Hi my son, Zac, who is 3 years and 4 months has just started at the local school nursery during the afternoon. We were told on tuesday that he has autism. The private nursery that he went to before were very good and recorded everything that he could and couldn't do, and saved all the letters from the medical professions...and gave a copy to the school. He has been having speech therapy for over a year, and has had a pre school councillor for half a term now. He is a very friendly boy, and will look at you, which I know is rare if you are autistic. He is very delayed in speech, around the 18 month level, we have been trying to teach him makaton. He is also has a poor attention span, although will concentrate on something for longer (5 mins) if its something he wants to do....but will not sit down and listen to a story etc. He also headbutts and grabs things out of other children's hands if he wants that toy etc He is still in nappies, and has no interest of potty training at the moment. He can not drink out of cup yet and still has beakers, and he can use a fork but prefers to use his hands, and usually scrunches the food up in his hands, and still wears a bib.

I am meeting the school's senco and Zac's nursery teacher next week. What sort of questions should I ask them, and what sort of thing should I expect them to provide for Zac?

Thank you

Hi, I was in the same situation 3 yrs ago..... First of all does he have a LSA working with him. Our daughter has one full time and does speech therapy sessions daily etc, our little one wouldn't have been able to start nursery without one due to safety/danger issues.
We tried makaton for about 3 months when she was young but didn't get much success!! Eye contact was poor and didn't work for us. How is it working for your boy? Also are the staff working with him trained makaton for him to be able to communicate in school?
We also have a home/school book which records what she has done during the day as she wouldn't be able to tell us like other children. I hope this helps. X

(05-06-2011 04:06 PM)catcains Wrote:  Hi my son, Zac, who is 3 years and 4 months has just started at the local school nursery during the afternoon. We were told on tuesday that he has autism. The private nursery that he went to before were very good and recorded everything that he could and couldn't do, and saved all the letters from the medical professions...and gave a copy to the school. He has been having speech therapy for over a year, and has had a pre school councillor for half a term now. He is a very friendly boy, and will look at you, which I know is rare if you are autistic. He is very delayed in speech, around the 18 month level, we have been trying to teach him makaton. He is also has a poor attention span, although will concentrate on something for longer (5 mins) if its something he wants to do....but will not sit down and listen to a story etc. He also headbutts and grabs things out of other children's hands if he wants that toy etc He is still in nappies, and has no interest of potty training at the moment. He can not drink out of cup yet and still has beakers, and he can use a fork but prefers to use his hands, and usually scrunches the food up in his hands, and still wears a bib.

I am meeting the school's senco and Zac's nursery teacher next week. What sort of questions should I ask them, and what sort of thing should I expect them to provide for Zac?

Thank you

Ask them what sort of help and the things that they can provide for Zac. The nursery where Ben was couldn't cope with him so when his statment come, he went to a special school and they have worked wonders for him. what sort of toys does your little boy like?

(05-07-2011 09:14 AM)Ilovecake Wrote:  Hi, I was in the same situation 3 yrs ago..... First of all does he have a LSA working with him. Our daughter has one full time and does speech therapy sessions daily etc, our little one wouldn't have been able to start nursery without one due to safety/danger issues.
We tried makaton for about 3 months when she was young but didn't get much success!! Eye contact was poor and didn't work for us. How is it working for your boy? Also are the staff working with him trained makaton for him to be able to communicate in school?
We also have a home/school book which records what she has done during the day as she wouldn't be able to tell us like other children. I hope this helps. X

Hi, Thanks for the ideas. No he doesn't have a LSA working with him yet. I thought they only got those when they started school properly? He does have a pre school councillor who comes in and 'helps' him play every other week, and I think advises the school on how they should structure his 3 hours that he is in nursery.

He has speech therapy every 4 months, I'm hoping that now they know that he is autistic that they will see him more often. No none of the teachers are trained in makaton, one nursery nurse has a book on it and knows few signs, so I'm going to try and push for them to go on a proper course. The paedatrition we saw said he would probably benefit from it, as the little that I do has improved his language.

Zac is the complete opposite to most autistic children. He has very goo eye contact....and is over friendly. He will go up and hug a stranger, infact today he went up to one man in a shop and hit him twice in the crotch....oops! (luckily it wasn't hard!!)

(05-07-2011 09:59 AM)wweangelica Wrote:  

(05-06-2011 04:06 PM)catcains Wrote:  Hi my son, Zac, who is 3 years and 4 months has just started at the local school nursery during the afternoon. We were told on tuesday that he has autism. The private nursery that he went to before were very good and recorded everything that he could and couldn't do, and saved all the letters from the medical professions...and gave a copy to the school. He has been having speech therapy for over a year, and has had a pre school councillor for half a term now. He is a very friendly boy, and will look at you, which I know is rare if you are autistic. He is very delayed in speech, around the 18 month level, we have been trying to teach him makaton. He is also has a poor attention span, although will concentrate on something for longer (5 mins) if its something he wants to do....but will not sit down and listen to a story etc. He also headbutts and grabs things out of other children's hands if he wants that toy etc He is still in nappies, and has no interest of potty training at the moment. He can not drink out of cup yet and still has beakers, and he can use a fork but prefers to use his hands, and usually scrunches the food up in his hands, and still wears a bib.

I am meeting the school's senco and Zac's nursery teacher next week. What sort of questions should I ask them, and what sort of thing should I expect them to provide for Zac?

Thank you

Ask them what sort of help and the things that they can provide for Zac. The nursery where Ben was couldn't cope with him so when his statment come, he went to a special school and they have worked wonders for him. what sort of toys does your little boy like?

Hi thank you for the ideas. I'm hoping that the school can cope with him, as I think it does him good mixing with 'normal' Children. But, he will have difficulty if his speech and concentration doesn't improve. Zac absoultly loves cars, virtually all his toys are cars!! He also likes to point out all the cars on the road and in the car parks He also likes trains, but only gingerbread ones and real ones....he isnt too fussed about his toy trains. We live near a station, so we often go up and watch the trains.