[Jane72]

N+J, on 07 July 2011 - 10:33 AM, said:

Hello Jane,

Thank you for all your advice. It is very encouraging to hear from someone who really knows what I am talking about.

I hope you don't mind my asking (if you do, don't answer) - but having hemiplegia yourself (I presume you didn't have a TA - as I'm not sure schools had them when we were younger) - but if you did, or didn't - what would you have liked help with/ or what did you have help with?

I am having difficulties imagining what Samuel might need help with. Before he went to nursery I thought it would be everything, but he has proved to me in his year there that he can manage very well on his own.

He has even learned in recent weeks to put his shoes on by himself, with ease and quickly - all with one hand, but he gets them on fine.

Because school is so much about learning to read and numbers etc - I am sure Samuel will be fine with these things.

He'll be slower and more awkward with a tray at lunchtime and with getting dressed and undressed etc - but without help he'll improve, I know.

I wouldn't want someone there to do it for him. And he would get annoyed by them too, he likes to be left alone and independent.

My question really is what sort of things did you need help with at school? - again I hope you don't mind me asking.

Thank you,

Nicola.

Hi again

I think the help needed is very much an individual thing in alot of ways. I have good function in my hand, my mum was told when I was 6mths to make me use it, and I did, to the point I even learned to write right handed. Now I may look a bit cack handed, but I get there.

I started school at 3 in a special school, which was great, I got daily physio (and weekly hydrotherapy) and obviously everyone was understanding and kids did and learnt at their own pace. There were no statements then, kids either got accepted into mainstream or special sch.

When I was 6 there was a big drive on inclusion and only keeping those more severly disabled in special schools. This was in the 70s and in mainstream there was no help at all. I moved to a local infant school, and had to fit in straight away just like any other child. no allowances were made in the classroom at all, If I didnt get things done, id get told off just like any other child. my writting was never good, and the more id try to keep up the worse my writting got. no one understood that I had a weakness in my hand, as my hand is mildly affected and looks normal (my leg is far worse than my hand). The teachers did seem to understand that I had limitations in PE, and if they thought id be a risk they would tell me to sit out and watch. TAs wernt heard of then, throughout my schooling, not one class I was in had any TAs, we had classes of 30 and 1 teacher that was it. So no help could be provided even if they wanted. Bullying was a big issue especially at primary.

I just got on with things, juniors was the worst as the teachers were convinced that coz my leg didnt work neither did my brain so they didnt bother encouraging etc...my mother went mad at them about that especially when the head teacher told her, 'I was functioning as well as could be expected in the circumstances' she flew at him, told him I wasnt some robot with no brain, I had a very good brain that worked fine in that regard, just coz I had physical isues didnt mean I couldnt learn!

I never knew what it would have been like to have help, but ill list some of things that made me stand out, or the teacher comment on.

I was slow dressing, managed, I had to but I was slow.
slow and poor writting - no computers back then, even when I left secondary they still only had 6 bbc model computers with a green screen!, my writting got me in heaps of trouble at secondary. I had no extra time in exams or anything. I was treated as normal 100%.
issues in PE - forget tennis, couldnt hit a ball to save my life, and cross country, got covered in mud coz id fall and had the teacher tutting at me waiting at the finish line coz i was the last and only did 1 lap not 3!
break time was a pain, kids running around in corridors pushing n shoving, id fall over and get trampled, lunch time ques as I got older got more boistrous, more than once my dinner would end up on the floor coz id been shoved. I was slow eatting aswell, and would get moaned at to hurry.

I spose alot of the time, I needed understanding/extra time allowed and probably some help with extra time to finish writting, maybe being allowed to go early from classes to avoid the crush at lunch n break times......school was very tiring and I know the more I did the more tired I got and fell over more.....I kinda used to laugh, oh ive been at the whisky again!....I just felt I had to keep up at the same pace as everyone else, and it took its toll. things got harder as I moved up the school.

I have to say my walking suffered terribly as when I went to mainstream from special school, I went from having physio daily to zero over night, and never really had more than a few sessions even after ops as a child. my mum supported me by taking me swimming lessons etc which was all she could do.

I would hope now there is alot more understading around disabilities, and more allowances would be made. Educationally theres no reason that your son cant acheieve anything he wants, he may need help physically to cope.

I know I could have done better with more understanding and allowances made, but I still acheieved! I was ready to give up at 16 tho, I was tired of it all, and actually the world was more understanding than school!.

I guess what im saying is, by telling you all that, if you can avoid some of the things I went through he will do ok. only you will know how much impact his hand skills will have on him, but I would certainly say help at lunch, carrying and cutting possibly, maybe they can work some physio into PE...not singling him out get whole class to do stuff as warm up maybe. extra time to complete and possibly some 1-1 to make sure he doesnt fall behind. it will be the physical things he has trouble with completing quickly........maybe a TA could also do some fine motor skills training, like tracing shapes, threading beads etc.....all things that can be built on to help with skills in the classroom later on.

I think my brain sometimes needs catch up, a little extra time to process whats going on.......

hope that helps anyway....I am on facebook, so if you fancy a chat you can find me on there.....

[N+J]

Thank you so much, again, Jane.

That is really really interesting. I can imagine a lot of the school world you're talking about as I grew up in the 70s too! I sort of felt like I went back in time whilst I was reading what you'd written.

Most of the things you have mentioned are where I think Samuel will have difficulties. But to go back to my not original, but second sort of question in this thread, its made me think that perhaps he does not need a TA - just extra awareness and understanding. Although - at the moment nursery takes him into a room and does threading with him etc for 10 minutes a day and I would like this continued. So its given me an idea of what to ask the school for and perhaps the LA with regards to his statement wording.

The school I have chosen for him is really good at treating every child as an individual and taking care of their particular needs. So I feel confident that because of this - and because schools are better nowadays generally - that Samuel will have a better time than perhaps he would have had he been born in the 70s.

I don't belong to facebook, so will write on here if I have anything else to say/ask. But thank you again very much.

Nicola x