a EHCP. I cant help but feel like the system is so wrong.
You're right the system is wrong, there ar far to many hoops to jump through and I wonder if the people that comes up with all this stuff have ever had to deal with a small child who's really distressed? Maybe they think it's just "the terrible twos" or something?
Would you be able stay with her whilst she's at nursery?
If this is a specialist nursery for children with special needs and has other ASD children then why are there bright lights and and so many colours? Noise they probably can't do too much about, children are just noisy.
she’s currently only doing half an hour there so I wait downstairs however she’s still crying the full time that she’s there and won’t interact with anyone. The nursery isn’t a specialist autism nursery however they have many autistic children there and I was advised by the EHCP panel to put her in there as it’s “as close to a specialist as what I’m going to get”. Although they have many autistic children there I don’t think they’ve got any with as high needs as my daughter has, and they appear to be struggling to cope with her. I don’t understand it though all staff there have autism training and there is multiple members of staff and they can’t handle her but yet i single handedly meet every single one of her needs. The current plan is I’m going to leave her in for three more weeks and if she’s still not coping then I’m going to pull her out of nursery and reapply for an EHCP as she desperately needs a specialist, it’s such a shame parents have to fight this hard for there babies, but I will keep fighting until she gets the support in place that she needs.