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Confused about whether I should be doing anything else?

Oatcakes

Hi

I managed to pluck up courage to speak to my sons teacher today. I prepared well and managed not to cry. She is a lovely person and I discussed the issues DS has been having for the last year.

She was great and said 'whatever it is, your son is suffering it is very real to him and we need to make him feel better'. It was a lovely way of putting it. When I suggested High functioning Autism as a possibility it was like a light bulb went off in her head...lots of 'yes he does this and that etc'. She thinks it's possibly the reason behind some of the problems we have been experiencing.

I felt relieved it was not just me and my partner seeing these things. So she has already been astute enough to put our boy in a class which is more  structured and with a teacher who is 'very straight down the middle' ..that will help him a lot, grey areas and instructions leave him frustrated and confused. 

Also she is going to speak to the Head and SENCO for further advice. SO the question is do I need to do anything else in the meantime? I have camhs coming in Aug and the teacher mentioned a CAF ? I know what this is but am unsure who I request this off?

Should I sit back for now and wait or be chasing anyone else..she warned me things move slowly so I want to try and keep things ticking along as much as is possible.

Any pointers you can offer would be very much appreciated.

thanks

  • OK I had a verbal response today..just battled for an hour to get my son to school, got headbutted and kicked then am met with:

    'We would like you to monitor your sons behaviour over the holidays and if he becomes anxious on his return to school we will accept it's school anxiety'

    This is a very overlly simplistic way of not dealing with the issues raised. I am NOT saying it's the school fault I am saying my son has his own set of issues and agendas. I have categorically stated all year that on his return to school, be it after weekends, holidays or return due to illness, his behaviour becomes more problematic.

    So as I said above it looks like very little will be done until I can get some sort of input from a professional regarding diagnosis.

    Despite being utterly deflated by the Head teachers response I managed to negotiate (with his current teacher) my son being put in his new class and a phased introduction to take place over the next week. She even is going to make sure his one and only friend can accompany him on these 'visits' (yah!). I also managed to get her to agree to 'quiet time out'..the hard part will be getting my son to realise when he needs this..but am working on that one..suggestions welcome please!

    I am so tired and stressed and feel I have been repeating myself constantly with the school. Ah well at least I achieved something and I get the impression the teacher feels much the same as I do but is too professional to say so 

    Wish me luck with the school run

    X

     

  • Cheers your comments have been really helpful. Just been warned 'off the record' by another professional that I will have to really chase and put everything in writing to the school or it's possible very little may actually happen..:(

    I am feeling less hopeful that anything will be set up or in practice before my son gets assessed and a diagnosis. I think you are correct in saying that until we know one way or another nothing is going to happen.

    I am going to have to start putting everything in a letter this week and try and speak to the SENCO before the end of term. 

    I am also going to speak to a special needs teacher I know  to see if she can give me any pointers in the meantime too.

    Thanks again for the advice it is much appreciated.

    x

  • Hi, our daughter has recently been diagnosed with high functioning autisim. It took some time to get adiagnosis from CAMH's but durring that time our school nurse arranged us us to see the community peadiatric consultant who was fantastic and she in turn referred us to the community peadiatric OT's who out of all the proffessionals involved were by far the best they were able to break down all of our daughters problems and gave ourselves and school a complete guide to how to cope with her difficulties with noise which caused her great distress, eating, also paying attention in class. You could also ask to see the educational psychologist in our area they are available to speak to regarding any concerns you might have in school and will paly a part in developing an appropriate IEP for your son. I gues the bigest thing is to get a diagnosis from CAHM's. Once we had a diagnosis we went to look at the local speacial school and asked lots of stuff about how they mange the problems our duaghter has this was great and came away with lots of good ideas to use in school. there is also a Autisim outreach service which can give school and yourself help and support but I'm not sure if you would need a diagnosis first to get involved with these. 

    Hope things work out well for you and your son best of luck.