General Chat

Thank you for that Sheila, I just hope that my own experience will help others. Nicola x

thank you for that joan The statement is for secondary school, he dosen't need it for the school he is at because its a special needs mainstream school and they give him more than what a statemented child gets. Nicola x

its been a long road for you Nicola - but at least now there is light at the end of the tunnell - you are right though - a mother knows her own child xx

Hi Nicola Well done for fighting for your rights. With a Statement he will get the help he needs at School, & hopefully progress to Secondary School with ease. Do check that he will take the Statemnent with him, so he will continue with the extra help. Sadly it seems to be quite common now for parents to have to struggle to get the help their children deserve! Good luck, :0) Joan

As some of you may remember, I have been fighting to get diagnosis for my son for the last 8 years. It has been a long struggle to get the help that my son needs. We knew that he had ADHD and had social communication problems, of which there was concern from the school and from us, that he might be on Autistic Spectrum. The Consultant Paediatrician, didn't appear to agree with us that he had an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and was more inclined to think that he might have Pervasive Developmental Disorder. I kept thinking, 'what the hell is that', I had never heard of it and she offered no explanation as to what it is, all she said was that it was a bit of everything. I went online and looked it up and found that what it basically means is Autistic Spectrum coupled with a bit of other things. It just didn't make sense, she wouldn't listen to what I or the school were saying or what the series of assessments had found. Thankfully the school, Educational Phsychologist, Speech and Language Therapist and myself, still thought that he was on Autistic Spectrum. So, the continued to help him as if he was and gave him all the help that he needed. However, with only having a year left at primary school, we needed some sort of diagnosis so we could find him a suitable secondary school, where he would continue to get the help that he needs. Not only that the school felt that he needed a statement for social communication problems but there was difficulty with that because accedemically he is average in his education. In the end, with support from school I asked for a second opinion and got a referal to guys hospital. We went there last month and came away feeling happier that someone was finally listening. What amazed us was that they took time out to spend time with aiden to see what his social communication was like and ran a series of assessments. Well I got the report through today, and the doctor said that my son has right diagnosis of ADHD, and is also on Autistic Spectrum. Although he dosen't quite fit all the criterea for Aspergers, he is more Aspergers than on the lesser scale of Autistic Spectrum. So, therefore, would conclude that he has Aspergers. Coupled with that he feels that he has Oppositional Difiance Disorder (ODD) and Conduct DIsorder. He feels that the right way forward is to try and get him a statement and have Occupational Therapy. I Know this is quite long to read but felt that it important to post this as there are a lot of genes members that have children with special needs. I want them to know that you know your child and do what you think is right and even if no one listens keep on fighting. It seems never ending, you take 1 step forward and 10 steps you deal with prejudice of people telling you there is nothing wrong with your child and you start believing that they are probably right. I know those feelings only to well but I still kept fighting for what I believed is right and it payed off. Nicola xx