Tourettes

Advice on Special Needs and the 11 Plus Exams

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Doghouse135
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:11 pm
Location: Medway

Post by Doghouse135 »

Hi Sallyj

I'm sorry but I don't have any personal experience of Tourettes although my nephew's best friend has the condition.

I do, however have a child with Aspergers and have found that meeting with other parents of children with an ASD has been a life saver.

I started going to seminars and meetings arranged by the National Autistic Society and the information and support that they provide is absolutely magnificent. Is there something similiar for Tourettes ?

I think if you could find a support group for this condition, you will probably find that someone would have been through what you're experiencing.

Good luck with everything that you and your DS do :D
sallyj
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:45 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by sallyj »

I'm quite stunned that so many people have taken the time to offer such words of support.
We are members of Tourettes Action,but are waiting to see what,if any,help can be offered. I would love to meet other families with Tourettes children. There is another boy in the year below our son who has Tourettes which does help a bit. His mum once charged across the playground to talk to me.Her son was beginning to refuse to go to school because his Tourettes was becoming too much for him,when my son took him under his wing. He said if ever there was a problem or he was feeling low,he was to find him in the playground & talk it through with him.They now fnd a quiet spot regularly to discuss how they feel.
I can't begin to describe the emotion we felt or how proud we were/are of these boys.
She told the headteacher,who gave our son an award for showing such compassion to a fellow pupil.
Through all the sadness this week,I have to learn to put things in perspective. He is a gorgeous,healthy child,who cares ! What more can I ask for.
Thankyou all xx
Doghouse135
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:11 pm
Location: Medway

Post by Doghouse135 »

Exactly - I wouldn't swap my son for a 'normal' or neuro typical (however you prefer to put it) for the world

He has qualities with his Aspergers syndrome that other children could only dream of :lol:

Things changed for us when we started focussing on the positive aspects of his diagnosis instead of the difficulties - not easy I know but you will end up with an incredibly positive perpective on life.

Good luck and very best wishes to your son
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Post by yoyo123 »

I think your sons are lucky to have such good parents too. i have been saddened by the prejudice on this thread. As a senco my specialist area was language and communication needs and I worked with some lovely children. the more people hear about children like yours and accept them as part of a whole , hopefully unfeeling comments like some we have heard will lessen.
whichwitch
Posts: 236
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:07 pm
Location: Kingston

Post by whichwitch »

Hi Sally, my 9 yr old son has ADHD and Tourettes. We are lucky that his primary school has a fantastic SENCO and are really supportive. he is on their G+T programme for science and is generally high achieving. We will be asking for extra time and for him to be in a separate room and not in the main hall when sitting the Grammar school entrance tests, don;t know if we will get what we are asking for though!
sallyj
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:45 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by sallyj »

Hi there,
From our unhappy experience,we have learnt that to get any assistance at all,you must make your needs totally clear.
We were advised to let the school know our son had Tourettes before the exam-which we did,but that then was it ! Nothing more was said or done. We have now been informed that the school should have come back to us & asked what special measures-if any-needed to be taken,in exactly the same way they would if ,for example,a child in a wheelchair needed help accessing the building ! They were negligent in not asking us,but they would consider us negligent by not asking for more help ourselves !
We didn't know until after the exam,that our son could have asked to sit on his own,& had extra time to allow for the distraction caused by his tics. Even if he didn't want to sit alone,he could have been sat at the back of the room to allow the least amount of children to 'observe' his tics,or sat near an exit even,to allow him to leave if his tics were overwhelming or noisy,therefore causing a distraction to others !
It's a vicious circle,we didn't know what to ask for,& the school didn't know what to offer !
Tourettes is such an unknown & even scary word to so many people,hence one school won't even consider having him,no matter how bright he is,& others panic when they hear the word. In that respect adults are no better,in fact probably less tolerant than children.
We are very lucky like you,that our primary school SeNco is fantastic.He even said he was ashamed to be part of a proffession that could discriminate against our son so openly ! We are going to appeal for a GS place & have the full support of the head,class teacher & SENco,but know that even then we are facing an uphill battle.
Scour the internet,ask every question you can think of,of anyone you feel could help. We feel guilty that we didn't know or ask more-back to that vicious circle again-but forewarned is forearmed. I wish you & your son all the luck in the world with the 11plus & hope that his secondary school years are happy ones xx
quizzer
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:14 am

Post by quizzer »

Sally j

My DS who has ADHD was often removed from classes at school because he could not sit still, this happened to him on a regular basis from the starting of junior school.We have lost count of the number of times we informed them they were punishing him for something he could not control.

To cut a long story short we removed him from the school in march 2008 and elected to home educate him ( i had been made redundant in the summer 2007).

The process of building up his confidence and concentration has been gradual.He is a very willing student and a joy to work with, even though i suspect he has dyspraxia which goes hand in hand with the majority of ADHD children.

In May i started helping my nephew to prepare for the 11+ for a couple of hours a week,DS would be there playing his gameboy or ds. After 2 or three sessions DS asked if he could also try for a grammar school, i explained that it would take a lot of commitment on his part because of all the building block schooling he had lost in his early years.He said he was prepared to put all his effort into it because he wanted to go to a good school. He is a dream to work with, has excellent attitude and a very high level of concentration and focus now.

I know he will not finish in the top 10% in VR/English for the KGS type tests but he scored 90+% in all the NFER VR papers and 95+% in all the
Maths and NVR papers.

We have grown really close, being able to do loads of activities together;
golf, biking, tennis, football,swimming,darts,nature walks,conker collecting etc etc.

Up to a couple of months ago i would tell him daily of how proud i am of him and regardless if he passes or fails, and the positive attitude he is showing in his studies will see him through any school he attends.

I have stopped mentioning the passing and failing bit now because his response has always been 'i am going to a grammar school,passing is positive thinking,failing is negative thinking'.

I will truly be dreading March 2009 as you can never be truly confident
of what they actually achieve on the day of exams,he sat one last month and came out smiling and saying how easy it was,and how he spent 20 mins waiting after he had finished his maths (key stage level 6/7),
but everyone else have also said they found that exam easy,so will just have to keep them fingers crossed till March.

His is a truly inspirational tale but would take a lot of writing, may go into it
at a later date.

Good luck to all the kids taking these tests especially those with disabilities.

quizzer



:D
sallyj
Posts: 212
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:45 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by sallyj »

Oh quizzer,
How I feel for you x
We have been so lucky with our primary school,but I fear our luck will run out in September next year when our DS moves on to secondary,whichever one that might be !
You mention 'punishing for something he could not control'. This is what we were warned by one school would happen.They refuse to have our DS-despite him having passed thier entrance exam with an 'exceptional' pass mark. Had we insisted & fought for a place,they would have sent him out of every lesson,each time his Tourettes caused him to pull a face or make a noise,no matter how slight,& would ultimately have him excluded for disrupting other students. With that kind of pressure his Tourettes would have gone into overdrive,giving them reason to remove him faster !
One other school I contacted said that they'd had a Tourettes child in recent years. Although they apparently weren't trying to put us off in any way,the tale they told was of a child who's life was made miserable by his peer group,who ended up with time off due to depression,& who left school as fast as he legally could. Definately not interested in sixth form & prolonging the agony ! Hardly the encouraging words we had hoped for !
DS is throwing himself into his primary school play at the moment & enjoying his last few months there to the full. I have no idea what the future will hold,but can only cross my fingers & fight my hardest to make it a happy one.
Sorry to those of you reading this if I seem a little jaded & gloomy. Ds has put exams behind him,& his Tourettes is going through a stage of relative calm-I only wish I felt the same !!
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

There are some Secondary schools and GS that support children with special needs really well - my child is really happy at one.

I've benen a GS SENCo so I know 'special' children can flourish and do well - keep looking and don't give up.
perplexed
Posts: 490
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:18 pm
Location: kent

Post by perplexed »

Good luck with the appeal. If you have good evidence of his strong academic performance (have you checked for advice elsewhere on this site about this) you should have a good chance.

Someone wrote on here recently that one should expect an appeal for a marginal fail to be 90% about academic achievement, 10% about mitigating circumstances (the Tourettes in this case).

Also, remember that you can apply for, and appeal for, the grammar school every year. So this year may not be your one and only chance.

Have you fully investigated the local comprehensive? Are the top sets really that bad - they may have many children like your son in them who through no fault of their own did not pass the 11+ but are as bright or brighter than many who did.

Sorry I know nothing about Tourettes, but some of the attitudes towards it that you have encountered sound appalling. It sounds amazing that organisations that are about education can have display such ignorance and stupidity in the way they say they would deal with it in class.

Good luck.
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