DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
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Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
I work in child and mental health services and can't believe that the school could take it on themselves to self diagnose. In my service we really take seriously whether or not to assess let alone diagnose if a child is coping well. We might consult with schools and offer advice to those who care for the child but assessing is only done after careful consideration with parents and thoughts about the impact of the diagnosis on the child.
As has already been said speak to the school. Is this a way of excusing the bullying? And how and why did they seek to diagnose your daughter without consultation with you?
As has already been said speak to the school. Is this a way of excusing the bullying? And how and why did they seek to diagnose your daughter without consultation with you?
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
I agree with everyone so far and I am equally outraged. One point I would like to talk about is the "labelling". Even if your daughter had been properly diagnosed, not all specialists would recommend that everyone should know. I know it is controversial, however, there are lots of undiagnosed Asperger's people out there who live normal lives and who are deemed as eccentric.
I wonder what I would do if a child of mine was thought of as being Asperger's. Would it be better for them to be considered eccentric or be "labelled"? Would the label put future partners off?
Some doctors think that not even the child should know as they could start acting according to the label, giving up trying whilst blaming the condition.
On the other hand, having a diagnosis is supposed to result in the child having access to help. I say that they are supposed to receive help as often the help is minimal.
Out of curiosity, how did she get hold of the book? As adults, we can often find we suffer from a range of conditions just by googling a few symptoms!
Good luck tomorrow, be assertive and remember that you are your daughter's advocate.
I wonder what I would do if a child of mine was thought of as being Asperger's. Would it be better for them to be considered eccentric or be "labelled"? Would the label put future partners off?
Some doctors think that not even the child should know as they could start acting according to the label, giving up trying whilst blaming the condition.
On the other hand, having a diagnosis is supposed to result in the child having access to help. I say that they are supposed to receive help as often the help is minimal.
Out of curiosity, how did she get hold of the book? As adults, we can often find we suffer from a range of conditions just by googling a few symptoms!
Good luck tomorrow, be assertive and remember that you are your daughter's advocate.
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
This kind of thing would be so much more useful for the poster's daughter, whether or not she has asperger's for real, than a laminated piece of card effectively telling staff not to ask her a question in class.Guest55 wrote:Many school have stopped 'hands up' as it is a good way of pupils avoiding work. The better ploy is to give them a few moments or the 'think, pair, share' approach, then ask several people for answers. This means no-one can switch off! The alternative is to use the mini white boards so everyone responds.
Good luck with this. Do confiscate the card in the meantime.
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southbucks3
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Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
May I ask what else is written on the passport?
The phrase "I have aspergers" is so broad it's meaningless to teachers, I know aspergers children who delight in participating in class discussion to the point of being over bearing and others who would rather the earth swallow them up. I also know children who have no aspergers traits at all whom freeze completely when put on the spot and immediately have to fight back the tears. Using the "diagnosis" of aspergers written on a card to excuse the child from class involvement reduces years of progress back to a 1940's dunces cap
This is all very exceptional, sen passports are supposed to be written in draft form, discussed with pupil and parent, signed by pupil and parent, then given in multiple copy to the child to give to new teachers or carers, not laminated and bandied around or made obvious to peers.
Good luck today, as others have said, it is cause for immediate action to discover what on earth is going on.
The phrase "I have aspergers" is so broad it's meaningless to teachers, I know aspergers children who delight in participating in class discussion to the point of being over bearing and others who would rather the earth swallow them up. I also know children who have no aspergers traits at all whom freeze completely when put on the spot and immediately have to fight back the tears. Using the "diagnosis" of aspergers written on a card to excuse the child from class involvement reduces years of progress back to a 1940's dunces cap
This is all very exceptional, sen passports are supposed to be written in draft form, discussed with pupil and parent, signed by pupil and parent, then given in multiple copy to the child to give to new teachers or carers, not laminated and bandied around or made obvious to peers.
Good luck today, as others have said, it is cause for immediate action to discover what on earth is going on.
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
Hope SEN passports work better than old people's care plans in nursing homes. In a poor home these don't work for various reasons:
- "it wasn't in the care plan so we didn't know we had to do it" (excuse for missing basic hygiene measures)
- "he / she's new so we don't have a full care plan yet so we didn't know we had to do it" (excuse for missing basic safety measures)
- "we write it up in the care plan at the end of the day and it was agency staff that day so it got missed out" (excuse for missing out basic recording of essential health symptoms)
- "he/she refused to take her medicine and we have to go along with her wishes" (excuse for not noticing that old person was feeling very ill and therefore not wanting to swallow essential medicine)
- "he/she didn't ask for anything" (excuse for old person who has very limited short-term memory sitting there all day without food / water / entertainment)
Nothing replaces common sense. Whatever has happened re. your daughter's laminated card, bucket loads of common sense have been missing along the way!
With a bit of luck, the teachers don't read those plastic cards anyhow and do have plenty of common sense themselves.
- "it wasn't in the care plan so we didn't know we had to do it" (excuse for missing basic hygiene measures)
- "he / she's new so we don't have a full care plan yet so we didn't know we had to do it" (excuse for missing basic safety measures)
- "we write it up in the care plan at the end of the day and it was agency staff that day so it got missed out" (excuse for missing out basic recording of essential health symptoms)
- "he/she refused to take her medicine and we have to go along with her wishes" (excuse for not noticing that old person was feeling very ill and therefore not wanting to swallow essential medicine)
- "he/she didn't ask for anything" (excuse for old person who has very limited short-term memory sitting there all day without food / water / entertainment)
Nothing replaces common sense. Whatever has happened re. your daughter's laminated card, bucket loads of common sense have been missing along the way!
With a bit of luck, the teachers don't read those plastic cards anyhow and do have plenty of common sense themselves.
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
Well well well...it appears that they think she has Aspergers syndrome because that is the information that came from Primary School! Had a good chat with the (very sensible sounding) senco on the phone this morning and have an appointment with her tomorrow evening. She has apologised as parents are normally contacted before these passports are issued. In the meantime, the passport is confiscated...
Will be visiting the Primary School once I'm armed with more information! Thank you all for your input so far. I am currently reading a book on how to improve your child's confidence...
Will be visiting the Primary School once I'm armed with more information! Thank you all for your input so far. I am currently reading a book on how to improve your child's confidence...
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
jmc - that still doesn't explain why you weren't involved in this!
Do read their SEN policy before you go in ... I'm sure they can't have followed it.
Do read their SEN policy before you go in ... I'm sure they can't have followed it.
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
I find it very convenient the information came from primary school. I wouldn't be surprised if primary school deny all knowledge of it. Then you're at stalemate.
What I'd be asking is, IF the information did come from primary, why has it taken them so long to be taking any action over it. Surely if your child has SEN then a whole term without support could be detrimental to their wellbeing.
Wherever this information came from it still doesn't excuse the fact that, above anything else happening, the school should absolutely, without doubt, have contacted you.
What I'd be asking is, IF the information did come from primary, why has it taken them so long to be taking any action over it. Surely if your child has SEN then a whole term without support could be detrimental to their wellbeing.
Wherever this information came from it still doesn't excuse the fact that, above anything else happening, the school should absolutely, without doubt, have contacted you.
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
Curiouser and curiouser.
I would write in formally to both schools and say you understand that her school records indicate that she has Asperger's syndrome. State that you are presuming and administrative error at some point in time as you were never involved or consulted on the assessment process, and never gave permission for this either. Ask that they do whatever is necessary to rectify this error - i.e. inform everyone who is misinformed that an Asperger's assessment has taken place that it has not, and start again with the process in the correct manner if they feel that is called for.
Also ask for her full school record from both schools as a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act / Pupil Information Regulations ( get some advice from the Information Commissioners Office) but ask that they provide full access to the file very quickly rather than waiting until the end of stipulated deadline as this needs sorting out sooner rather than later in your child's best interests.
If you don't see fast action ON PAPER (sorry I am not shouting, but this is key) move on up through the steps in the complaints procedure for both schools which should be on their websites. If it's not on their websites, ask them to put it on there as it probably should be. You should be able to do most of this from your computer and only have to show up at both schools once you have all the relevant paper work in front of you. Otherwise, you are on the backfoot and unable to see that the error, whatever it was, is rectified.
Good luck!
I would write in formally to both schools and say you understand that her school records indicate that she has Asperger's syndrome. State that you are presuming and administrative error at some point in time as you were never involved or consulted on the assessment process, and never gave permission for this either. Ask that they do whatever is necessary to rectify this error - i.e. inform everyone who is misinformed that an Asperger's assessment has taken place that it has not, and start again with the process in the correct manner if they feel that is called for.
Also ask for her full school record from both schools as a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act / Pupil Information Regulations ( get some advice from the Information Commissioners Office) but ask that they provide full access to the file very quickly rather than waiting until the end of stipulated deadline as this needs sorting out sooner rather than later in your child's best interests.
If you don't see fast action ON PAPER (sorry I am not shouting, but this is key) move on up through the steps in the complaints procedure for both schools which should be on their websites. If it's not on their websites, ask them to put it on there as it probably should be. You should be able to do most of this from your computer and only have to show up at both schools once you have all the relevant paper work in front of you. Otherwise, you are on the backfoot and unable to see that the error, whatever it was, is rectified.
Good luck!
Re: DD has self-diagnosed Aspergers
Great advice mysterymystery wrote:Curiouser and curiouser.
I would write in formally to both schools and say you understand that her school records indicate that she has Asperger's syndrome. State that you are presuming and administrative error at some point in time as you were never involved or consulted on the assessment process, and never gave permission for this either. Ask that they do whatever is necessary to rectify this error - i.e. inform everyone who is misinformed that an Asperger's assessment has taken place that it has not, and start again with the process in the correct manner if they feel that is called for.
Also ask for her full school record from both schools as a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act / Pupil Information Regulations ( get some advice from the Information Commissioners Office) but ask that they provide full access to the file very quickly rather than waiting until the end of stipulated deadline as this needs sorting out sooner rather than later in your child's best interests.
If you don't see fast action ON PAPER (sorry I am not shouting, but this is key) move on up through the steps in the complaints procedure for both schools which should be on their websites. If it's not on their websites, ask them to put it on there as it probably should be. You should be able to do most of this from your computer and only have to show up at both schools once you have all the relevant paper work in front of you. Otherwise, you are on the backfoot and unable to see that the error, whatever it was, is rectified.
Good luck!