Hi! Sorry - this is a long one!
I'm really not sure how much help anyone can be as obviously every situation/child is so different but I'm hoping I might get some opinions and ideas from you guys 'in the know'! My son is awaiting the Multi-disciplinary meeting to formalise the diagnosis of Aspergers. The consultant has told us that she is certain he has it and the meetings should hopefully be a formality. DS also has Dyspraxia causing problems with both fine and gross motor functions. He currently attends a Sensory Circuits group before school each morning, uses a writing slope and pencil grips. We're awaiting his next review to look at a possible physio referral for his posture.
DS copes very well in school generally - usual ASD issues with friendships, organisation, rigidity of rules, etc. etc. that come and go but on an even keel with no real help from school. However, we are well aware that he is not achieving anything like he should be academically. For all standardised tests, DS's scores are 125-135 and the school have acknowledged (verbally) that he is 'gifted and talented' in literacy, numeracy and science. We know that he is a very bright little boy with a huge vocabulary, an incredible memory and an fantastic ability to figure things out. (Sometimes the very simple things are the ones that challenge him the most!) To look at his work in school however you would think he was distinctly 'average'.
*I should say at this point that we are in no way pushy parents. Both my husband and I are teachers (DH is currently an education adviser for the County, I was a Primary teacher an part time SENCo but am no longer teaching due to having M.E.) so have a good understanding of children's abilities. We aren't all that interested in high levels just so long as our children are happy. We know that DS isn't perfect but we know that he is very bright, we know that he is incredibly frustrated at school and we know that he isn't meeting his potential.*
The school currently have him down as a level 3a across the board which is good for Y4, they have him predicted to get Level 5a in Y6 Assessments but in his written work he is only ever producing a level 3c. We have asked many many times how on earth they are hoping to get him to achieve these very high Y6 levels and they have no answer. Basically, they 'know' that he is bright and they 'know' that he has all the individual skills to achieve greatness but he never PROVES it in school. He is slow to write in literacy (even with the OT things in place), he is slow to type (and they are even slower to give him a laptop for typing tutor practice) and, more crucially, he is a total daydreamer/over-thinker when it comes to brain-to-paper activities. Maths is a good example - the teacher says he achieves all the desired learning objectives but never quickly enough to move on to the extension tasks, even though she knows he is perfectly capable of doing those too. That means that all the children in his group are being stretched and given real 'thinking' activities and he never gets this chance. In literacy he is so bogged down with recording things that he misses out on the activities that come when you're finished, and in science he rarely gets to finish practical activities as he is still copying things from the board or recording a title and date!
Aaaagggghhhh! With the maths example, the teacher sympathised(!) but said there was nothing she could do because she doesn't have a TA with her. We know as teachers that there are other things she can do like find a different way for him to record ideas, use a partner to help, structure the work easier, give him less 'basic' stuff so he has time to move on to the extension, etc.... but we are no experts in this. I guess my question to you all is - what do we do?! The SENCo seems resistant to help and I can't help but think that this is because they have no official diagnosis so she doesn't have to help, plus DS is a quiet, well behaved little boy who flies under the radar, doesn't do their stats any harm and his parents are 'nice'. We are still battling over whether he is actually on the school register as having SEN (I would think he'd be SAP) let alone having an IEP.
Are we being mugs? Should we go in and demand they do more? What more could they do? What are our rights? Are we being unreasonable? We're beginning to look towards secondary schools now, and although we haven't made any definite choices yet, we're pretty sure DS will need to pass an entrants exam for the more suitable schools which based on current he progress he just won't! More to the point, he is bored with school, bored with lessons and has an increasingly low self-esteem when it comes to learning.
Sigh. Sorry for wittering on so long!!! I'll be grateful for any wise words before heading into school to do battle!!!!
Thank you! Doris
