Published on 12, July, 2020
hi so i have a 3 year old boy,he has started to see speech therapy after waiting 8 months,shes diagnosed him as having social communication disorder and servere understanding of spoken language,he is on the waiting list for a asd assessment,he currently gets level 2 funding at nursery and he is getting 1 to 1 care there,we have just sent forms off to apply for hes ehcp plan,nursery gave me it to bring home to fill out a section of it and to have a read through it,all i can say is oh my god,i feel sick at the thought of sending him to school now,can mainstream actually handle hes needs?will the council that issue the ehcp plans do they recommend schools?mainstream or special school?thanks to anyone for reading this
awww thank you so much for your reply i appreciate your kind words,at first when we first though he was just autistic i was swaying more towards a mean stream school but now been diagnosed with a few things already and there lifelong things im not sure,he is non verbal,has no clue when he needds the toilet so still in nappies which is ok as hes only 3 but going on 4 so it is a slight issue but not the main one,theres alot,i honestly never realised how tuff some of these roads are and which to turn down,to be honest since he started nursery in september nursery recognised straight away he had alot of struggles so was on it from day one with helping him,they soon arranged 1.1 funding which is great and everything seems to be moving fairly quickly,he sees a dietican too as hes appetite is non existant and what he will eat is not good like noodle,nuggetspasta,all plain,so he had hes bloods done and has anemia due to this so is on iron medicine and vitamin drinks aswel,he is not social at all,when we pick him up from nursery hes either hiding somewhere in a corner or in the sensory room to get away from all the noise he cant handle it,he hates people near him and that includes us too,if he falls he wont have comfort,as hes non verbal he knows what he wants but cant tell you so he screams alot as hes frustrated,he has a massive obsession with clocks and watches aswel,it says in hes report about hes obsession with them,he falls asleep with them,he uses clocks at nursery they say when hes upset to deregulate himself,he watches clock videos all day on you tube hes non verbal as i say but he can say clock which is great,i would just love a cuddle off him or to hear the words love you mummy,or even just mummy,but when them times do come it will be more special,he uses picutre cards to communicate,not in depth ones yet like ;i want the toilet; or ;i am hungry; its just simple ones like 3 different activites like play doh,painting etc and hes starting to do really well with them and he gets excited when we get it right,iv startred my own you tube channel aswel to show hes journey,im still new to it so the videos aint the best but they show him,il have a look at the link thank you,i actually have sent my other kids school the report and there going to ring me monday to see if they can accomadate him or not,we know them well there but i think iv ever seen a child at that school with the needds my boy has,its fairly bad,its hard taking him out places aswel as he just has no awerness of hes surroundings and he wanders off,thanks agin for your help i really appreciate it
NAS93227 said:i feel sick at the thought of sending him to school now,can mainstream actually handle hes needs?
Kids of this age tend to have some resistance to changing from being 100% at home to going to school so the start will quite possibly be a bit of a challenge but it is worth going through it to get the new routine established.
I recall reading that autism only normally starts to present its characteristics from about age 5 so the issues you are seeing now may not be related to this. This obviously doesn't help but it may help shape any diagnosis as time goes on.
Schools now are typically much better setup to deal with special educational needs and if these are already being thought of an planned for then I have high hopes that he will get the environment he needs to do the best he can.
I would suggest you don't rely just on the council when it comes to chools - start looking at which local schools rate well for special educational needs and also for ones that just specialise in this just in case. This should give you time to consider relocating (at worst) or how to get him there daily.
It can seem overwhelming with so many unknowns facing you but your journey is a surprisingly common one and there is much help available. Maybe start with looking at the advice this site offers:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/education/extra-help-at-school
Hopefully a moderator will drop some more advice shortly but you have come to the right place for finding your next steps.
Your son has a parent to be proud of!