• Replies 2 replies
  • Subscribers 65 subscribers
  • Views 868 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Autistic son starting Primary School (Scotland) - what are options?

DustyCrophopper

Hi everyone.

My son was born at the end of June 2010, and will be starting primary school August next year.

He's currently in a private nursery.  After being diagnosed with Autism we considered moving him to a specialist nursery, but we felt that it took so long for him to settle in the current place that this would be unhelpful to his development over the last few months.  The nursery staff he currently has are incredible, and great with Jacob.  He's making great progress especially in the last 3 months.

The Local Authority have been somewhat slow in getting involved.  We mentioned to their education team, again, about 2-3 weeks ago that we were concerned he would need a space in a special education needs unit.  Something happened last week as we suddenly got a visit from an educational psychologist, and then got told we're having a cross-team meeting next Tuesday, which would be used to decide the best route for Jacob.

We believe there are two options to us, going ahead (it would be good to know if there's other options?):

  1. Go into mainstream education with help given on-site at his local primary school.

  2. Go into a special education unit with the option to transition in future years depending on progress.

My major concern is Jacob's "immaturity" - he's clearly quite sharp at certain things, however most of his language and capabilities are perhaps at the stage of a 2 year old.  He currently has an extremely extremely short attention span (although we're managing to slowly build on this), and we know this will make formal learning very difficult for him and his teacher(s).

What I would prefer would be that Jacob had a deferred entry into primary school, on the grounds that he'd be more suited to it 12 months down the line.  I've been casually told that this is flat-out impossible.  Any further discussion about this is immediately shut down by the local authority.

I'm not concerned about Jacob's academic achievement, I just want him to enjoy school... as it stands I just can't see how he's ready.

In the year that he's outside of school we would prefer to see him placed in a nursery unit, or we could pay for private nursery / tuition (would be tough for us but we'd manage).  We currently pay for ABA therapy privately, and would be looking to do more of this in the following year.

Both myself and my wife are a bit confused - we don't know what's feasible, or what's best...

Hope you can help,

Alan

  • I think previously he was struggling with communication, but now he's more comfortable with it.  12 months ago he would attempt almost any other way to communicate without using his voice, and now he'll speak as his primary means, and occasionally take my hand if he wants to direct me to something physical he can't describe.

    Now... if I had to describe most of his symptoms, he'd sound mostly like a 2-3 year old who has some autismy behaviours.  I just feel that because of this having just a little more time to mature will make huge differences to him.

    We've spoken to some other parents and such like, but a lot of their children have more profound problems.

    I'm going to call IPSEA advice line today and the Scottish Autism helpline, too.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi DustyCrophopper,

    It is difficult to comment on a case like this when we have little to go on so bear with me if I make some false assumptions.

    You say that he is bright. Is the problem that he is opting out of communicating because he struggles with communication but within his head he is as bright as any other 4yo? This is a fairly frequent situation for some autistic children. There might be a danger that he might get placed in a special school where any hope for normal life is abandoned.

    Have you contacted the NAS helpline for assistance and advice? Are there any local groups for parents and carers in your area? It may help to discuss this with other people in your area as they will know more about the local system and local services that are available.