Did you know what support was available for you and your child?

Lakey88

I am an SEN teacher in the early years and I am always so astounded that many parents come to me when first starting at school, with such lack of support. I would love to be able to offer more support but I am not sure how to do this? 

Cher_Scope

Hi @Lakey88 and welcome to our community.

You've caught on to a key issue we see in members posts and I think there's a genuine need for improved communication around early years support.  It's great that you want to do something about it.

Unfortunately, our polls don't allow people to select multiple options so if anyone wants to leave more feedback, please do so by leaving comments below 

66Mustang

I want to answer for myself if that is OK as I have some experience. I’m now an adult but have experienced the SEN world as a child.

My parents’ experience with me was that parents get zero support unless they actively seek it - support is not offered to you, you need to actively seek it. You also need to make a fuss and demand support, if you are a quiet person you will often get brushed to one side. What’s more you can’t just generally ask for support - you need to some how know what support is available that you need and ask specifically for that. It was only one very good teacher who pulled my parents to one side and said you really need to push for support.

I think a service for people who need support, but don’t know exactly what help is available, to explain their options would be of benefit.

Yes I’m sure my parents would have paid for this service.

Adrian_Scope

Interesting discussion @Lakey88. Speaking as a parent of two SEN children, I can tell you that the support that was offered when both started school was essentially non-existent. From my perspective, supportive statements from someone who had training and understanding of the challenges my children faced would have been absolutely fantastic. We've struggled to even get our children assessed because of the enormous waiting lists, so every piece of constructive evidence would have been invaluable. Instead we received a statement from a teacher who didn't believe in autism, but regularly complained that my daughter's 'ticks' and 'ritualistic behaviours' were a nuisance and disruptive.

One of the huge issues we faced (and from what others we've spoken to describe) and has been echoed by @66Mustang, is the lack of knowledge as to what support should be available. For example we'd meet with teachers and be asked a very generic "well what support would you like?". When you don't know what's available or what can be done to support your child it leaves you very much on the back-foot. 

As @66Mustang and others have said, it often seems that unless you make a huge fuss and demand support, none will be offered. Obviously I understand that schools work within constraints, but not all parents are able to offer the same level of fight and it shouldn't mean that their child should miss out on the support.