We went to see the private Ed.Psych on Monday and she did an ADOS test which confirmed all we have known for the past year (and more that we didn't know). CY DOES HAVE ASPERGER'S SYNDROME. The report will be ready in a couple of weeks, but she noticed loads of things that even we as his parents haven't cottoned on to.
Now perhaps they can pull their finger out at the LEA and get him the education he deserves. And we can start understanding our son instead of having every problem tinged with 'does he know what he's doing and needs a sanction or does he genuinely not understand?'
Am also getting more and more angry and appalled at the statement from our Ed.Welfare Officer when I said the only way CY would get qualifications would be to have home tutors and her reply was 'Perhaps we have to face up to fact that CY is not going to have the kind of life where he needs qualifications'. Yes, thanks for writing my son off when he's 12.
Today I have spoken to the SENCO at CY's school to let her know we will be taking up a place at the PRU if poss (so no more trying to get him into mainstream for the moment) and we'll be pushing for home tutors via assessment and possible Statement. She said school still didn't have enough evidence to do this themselves but that we should. Also said our private Ed.Psych had spoken to the school Ed.Psych (eek, anything over 5 minutes and we are having to pay the private Ed.Psych for her time!). She confirmed the actual report will be available in 2 weeks. I confirmed we will be writing to CAMHS to tell them of developments and hurry them up for a report, which is needed for LEA assessment.
Rang EWO at LEA to tell her we are keen to take up place at PRU and pursue home tutors. She wasn't in but GB is passing the message on.
Now ringing CAMHS Key Worker to find out name of Psych who is doing the tests there and see if we can hurry that up.
This is a full time job - there should be a person who does this co-ordinating for you!
Wednesday 15 July 2009
Tuesday 7 July 2009
Current thoughts
Why have we had to pay privately for a diagnosis? In what other sphere of medicine would it be appropriate for a child to have to wait a year for a diagnosis while the finger is pointed at the parents because he can't get into school?
Why haven't the school written an IEP after a year??
Why haven't we been sent the minutes of any meetings yet?
Why have they failed to notify me by post of the last two meetings?
Why are they insisting they can't apply for an LEA assessment and statement without a diagnosis when every other forum./ parent partnership etcare telling me otherwise?
Why haven't the school written an IEP after a year??
Why haven't we been sent the minutes of any meetings yet?
Why have they failed to notify me by post of the last two meetings?
Why are they insisting they can't apply for an LEA assessment and statement without a diagnosis when every other forum./ parent partnership etcare telling me otherwise?
Wednesday 1 July 2009
Almost there with diagnosis :-)
After hearing 'we can only apply for support once he has a diagnosis' one too many times, and knowing that CAMHS will take UP TO A YEAR before CY is at the top of their list, we decided to take him to a private Ed.PSych. The lad just needs support and we didn't know what we we dealing with, so armed with an interest free credit card, we took him on Monday. Why can't the NHS be so easy? Why should we have to wait a year for our child to be tested when he has a medical problem. It's shocking, disgusting and I AM going to write to my MP about it.
Anyway.
CY was very co-operative with the private Ed. Psych. She was brilliant. In two hours of testing she could tell us the following:
He DOES have a Pervasive Developmental Disorder and it is likely to be Asperger's - she's going to do the ADOS test in 10 days time.
He is a very visual thnker and finds it very difficult to learn from words - hence preference for TV history programmes over books.
He has a severe probelm with his 'processing speed' which will need addressing.
He is gifted in maths but average at the other things she looked at. His lang problems manifest in his writing (spelling, handwriting process, reading for meaning) not really in his verbal language.
She DOES NOT recommend a special school placement as she thinks it is inappropriate, instead she thinks we should pursue LEA funded home tutors. YAY!!!!!!
She is going to write us a report after the ADOS. I spoke to the SENCO at school today and she still won't put in an LEA assessement request until we have the written report in front of us.
CY is still refusing school most days and will need a tutor who can tailor lessons to his specific ways of learning. He has missed almost two years of school now, attending only a couple of days a week at best and missing months at a time at worst. At least we are getting somewhere now, but it will have cost us about 1600 pounds in private Psychologist appointments and we are just a normal family who don't actually have that lying around! It's not right that we have had to do this.
Anyway.
CY was very co-operative with the private Ed. Psych. She was brilliant. In two hours of testing she could tell us the following:
He DOES have a Pervasive Developmental Disorder and it is likely to be Asperger's - she's going to do the ADOS test in 10 days time.
He is a very visual thnker and finds it very difficult to learn from words - hence preference for TV history programmes over books.
He has a severe probelm with his 'processing speed' which will need addressing.
He is gifted in maths but average at the other things she looked at. His lang problems manifest in his writing (spelling, handwriting process, reading for meaning) not really in his verbal language.
She DOES NOT recommend a special school placement as she thinks it is inappropriate, instead she thinks we should pursue LEA funded home tutors. YAY!!!!!!
She is going to write us a report after the ADOS. I spoke to the SENCO at school today and she still won't put in an LEA assessement request until we have the written report in front of us.
CY is still refusing school most days and will need a tutor who can tailor lessons to his specific ways of learning. He has missed almost two years of school now, attending only a couple of days a week at best and missing months at a time at worst. At least we are getting somewhere now, but it will have cost us about 1600 pounds in private Psychologist appointments and we are just a normal family who don't actually have that lying around! It's not right that we have had to do this.
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