My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

[Baxter]

Hi all,
Dont know whether this is the correct place to start this thread but hear goes, my youngest little boy Sam is Autistic mild/moderate, with behavioural problems and dyspraxia, Ive been fighting and complaining to my local educational dept for the last 6 years, simply to get him extra support in school, Ive been through every emotion possible, from wanting to actualy hit someone, to feeling utter despair, the worry for my child to be successfuly educated took over my life for 6 long years, even though I had all reports about the difficulties he faced at school, it was played down by the LEA, red tape and money, ive been lied to, they withheld information from me and its taken me years of educating myself as to my rights as a parent, to be heard, well 2-3 weeks ago I got the news that I believed would never come, Sam has been issued with a statement of special educational needs and at last he will get help on a one to one basis for 50% of the week, as well as other support, im still in shock, reclaiming bank charges is a doddle compared to haveing your child issued with a statement, every thing else seems less important now...B

[Tools]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Fantastic news Baxter,

Better than any charges claim in my eyes, keep the pressure on and make sure he gets what has been promised.

[calamity jane]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Great news Baxter.

We all want the best for our children and it's very frustrating and annoying when people in "authority" can't see the obvious. Your perseverance and determination has paid off. Well done

[enaid]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Well done Baxter for not letting them wear you down and finally getting the answers and help you deserve. It really sickens me when the "experts" read a few books pass a few exams and try to tell you that they know your child better than you do. Keep us informed on his progress. Enaid x

[Nattie]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Baxter, am not sure whether you have come across this organisation but if not I would have a good read
http://www.nas.org.uk/ The link is the National Autistic Society.

just to add one more link
http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/ That one is the Dyspraxia Foundation.

[Nattie]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

I would add something about the statement, sometimes the difficulty with it is that it should not be too, how shall I phrase this, positive because if it is the child does not get the best help for their needs.

[theGobbyOne]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Well done Baxter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Celestine]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Fantastic news Baxter.

It is terrible that it has taken 6 years to achieve though. How old is your son?
I'm delighted that he will now get the support he needs.....but I have to question the long term impact of him not receiving adequate support previously.

Did they ignore key evidence or teachers reports? It just seems strange that they now concede he is entitled. What changed??

Well done on your perseverance. My brother had the same issues as a child and it took mum years to get the help he needed.

[crashbandicoot]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Hi Baxter, that is fantastic news that you have got a Statement for your son now, it will hopefully make things a lot easier to get him the correct support he needs. Make sure you keep the statement updated as he gets older, as his needs may change etc. It's terrible that you've had to fight so much for it, but am really happy for you

Crash

[Baxter]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Thank you all so much, Celestine, my son is now 10 years old and when he was in nursery school it was noticed that he was not interacting with the other children, I watched him through the window without his knowledge and the whole time he did not speak or play with the other children, he was 4 years old at that time, the school he attended at the time got Occupational Therepy involved who used to come and see him every now and again and the child Psychologist, who reported that Sam had a very short attention span, could not sit still and had very poor pencil control, he had poor hand eye co-ordination, had problems catching balls, walking on the black line, hopping on 1 foot, poor fine motor skils and they susspected that he had Dyspraxia, the school applied to our LEA for him to be assessed but at the time the criteria for issuing SENs changed, so they gave him a c banding instead of carrying out an assessment, which means they are aware he has problems, but these are to be met with the resourses already available within the school, I worried all the time about him in that school, he had no friends and spent every playtime skipping around the yard on his own, in class I was told every night that Sam would not follow rules and had been put outside the door,
when he was moving from infant to junior school, in the summer holidays I decided to look to place him in another school as I believed that they were not doing enough to support him, and also asked my GP to refer him to CAMHS and they were brilliant, I got him moved to our local catholic school which had much smaller class size and his new teacher who was much younger than his other teacher had an excellent understanding of Sam being Sam, and they built up a very good relationship, i the meantime Id been taking him to CAMHS and their clinical impression was that Sam had mild/moderate Autism with behavioural problems and Dyspraxia.
Id previously requested myself that the LEA undertake assessment of Sam and they wrote to me stating that they were informing me that they had decided not to undertake stat ass but moderated his needs at band D which gave his school a little more support, when I called for an explaination I was told that the decision is from a panel and they can only make their decisions on the information provided, I then said I wanted to appeal and was told that I had no rights of appeal to a none statutoty decision. I woke up in the night about 2 o clock and got up and wrote a 5 page letter of complaint, there was no early intervention and I did not know where to turn to get my child help, I can remember I ended the letter with, "you will be hearing from me again and I will get my son the help he needs to complete his education" I cried when he was in the other school and on his own all the time, In his new school Sam is the 1st Autistic child they've had so its been a learning curve for us all, they arranged for whoever was on yard duty, that if Sam was on his own, to ask other kids to ask him to join in their play, which was great for him, they got in a different child Psychologist who had a much better understanding of how and why Sam acts the way he does and it was he who guided us through the application for him to be assessed again, he told me of all my rights as a parent and that if I did not agree with any of the LEA decisions that I DID have the right to appeal, that same woman who lied to me is still there so when we learned that they were going to issue Sam with a statement it was the same woman that signed the letter, including the proposed statement for Sam, I called the child psychologist and spoke to him about the contents of the proposed statement and he advised that it was what he had hoped for, that Sam has support on a one to one basis for 50% of the week and access to the Advisory teacher specialising in ASD, also access to outside profesionals to help Sam develop his social skills,
So ive written to this woman (its me again) and ive signed the proposed statement on the condition that she explains each and every provision, ie access to an adult trained in fine motor skills, how much access will he have, what help will he get from health professionals for his emotional development, Ive insisted that I want all the proposed statement rewritten to include in hours and how many times a week he will be supported in these ways. I ended my letter by stating" after the period of time that has past since requesting help for my child as to his educational welfare, I need to be sure now that the proposed statement will meet his needs and also as he is now 10 years old and early intevention was denied, and at that time you personaly gave me incorrect information regarding the appeal process, I believe that there is no more time to be wasted and to be sure that he has all the support he needs before leaving primary education for secondry education, I await your prompt reply, that was nearly 2 weeks ago and she has not replied so another phone call tomorrow, I just know that woman will be dreading my call...B

[Baxter]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

You Know, the worst thing about all that has happened and all Sams been denied, is that Autistic children have no malice in them, he is such a loving little boy and I get a great deal of pleasure just being with him, the co ndition is a very complicated one, where he has such a short term memory span forgets everything yet he can remember every cheat on any playstation game hes played on, they are stored in his head, when he hears music such as Keane or coldplay, he hears it differently to us, he can pick out the instruments as they are played, where as we just hear the whole song, im looking to get him piano lessons now, and hes learned how to talk in sign language (the kiddies style) without us noticing, he still cant ride a bike and his balance is poor, fine motor skills like fastening buttons zips, cant do those type of things, and he goes through different periods of obsessiveness, weve had the Titanic, he knows everything there is to know about it, trains, and his thing at the moment is clocks, he has 2 on the floor beside him in the living room and 1 on the wall and they are all set to the second, the other day I opened my laptop and there in the middle of the screen was a big clock, I just had to laugh, and he tells me the time at least 30 times every night, Oh hes so lovely, I just reply "is it son, but hes driving me nuts bless him...B

[scottishlass]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

He sounds lovely Baxter, and I hope you get the help he needs, my 14 year old has just been diagnosed with Aspergers,I am waiting for a meeting with the school and his Psychologist to see what they are going to do about helping him,the main areas he needs help with is social skills,he is trying very hard,and they have improved at school,English and Maths he is not doing as well as he should be,his writing is hardly legible which isn't helping with his grades.

At the moment he is fascinated with the inner workings of his computer,and is always looking for better and faster components to put in it. The latest being only (his words not mine) £2000 and could he get one for his birthday

Everything he owns gets taken apart and I find all the bits under his bed,he is also very cuddly,he constantly stops what he is doing just to come and give me a cuddle then just goes away again without saying anything.

[enaid]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Well for not quite the same reasons, I have had my share of fights with "authority" won some lost some. I am just happy that you two are on the ball and are not backing down till you get the help and support that is needed, in whatever degree.
I must say too, that although I have had no experience with Autism or Aspergers or the problems it brings. It looks to me like you have amazing children, one maybe a concert pianist in the future, the other a new Bill Gates you never know. Either way good luck to you both and although they will "drive you nuts" at times, have a look outside and see if some of the so called "normal" kids wouldn't do the same. Enaid x

[crashbandicoot]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Go get em Baxter...you have absolutely every right to ask for specifics in the statement, given that they overlooked his situation way back when you initially raised your concerns. I have recently seen an Indian film called 'Taare Zameen Par' (Stars on the Earth) which is an excellent film about a child with Dyslexia, and a lot of the things you're describing about your son are shown in the film, where everyone just tells him off for being naughty, and not doing work properly, when to that boy, the writing on the books seems to be 'dancing'. It is in Hindi, but available with subtitles I think...try and fish it out from the library and watch it..very moving.

My son is four and he was diagnosed with severe to profound deafness at 2 yrs old, despite me raising my concerns as early as when he was 6 mths old. So in a sense he lost out on two years of speech and language because of the late diagnosis, but more than this, he was really really hard work when he was little, and everyone told me he was 'naughty', or 'acting up for attention' when in actual fact it was his frustration of not being able to communicate with anyone. He's now statemented and wears hearing aids full time, and goes to a fantastic school where they really bring out the best in him. They love him to bits, and always tell me how much of an intelligent and caring boy he is (so sod all of you who said he wasn't pmsl!) It's been a bit of a battle, but we're getting there. Usually it's not what's wrong with the child, but the ignorance of others that causes the child to suffer unncessarily.

Rant over

Crash

[Baxter]

Re: My 6 year battle with my LEA is over

Hi Crash, its all down to money at the end of the day, and how much the LEA can keep hold of for "other things", they told me that "Sam was described as a likeable little boy who was eager to please" and that their resourses were limited" yet when I complained that his nature had no bearing on his educational welfare and that their limited resources should be used to help primary school children who need that help now, not when he was 14 or 15 years old and in trouble all the time because he could not keep up, and its not cool to be called "thick or stupid" so being naughty and getting into trouble to escape lessons, how much of their limited resources would it cost if he did get into big trouble and end up in young offenders or even prison (not that this would ever happen, hes manic about following the rules), their reply was, that funding was not taken into account when making any decisions, contradiction eh,
I phoned "that woman" today and was told twice that she was in a meeting, after they asked who was calling, tomorrow im Mrs Smith..B