General Chat

Hello Dawn, I've only just looked at this board so forgive me for being one of the late comers!! recently on local TV News a technique was featured in regard to a local child who had suffered from fitting .from which she had nearly died and was left with severe brain damage. A centre in South of England has treating her and also autistic, cerebral palsy children etc. with dramatic results. It is Government recognised treatment so not anything weird!! www.advancecentre(.)org(.)uk remove brackets regards Jane

Dawn Thanks for keeping us updated. As someone who works in a primary school with special needs children, I know that speech therapists/educational psychologists are in very short supply and very high demand, which is why it sometimes takes a long time to get any action. Keep pushing, and we will be here to support you. nell

I can emphasise. My son now 25 is autistic. Even though he is more severely affected than your son it took until he was 16 to get an accurate diagnosis. Then psychiatrists were reluctant to label children - we had code such as social interaction problems and language delay. Has your son had a hearing test - it is always a good idea to rule out hearing difficulties. The national autistic society has a range of very good leaflets giving advice to parents on ways to help overcome some of the problems. Even if your son is not on the autistic spectrum some of the ideas might help. For anyone with an interest in autism I can recomment Tony Attwood's website. He is a British psychologist working at the university of Sydney and has written the best book on Asperger's syndrome I have come across. Was your son a premature baby?

Have read your threads and sympathise. You have every right to have your child assessed and if necessary 'statemented'. Having worked in a special school for 25 years I have seen first hand what a difference special education can make to a child. I know you are finding this difficult, but stick to your guns. I have seen people in your position many times, but believe me, the bigger a nuisance you make of yourself the better you will get on. Present yourself at your local education office and demand action now - not in the distant future. Your local Education Authority are duty bound to provide 'suitable education' for your child which at the moment they do not appear to be doing. Do not be put off. They will put the wheels in motion if they think you will pull your child out of school altogether until something is done. I hope you resolve this situation in the near future.

Dawn I know how you feel. I have been trying to get my son assessed for Aspersers since he was 2 years old, he is 7 now. He will be assessed in November by the Autistic spectrum. It has taken a lot of pushing from us (for which I have found to be very hard to do most of the time) I am having the worst week ever with his mood swings but we will get there in the end. good luck and keep pushing! take care Julia

It may not be easy for you Dawn, but you are doing it. I am so proud of you, we all started out being a little afraid. As you get older and you realize how hard you have to fight for your children, you get so good at it. It will become easier. Good girl, you have done a good job. Keep us informed, I feel I know him now so will be worrying!! Deanna.X........ got to have a worry! :-D)

Oh Dawn I do hope you get it sorted but you will have to stand up to them I'm afraid. My cousin has 2 daughters who were both struggling at primary school. She eventually got them both statemented - both were dyslexic. One is now at University and the other is eagerly waiting for her A Level results (or whatever they're called these days!). I wish you all the luck in the world. Debby

Have been reading your thread. Keep on plugging away at 'them' - you are doing this for your son & he deserves to get the help he needs. My niece is autistic & my sister had to keep on going to get her statemented etc. I can remember her telling me how many forms she had to fill in! But it did work out for her & my niece in the end. When in main stream infant & junior school my niece had a special needs helper for so many hours. Now she is 14 & at a great special needs school - exactly the one my sister hoped & prayed she would be able to attend. So, it is a hard slog but very much worth it in the end to find out what causes your son's problems & get him some extra help (apart from all the help & love that you give him). Wishing you well.

Couldn't get hold of the speech therapist today so instead of waiting til tomorrow when I am in and out all day and will find it hard to find time I have sent her letter so hopefully if she has a piece of paper in front of her she will do something. This standing my ground isnt coming easy to me.

Hi there, I have been following your story and just wanted to say that as a Primary school teacher myself, I can sympathise with both you and the school involved. I know only too well how slow things are to get going from the initial assessments in school to the reports going from the SENCO to the relevant departments. Sometimes reports get 'lost' in the system,or take months and months to get seen. Children may well have moved class or school and the process starts all over again. I does sound as if your son has some of the symptoms of both ADHD and Aspergers. How come it has taken so long for someone to do something? These things are usually detectable around Nursery age. Best wishes and hope you get some joy soon. Jackie

UPDATE Have taken hijm to doctors today and he hasn't been sent any reports from school or Speech Therapy. I now have to ask school to send him a report and the same for speech therapy and he will send letter to Education Physcologist to get him seen. This is what the Paediatric doctor suggested in Jan last year so as he has that letter he will do it once he has reports. More waiting around. When I get back from my physio appointment will ring specch therapy and ask and when they go back to school will ask them to do a report as well. Did help that I wrote everything down and he has kept my list for reference. Poor lad has virus as well. We all told him on Saturday (including my parents) that he had been on playstation too long as had a headache and felt sick. His temp went up and oon Sunday had a sore throat which he still has. Turns out its a virus but has made me watch how long is on his playstation as it is so attictive. Thank you for all your support Dawn

Good girl Dawn. I always wrote things down for the doctor.(still do) Then I could cross each thing off as we dealt with it. Good luck with it. Deanna X

Hi Dawn. I have sent you an email. Jill x

Dawn - my heart goes out to you. We had problems (minor but traumatic at the time) with our son but he is now a 'sorted' young man of 28, so hang on in there! He had speech therapy, wore built up shoes to straighten feet, and his attention/concentration was finally helped by learning CHESS, much to my amazement. At 13 he was on the 'under 21' England Squad and remained there for 6 years until he went to Uni (to study I.T.) - if you had told me when he was five that this would be his forte I would have laughed... He has never dealt easily with his own age group (I wondered if it was because his parents were late thirties when we had him) and is now married to a girl 8 years older. Good luck, I know it's hard to watch them struggle... Heather - that was appalling what was being used as a solution, by the teacher! Poor lad. Lily

Dawn, please use that email address i sent you. she will point you in the right direction. Shirley Ann.

Dawn As I am sure you are aware, a lot of people on this site are concerned for you and your son. When you go to the doctors next week remember that we all want to hear how you got on. I work with special needs children and the sooner they get the help they need, the better for everyone concerned. nell

UPDATE Have to ring doctors again tomorrow for appointment next week. In the meantime I am going to write down everything that he does and plonk that in front of the doctor that way I wont miss anything off and wont feel like a rambling crackpot. Decided I need to make my redhed and temper stand out more and stop just taking what they say for granted and not get fobbed off. That is going to be really hard as I will do anything to please others even if it means I miss out. Thank you for all your replies and when I have a few minutes to myself wiol check out the websites. Thanks again Dawn

Dawn, I would be back at the doctors and demand that he/she do something. It seems to me that your poor little lad has a problem, and no one seems interested enough to help him. Just don't you give up on him, you are all he has to fight for him. Lots of luck, and God Bless. Deanna (((((hugs)))))

Dawn, I agree with th other's who said sounds like Aspergers/ADHD/ Autism. I've 4 grandchildren from 2 families with Aspergers in varying degrees and your son sounds exactly like our 10 year old. You do need to get your son seen by a specialist so he can get all the help he needs. I hope you are in a good area as some areas are definately more helpful than others, but you do have to push push push even in a so called good area. Thankfully our daughters are now in a very good area in the North East and their children are getting the help they need with the 10 year old being given a place next year at a school that caters especially for Autistic Spectrum disorders. Good luck with your son and do look for a help group in your area as you will get loads of support from other mums.

Get an office board and get him to write down things he wants to remember or even put 2 up one with days, months and numbers on it and everytime he goes past he will notice and it might help. Dawn you have to get up and be noticed don't sit back on this make waves till he gets help