RE: Re: Special schools (UK)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for replies

Sophie communicates by taking us by the hand to whatever she wants, or making different tone noises to show her emotions like if she is happy or bored or sad or excited etc

She is being encouraged to choose from cards at mainstream nursery which she is beginning to do

We use a DAN doctor in UK who I think is a genius (started 2 months ago)

xx

To: Autism-Biomedical-Europe From: mmcivor@...Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:31:59 +0000Subject: Re: Special schools (UK)

--- Establishing Operations Inc do some v good training dvds including one on manding or requesting .How does your daughter communicate at school and home?In Autism-Biomedical-Europe , "malcolm4237" wrote:>> ---its v worrying but sadly common that the sp school won't give you a detailed > answer.You will have to push and( ask in writing?) as to how are they going to teach your > daughter.> If they were implementing pecs correctly(and many don't),they should give you > details.Many children do start to say some words when they start pecs.> > The school might say they have an TEACCH or eclectic approach in which case it could be > a mish mash which won't help your child at all. There's only a handful in the country that > use verbal behaviour type ABA (2 in essex).Unfortunately majority of our sp schools > believe that speech just comes spontaneously as with typical or hfa kids.> Nina> > In Autism-Biomedical-Europe , "bornlivelife2" <peter_2_@> wrote:> >> > Could people tell me what we should expect and hope for from a > > special school > > > > We have a SEN statement and 1:1 assistant in a mainstream school > > where our 4 yrs 2 mths daughter is doing fine EXCEPT no speech > > except babbling> > > > We have started a 2 day mainsteam/ 3 day special school split > > placement (where she is in a class of 8, with 8 teachers). > > > > What additional things should a Special school do to primarily help > > her speech? Because if they arent doing any more than mainstream> > > > My dream was:> > > > PECS - advise us exact details so we can replicate at home> > ABA - becasue people say it is great - again we need to replicate > > it at home> > > > I keep asking the Special school what ADDITIONAL HELP (compared to > > mainstream) they are providing, and am unable to get an answer> > > > Thanks for any help on this> > > > xx> >> Take your friends with you with Mobile Messenger. Click Here!

[Guest guest]

Hi

my son goes to a asd unit within a special school. He went to mainstream until he was 7 we did ABA from age 2 very intense lovaas programme. When Jordan was 7 we as a family ,his tutors and school staff agreed that his needs were not being met as we still had no speech (aged 11 now still have not) it was getting increasingly difficult for Jordan to fit in and his behaviour was reflecting this. It was clear he was not happy. We decided that Jordan was being excluded from too many things and we wanted a degree of normality (if you can ever achieve this!) we just wanted him to access the same as the other children. We continued ABA for the next 2 years within the unit and then it was slowly phased out as the LA and school were not willing to continue. Jordan still has 1 to 1 and unofficially still learns in the ABA way as it is the same tutor. Jordan has an individual timetable but does access the same social experiences as the other children. The school has 2 clinical psychologists (1 day a week each) 2 days a week speech therapy, sensory room, fully operational pecs and teaach and only 6 children per class. They go out into the community and learn life skills as well as other curriculum subjects. In Jordans class there are 4 staff. Although I wonder what may have happened if were still 100% ABA the school is excellent and is a beacon school with many highly qualified and experienced staff. I think it depends on the individual what works Jordan is progressing not as fast as we would like but in the right direction. 7.5 years of intensive ABA (50 hrs per week) did not give Jordan speech we just have to accept that some children dont get it , having said that we never give up, his communication skills are very good and understanding is excellent. We are sure that special education is right for Jordan and Jordan's school does give a special education all children are treated as individuals.

mariella

[Guest guest]

Both my boys go to special schools the reason being youngest is way too profound to even consider mainstream and oldest has been in mainstream but with age was fitting in less and less with the other children. More a case of getting away from mainstream than anything "special" in special schools, in this neck of the woods at least.

My experience is statement is worth tiddly squat if the staff are not trained properly in any setting.

A lot also depends on what your expectations are, don't want to speak out of turn about other parents but many I have met are just happy that their children are in school and settled, not much scope here for a proactive parent group as they all seem for the most part satisfied.

We have recently had a meeting with school to introduce a communication programme, it's going well but in all honesty the very fact I have to ask for this in an autism resource within an SLD school where the vast majority are non verbal says it all!

I am considered something of a "pain" by most schools my boys have been in and the LEA but you know I am only asking for an education that is relevent to my children, we have paid enough tax for everyone else's children to get an education.

OK enough pussyfooting around I think the education my boys have had to date aged 11 and 13 is total crap, special, mainstream, both, but special is better in terms of childs confidence and self image especially once they reach secondary level imo.

Vicky

[Guest guest]

It was a simple question really

I will try different wording:

"Are there any people here using UK specials schools, if so ,why?"

Thanks

xx

To: Autism-Biomedical-Europe From: m.collins9@...Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:02:40 +0000Subject: Re: Special schools (UK)

My son has been to 2 Local Authority Special Schools. From my admittedly limited experience my view is that there is nothing special about a special school. Don't expect the staff to have any training in how to teach your child, don't expect much in the way of assessment, don't expect anything in fact. Ask hard questions about what they would do for your child. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes.Margaret> >> > Could people tell me what we should expect and hope for from a > > special school > > > > We have a SEN statement and 1:1 assistant in a mainstream school > > where our 4 yrs 2 mths daughter is doing fine EXCEPT no speech > > except babbling> > > > We have started a 2 day mainsteam/ 3 day special school split > > placement (where she is in a class of 8, with 8 teachers). > > > > What additional things should a Special school do to primarily help > > her speech? Because if they arent doing any more than mainstream> > > > My dream was:> > > > PECS - advise us exact details so we can replicate at home> > ABA - becasue people say it is great - again we need to replicate > > it at home> > > > I keep asking the Special school what ADDITIONAL HELP (compared to > > mainstream) they are providing, and am unable to get an answer> > > > Thanks for any help on this> > > > xx> >> Read amazing stories to your kids on Messenger. Try it Now!

[Guest guest]

"Are there any people here using UK specials schools, if so ,why?"

>>Sam is in an Autism (not Aspergers, not PDD) Independant Special School. He's there because there is nowhere else for him.

Early Years was awesome, he started full time at 3.5 years, Class 1 was a nightmare, 5 different teachers, only two of them any good, he's in class 2 now, new headteacher, 2 full time SLP's (for 55 kids), new teacher, new curriculum, great progress. The Red Wing, lower school, 2-13 years are now streamed for Maths, English and Science, they move around like kids in Senior School. Manic to start with but they are all cool about it now.

I introduced PECS at 2 years, he was proficient to Phase 4 before he started. He was one of only 2 kids using when he started but since (due to me and LEA ganging up together and forcing whole school training) its what the nonverbal use. He now has a machine, I forget whats its called, with PECS cards that talk when pressed, he likes to use it to make the staff stop and start, thinks its a hoot but is not interested in using it at home.

If your child does not have a means of functional communication I would recommend attending the PECS intro course and asking the school how many staff have been trained. I saw many kids progress to spoken words with PECS, unfortunately not Sam.

HTHMandi x

[Guest guest]

An Alphasmart?

Sally

Mum231ASD@... wrote:

>

> In a message dated 20/12/2008 16:18:16 GMT Standard Time,

> peter_2_@... writes:

>

> " Are there any people here using UK specials schools, if so ,why? "

>

> >>Sam is in an Autism (not Aspergers, not PDD) Independant Special

> School. He's there because there is nowhere else for him.

>

> Early Years was awesome, he started full time at 3.5 years, Class 1

> was a nightmare, 5 different teachers, only two of them any good, he's

> in class 2 now, new headteacher, 2 full time SLP's (for 55 kids), new

> teacher, new curriculum, great progress. The Red Wing, lower school,

> 2-13 years are now streamed for Maths, English and Science, they move

> around like kids in Senior School. Manic to start with but they are

> all cool about it now.

>

> I introduced PECS at 2 years, he was proficient to Phase 4 before he

> started. He was one of only 2 kids using when he started but since

> (due to me and LEA ganging up together and forcing whole school

> training) its what the nonverbal use. He now has a machine, I forget

> whats its called, with PECS cards that talk when pressed, he likes to

> use it to make the staff stop and start, thinks its a hoot but is not

> interested in using it at home.

>

> If your child does not have a means of functional communication I

> would recommend attending the PECS intro course and asking the school

> how many staff have been trained. I saw many kids progress to spoken

> words with PECS, unfortunately not Sam.

>

> HTH

> Mandi x

>

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

>

> No virus found in this incoming message.

> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com

> Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.19/1859 - Release Date: 20/12/2008

14:34

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi

Have you looked into Makaton at all? We started Sebastien on it when he was around two and he picked it up very quickly and now has a couple hundred signs. It's pretty easy to learn for both children and adults. And you don't need to have cards so can be used anywhere. All the staff at his nursery have done training and it really opened up his world. An ABA consultant we worked with also said there was some research (don't know if this is true, just what he told me) to suggest that signing led to more speech skills than PECS because the brain made more connections (ie with signing you need to make a different sign for each word; with PECS you do the same action for each word even though you choose different cards). I'm not knocking PECS as I've never tried it but we have done very well with Makaton. It works best if you get the child to attempt speech with every sign, when they can do so. Sebastien can now say the beginning of most words so he will do both eg for snake he will sign snake and also say 'sss'.

I think I already told you about speech therapy but we only saw improvement once we started with a specialist speech therapist (in our case for apraxia). If you can get someone who is trained in the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme that would be useful as it is more structured than the other general therapy we had. We are also starting to use Kaufman Kits shortly as I went to her conference recently and was impressed. It's basically getting the child to say what they can for a word then gradually saying more of the word as they progress. I've started doing this with Sebastien and he can now read a couple of books. Even though I have to prompt each word and no one else would understand it, I do and it's given him so much more confidence to try reading more and we are now seeing some spontaneous words which we never had before.

Good luck with the school

To: autism-biomedical-europe From: peter_2_@...Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:07:26 +0000Subject: RE: Re: Special schools (UK)

Thanks for replies Sophie communicates by taking us by the hand to whatever she wants, or making different tone noises to show her emotions like if she is happy or bored or sad or excited etc She is being encouraged to choose from cards at mainstream nursery which she is beginning to do We use a DAN doctor in UK who I think is a genius (started 2 months ago) xx

To: Autism-Biomedical-Europe From: mmcivorbtinternetDate: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:31:59 +0000Subject: Re: Special schools (UK)

--- Establishing Operations Inc do some v good training dvds including one on manding or requesting .How does your daughter communicate at school and home?In Autism-Biomedical-Europe , "malcolm4237" wrote:>> ---its v worrying but sadly common that the sp school won't give you a detailed > answer.You will have to push and( ask in writing?) as to how are they going to teach your > daughter.> If they were implementing pecs correctly(and many don't),they should give you > details.Many children do start to say some words when they start pecs.> > The school might say they have an TEACCH or eclectic approach in which case it could be > a mish mash which won't help your child at all. There's only a handful in the country that > use verbal behaviour type ABA (2 in essex).Unfortunately majority of our sp schools > believe that speech just comes spontaneously as with typical or hfa kids.> Nina> > In Autism-Biomedical-Europe , "bornlivelife2" <peter_2_@> wrote:> >> > Could people tell me what we should expect and hope for from a > > special school > > > > We have a SEN statement and 1:1 assistant in a mainstream school > > where our 4 yrs 2 mths daughter is doing fine EXCEPT no speech > > except babbling> > > > We have started a 2 day mainsteam/ 3 day special school split > > placement (where she is in a class of 8, with 8 teachers). > > > > What additional things should a Special school do to primarily help > > her speech? Because if they arent doing any more than mainstream> > > > My dream was:> > > > PECS - advise us exact details so we can replicate at home> > ABA - becasue people say it is great - again we need to replicate > > it at home> > > > I keep asking the Special school what ADDITIONAL HELP (compared to > > mainstream) they are providing, and am unable to get an answer> > > > Thanks for any help on this> > > > xx> >>

Take your friends with you with Mobile Messenger. Click Here!

Get Windows Live Messenger on your Mobile. Click Here!