Autism development query. Anyone have experience of autism in young children?

briancharles5612

Hi,

My son has a recent diagnosis of severe Autism. He is 3 and we are applying for an EHCP. We have been told it may be blocked because he is starting bucket therapy and object association. And they want to give this time to work. 

My concern is he is nowhere near ready for school in a years time as he is non-verbal and has limited understanding.

We’ve had little development from 2 to 3 as well. 

What’s other people’s experience of autism in children at a young age. Are there dramatic changes etc?

Tori_Scope

HI @briancharles5612 I don't have any direct experience of this, so I wanted to point you towards a couple of resources I thought might be useful. My comment will also bump your discussion up, in case anyone else has any insight. 

I hope that the bucket therapy and object association helps with your son's development. 

Has your son had a needs assessment?

Scope's Navigate service

Navigate is a mentoring service, that provides online emotional support for parents and carers of disabled children who are finding out about their child’s additional needs. 

Navigate is open to any parent or carer who:

• lives in England or Wales 
• has parental responsibility for a child under 18
• this child is on a pathway to diagnosis or has received one in the last year

It's a programme of up to 6 sessions with a personal adviser, who will help you to talk about your feelings and concerns.

The service will help you with:

• organising your thoughts and feelings
• practical advice and suggestions
• coping strategies and insights
• taking positive actions and helping you with emotional wellbeing

Scope's Parents Connect service

Parents Connect is a 6-week support programme for parents and carers of young disabled people. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, sessions will be run online until further notice. 

The service is free and for parents and carers who are:

• aged 18 or over
• the parent or carer of a young disabled person between the age of 0 and 18
• living in England or Wales

The online sessions will be in groups of up to 12 parents or carers. There will be 6 parent sessions, usually one each week. After you apply we will try to find a time and date that will work for you.

Each session will:

• encourage you to talk to others in the group
• provide you with information about local and national services
• last a couple of hours

National Autistic Society's (NAS) Helplines

NAS run a confidential telephone service providing emotional support to parents and carers of autistic adults or children. The service is provided by trained parent volunteers who are all parents of an autistic adult or child. This may allow you to compare experiences with people who understand what you're going through.

They also run a more general advice helpline. 

EHCP Information

I thought I'd drop a few resources here should you need them in the future. 

• Information about EHCPs including appealing a decision (Scope)
• Challenging an EHCP or EHCP draft (Scope)
• Information about what to do if an LA refuses to carry out an EHCP needs assessment (IPSEA)

briancharles5612

Thank you. That’s really helpful. 

Tori_Scope

No problem @briancharles5612 Fingers crossed he'll be more ready for school in a year. Will he be going to mainstream school? 

briancharles5612

Ourselves and his peadatrican don’t think so, but the local authority before even applying are not putting us off, but saying his treatment needs more time. It’s going to be a fight I think sadly.

Tori_Scope

Hi @briancharles5612 I was just wondering how you and your son were getting on? Is the bucket therapy and object association going well? 

briancharles5612

Thank you @Tori_Scope. My boy is happy. Sleep is an issue. We are through the first EHCP stage now.

We’re looking for private speech and language as he enjoys bucket threrapy, but it’s not going anywhere. We think more dedicated support may help. 

What has been sad has been developments at nursery. Because he hasn’t been presenting before I don’t think they’ve really understood his diagnosis. Now you can start to slowly see a narrative of his behaviour being troublesome etc which is really sad.

Tori_Scope

I'm glad he's happy @briancharles5612 Scope's Sleep Right service have produced some podcast episodes that might be useful regarding the sleep issues. 

The SLT sounds like a good idea. 

That is sad. Do you have a good relationship with any of the nursery staff? Is there anyone you could meet with?