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LSA support for child with ASC Asperger's and ADHD

Olivia2j

Hi, not sure if anyone can help. My son has high functioning autism Asperger's presentation and ADHD. He has an EHCP already. We have just moved counties. It has taken quite some time for his EHCP to be switched over from our original county to where we live now and the school who have offered him a place took a long time finding a LSA for him which he needs as that is stipulated on his EHCP. Now that they have finally found 2 LSAs for a job share...I'm worried about the lack of continuity here.. One of the LSAs is a very experienced teacher and knowledgeable about Sen. The other one has no experience or qualifications at all. And has been abroad for an extensive period of time travelling...I'm very worried that she isn't suitable, and might go off travelling again and leave us in the lurch...the school have already employed here, I can't get her unemployed....but I'm really nervous that she's not going to be right for my son...is there anything I can do? Please help, I'm really scared

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anisty

Asperger's has not been used as a diagnostic label since 2014 - nor has high functioning autism so this is very unusual.

I'm in Scotland, where a clinical psychiatrist is the only professional qualified to place a diagnosis of autism. (Usually a full team will be invoved in diagnosis but the clinical psychiatrist pulls the evidence together and writes the final report)

And yet - from the level of support your son seems to be requiring, I am guessing his support needs are fairly high?

Are they trying to support him fully within the classroom or is he within a hub/unit attached to a mainstream school?

It certainly is a bit of a challenge trying to navigate your way through mainstream schools on behalf of a child with additional support needs - and, with a wrong diagnostic label, i am guessing you do not have a burdgeoning thick file full of reports and health service professionals that you can call on to get things off to a good start?

I don't think you can try to predict the abilities of your less experienced LSA until she gets to work - she might be very talented and dedicated.

One tip someone gave me though - and i did use it right through my son's school years is to always present at meetings with a thick lever arch file under your arm - it really does make school staff sit up and take notice. I had all reports in there from when my son was born and bunged it up with reports on my other kids to make it look even thicker!

I would ask for a meeting with the head and LSAs very much as an 'information sharing' friendly meet - just say you have a lot of information on your son to share from other professionals (speech t, physios, ots, whatever) and appear with your big file.

Be approachable and friendly though - you could use the opportunity to talk through plans on how your child will be supported, strategies that do and dont work for him etc etc.

This will give you a chance to guage how knowlegable the LSAs are - if the newer one is as in experienced as you fear, make it clear that you are very much there to support and happy to be called in to school to work through any issues together.

Easier said than done with schools i know from experience as they do like to take this "we are the experts, we know what we are doing" tack.

This is where your file comes in handy. You want to look like the expert yourself (which of course you are, on your own son!)

But you dont want to put their backs up so it is a balance between looking very professional but always being approachable and willing to engage with the school too.

I must admit i didnt always get it right and completely blew up at a young teacher during a multi disciplinary school meeting about my son where she announced he was 'a really good reader' with a reading age in line with his chronological age.

She had completely failed to realise his reading comprehension was a full 5 years behind! He could read, but didnt understand a word. She'd passed him on some maths test when he couldn't match shapes.

Even my patience has limits with complete incompetance but hopefully your fears will be unfounded🙂

L_Volunteer

Hey @Olivia2j. Welcome to Scope’s forum. It is great to see you have joined us. Thank you for already finding the courage to reach out to us.

I hear your concerns. Whilst, as you say you cannot necessarily make this person ‘unemployed’, you have rights if your son’s EHCP is not followed.

Hopefully, both LSAs will follow your son’s EHCP (legally binding!). However, if not, you can contact:

The SEND team in the first instance
The senior leadership team (e.g., head teacher if this does not sort it)
The local authority if the senior leadership team doesn’t sort it
Appeal at tribunal if the local authority doesn’t sort it

Wishing you the best of luck though. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if we can do anything else to support you