llywela | (no subject)

Sunday morning, and waiting for Small to wake up. She's so nocturnal, and always has been. Since she was very very tiny, she's always fought sleep in the nights and then struggled to wake up in the mornings.

When the family came round for the barbeque last night, Mum showed me the Educational Psychologist's report on Small, which goes before the Panel next week for statementing. It made fairly grim reading. She does seem to come out as Semantic-Pragmatic, which is, in effect, a high-functioning form of autism.

Googling the condition, she really does pretty much fit the profile. And while there may be objections to 'labelling', in a sense it does make the challenging behaviour easier to cope with if you know there is a reason for it.

The Ed Psych also confirmed that her problems all stem from a language disorder. She scored highly in anything non-verbal, but came out very, very poorly in the verbal assessments, anything that required proper use of language. She needs a lot of input to get her ready for high school in a year, and the Ed Psych was appalled that so little had been done up to now. The school really screwed up - they were supposed to refer her a long time ago, but let it slip.

On the bright side, though, the Ed Psych said that Small will probably do better when she goes up to Plas Mawr because they are one of the best schools in the city for special needs. She needs a lot of input to get her ready, both educationally and socially, but as a school it is strongly geared up to coping with her special needs.

So, fingers crossed for the statementing next week. Trouble is, most local authorities really drag their heels over statementing children, because they then have to pay for the additional support. But the bottom line is that children are put forward for statementing because they desperately need it. Touch wood they'll put the statement on Small so she can start receiving the support she so badly needs.

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Fingers crossed for your family regarding the Statementing Jo. We should be starting the process for R at the end of this month. It does seem to be a long-drawn-out process and a bit of a lottery.

Thanks, Christine. It really is a long, nightmare process and a tremendous lottery - having a child in desperate need of support is no guarantee of statementing, because authorities are so reluctant to commit themselves financially. Fingers crossed for R, too - hopefully, by starting the process this early, she'll get the support she needs all the way through school, unlike Small.

::touches wood for Small::

Thanks, Ros!

:prays really hard for things to get better, and all things good happen for you and your family :

*huggles*

Thanks, Lina. And *huggles* for you, too

My cousin's dyslexic and is supposed to go the best special-needs school in Cardiff, so I guess it is that one! Gets on really well there - but like with Small, took ages for them to sort anything out for her.

Yeah, Plas Mawr isn't a special needs school - it's mainstream with an excellent special needs capacity. There's a couple of good special needs schools in the city, though - I've got a cousin at one of them. I'd guess your cousin must be at one of those. :)