Any support. on statmenting would be nice:-)

mummytofour

kissjenn wrote: »

Hi,

I really wanted to offer support more than any practical help. My son was diagnosed as having an ASD 13 years ago, he's just turned 16 now. Scotland at that point didn't admit children to school or offer any form of specialised nursery care until they were 5 however Glos admitted them at 4 so we stayed an extra year in England.

Having been in the two systems I have to say I found the Scottish easier to deal with and less bureaucratic and we've been involved with good and bad schools and units on both sides of the border.

I wanted you to know that you can find the help you need but you have to gird your loins because for some reason they make as hard as they can a lot of the time.

DS is going on work experience to a solicitors next week and wants to go to uni to train as an accountant. He's big and hairy and very funny and has benefited hugely from specialist help in a language unit in a mainstream primary to being integrated into a class of younger children who all accept him as one of their own. He couldn't say more than one word at a time when we got here aged 5 and last year won the school debating prize. His problems are still there but he has them more and more under control and has learned coping techniques and strategies which work well for him.

For a child who was exluded almost daily from the specialist unit in Glos, who went with his nappies in his rucksack and who couldn't recognise his own name to the boy who sits his Standard (GCSE equiv) Exams next summer is a miracle. He's not cured but some wonderful people in some wonderful schools changed him from the "no-hoper" Glos excluded to the Uni candidate today.

Keep the faith and know you are doing the right thing for your children regardless of what any school or council officials say.

You have mad me cry and given me hope, so much hope you will never know. As a parent of 2 ASD kids it has being worrying me very much of late what will happen later in their lives especially for my little one.

I am so pleased your son has comes so far. A huge pat on the back from me, you must be an amazingly supportive mummy to have helped your ds come so far!