[senco-forum] Advice on direction to take with son

I agree with not keeping him back...if this child is just left

Hi Jill

This was our start point with our eldest son, being born in July, and as we
know now was only one of many factors that needed to be considered. My son's
first primary School insisted on this line of thinking to the exclusion of
any other considerations. So this was one of the first causes of the delay
to finding the real causes of most of his problems which we discovered when
he was 10 years old to be APD, which meant that he had too much to catch up
during the following years to GCSE. 
There needs to be multi-disciplined One Stop Assessment centres independent
of the LEAs to provide an unbiased diagnosis of any child's learning
deficits in line with the best research available at the time, not having to
rely on a succession of single visits to multiple disciplines who provide
subjective opinions, sometimes based on information that is years out of
date. May be a system of annual licence exams, for those who wish to work in
the field of assessment and diagnosis of these issues; to maintain levels of
competence in line with current research and assessment techniques; and
supervised by a body such as the Medical Research Council.

Many, if not all, of these issues can be identified if not fully diagnosed
at a pre-school age. If the Suggestion made last summer by the Chairman of
the Education Committee, that formal education should not start until after
the age of 7, would resolve many natural development issues, and prevent
this type of situation. The agreed age of maturation is 7 /8 years old, and
children could concentrate on developing their own learning skills without
having to deal with specifics. This works well in Scandinavia and elsewhere,
may be time for the UK to catch up.

Best wishes 

Graeme
dolfrog
dolfrog at apduk.org
http://www.apduk.org
dolfrog at dolfrog.com
http://www.dolfrog.com
http://www.ldlinks.org.uk 

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Gillian Clayton
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 4:35 PM
To: Olanys at aol.com
Cc: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Advice on direction to take with son

Might it be relevant to ask when this child was born?  We tend to  
regard the September cut-off point as set in stone and talk about the  
importance of being with the "right" age-group. A child born in  
August is surely not best served by this artificial distinction.  I  
think I have read that the disadvantage for Summer-born children  
persists until GCSE.     Jill
On 13 Sep 2006, at 15:11, Olanys at aol.com wrote:

> I agree with not keeping him back...if this child is just left  
> behind he
> will forever be behind. He needs help now to regain his level and  
> retain it with
> appropriate support. The old school have cost him a year of his  
> education  by
> not stepping in before now and someone is responsible and should be  
> held
> accountable...
>
> Don't be  afraid to make waves or your son will never get the help  
> he needs
> if left to the  mercies of those that should know better...so much  
> easier for
> them to let  him work a year or 2 behind than actually help him  
> catch up, let
> alone the  social implications of bullying which my daughter  
> endured after
> being moved  UP. How much worse will it be for a child with the  
> stigma of not
> being clever  enough to move on...I don't want to worry you but  
> this is the way
> some children  prey on the vulnerable and he and you have enough to  
> deal  with.
>
> Best wishes,
> Aly
>
> Chair Auditory  Processing Disorder in the UK/APDUK
> www.lacewingmultimedia.com/APD.htm
> www.apduk.org
>
>