It has been almost 5 years since my son was diagnosed with autism. He was 3 years old and had speech delay, which is the main fact that made me chase for a diagnosis of what was wrong with him. Just before he was 2 years old, he started to have massive tantrums for no apparent reason and his eating habits changed drastically. He was still not speaking, but by the time he was 3 years old, he was speaking a little.
My son is almost 8 years old now. He speaks very well and is an excellent reader. Academically he is fine, although I started to notice a decline recently. The school he attends has a very strong SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) and a wonderful Headteacher who gave me hints he will need a statement. They are very suppportive, which is like winning the lottery in England.
'Go for i!' the Headteacher said.
'You don't need my permission to request a statutory assessment, Mr Headteacher. Why don't you go for it?'
'We don't want to do that without the parents' agreement,' he said.
'I am gathering more evidence.' I said.
'We have loads of evidence already.' He said.
Well, I knew he was right. But I speak to a lot of parents of children with ASD and the horror stories I hear about requesting this statutory assessment gives me nightmares. I already have a very stressful life and I am sure I will add more stress to it. But, on the other hand, my child is intelligent and he deserves all the help he can get. Why not fight a little harder for him?
As you can probably imagine, this is going to be the beginning of my appeal. Yes, because I am sure that the Local Education Authority (LEA) will deny the request. So, here starts my diary that will show every detail of what is going to happen from the day the letter was sent to request a statutory assessment (it was 28 March 2011) until the very end.
Are you prepared for it? I am not sure I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment