From Wednesday 4 September Steph Reed is here to answer your questions about education. This could include - heading back to school after the summer holidays, special schools, home schooling, or anything else you can think of.
Steph has been teaching children and young people with autism and complex needs for the past 10 years, in various mainstream and specialist settings.
Find out more about Steph - autismspectrumteacher.com/s...
Steph also has some great podcasts - autismspectrumteacher.com/c... and blogs - autismspectrumteacher.com/b...
Many thanks
Sarah
This sounds great. This is very relevant to me as I have a 4 year old son. He is not starting school this year, but I am starting to think more about how he might cope next year. I would love to know what other people have done. thanks
Hi Adam,
It’s always good to be planning ahead for preparation of a smooth and positive transition. Some things to think about could be some ‘going to school’ books if your son enjoys looking at books.
Walks/ drives passed the school can help a child become familiar with the area and in the spring/ summer, some transition visits to the new school will be really important.
Schools are usually very good at preparing extra transition visits for children with special needs, so check to make sure this will happen sometime in June and July 2020.
Your son may already be used to being around other children, however it can help young children to build up experience of being with others by visiting or joining playgroups or children’s clubs.
Steph
Thanks for your ideas Steph. I like the idea of going to school books as he loves to read (well look at the stories). He has been very interested in watching the kids go back to school and has started to say that that will be him next year. This has made us parents feel a bit happier. He definitely identifies the local school as the one he will go to. We do have quite a lot of contact with children his own age, but less so older ones. It is a good point that he might benefit from time with them. I will look into it. Love some of the other ideas in your other posts. Lots of things we can follow up. thanks
Hi again. I have just been having a chat with my partner about home schooling. I am not at all sure, but they are keen to explore all options. Do you (or parents on here) have experience of this? I don’t think he needs it, and he would benefit more from being with others at school.
Also, my son doesn’t have a formal diagnosis – can that be a problem? We’d like a diagnosis but up till now we didn’t really think it mattered.
Thanks
Hi Adam, I would recommend going down the formal diagnosis route in order to identify areas of need and where support can be put in place. This will highly support an application for an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) which is a legal document which informs schools which support needs to be put in place and outcomes that your child is working towards. A diagnosis informs everyones understanding which in turn, informs the support that is required from everyone involved and how to set up our environment to further help.
On a personal and professional level, I would advise school over home schooling, especially in the early years. He may respond and achieve well at school - with the right support in place and this is therefore why I would suggest going down the formal diagnosis route.
Best wishes,
Steph