[thepiesleys]

hi all

As some of you know our eldest lad has had all sorts of labels chucked at him over the years, ADHD, ADD, Dyspraxia, Aspergers, Dyslexia to name a few!

and although he has been kinda sheilded from most of them - we have never made too big a deal of them - i mean we have treated him and expected of him the same as we do of our other two sons - he knows obviously that he is 'different' - well let me get to the point. His school here in NZ has been awful for him since FEb but after a meeting 3 weeks ago with the Head and a letter from our Doctor, the ball has began rolling to provide some recognition of his needs in school - and today we attend a place called Whirinki and met a guy called Ron Phillips who is an expert when dealing with teenagers like my son, and i must say i am truely impressed, my son opened up to him almost immediately - i won't bore you with the details but suffice to say Ron will be working with my son and us as a family - and liasing closely with his school. This guy refused to give my son a label and just asked if he would like to "learn a few tricks' to get him out of negative situations. I could have listened to him all day!

The school is now doing all they can to assisst and have been very quick of the mark to get my son this appointment and i feel they are now showing a real interest.

Ron ( my new best mate) gave me a book to read ( which he had written 20 yrs ago) and during the first 4 paragraphs he described our family with an SEN teenager to the letter! really eerie!! but very reassuring.

so as the kiwis say its looking "all good":clap

sue

[marcia]

Sue, glad to hear you are getting things sorted.

Do you want to share the name of the book?? It may help others in similar situations, or may be of interest to any teachers/teachers aides to read!

Good luck hope it continues on a high!

[Sam B]

Sue, that's really good news, I'm glad things are starting to come right for your son.

[lockstock]

That sounds really encouraging. The best bit is that you yourself sound more relaxed - head no longer bashing quite so hard against a brick wall maybe? As you may know, all those labels are my teaching specialism so I'd love to be able to contact this guy if that were at all possible. Hope the future goes well for you all.

[thepiesleys]

Dan here - in response to the Q's check this out.

http://www.tsi.co.nz/usf-abstract.html

And thanks for the kind replies people.

Dan

[pinkpiggy]

Dan

Thanks for the link and it's great to hear that your son (and yourselves) are getting somewhere.

As some of you know, our eldest (10) was finally assessed about a week before we came out here as probably having aspergers along with dysbraxia, poor muscle tone, and possibly some other difficulties that on their own wouldn't be a problem but when you put them all together have an impact on his life.

Like yourselves, we treat him no differently to our other son and encourage him all things he does.

He has been at his new school for 5 weeks and his school rang up today to arrange an appointment for us to go in and discuss with the SEN in school and someone from the Education Authority to discuss what they can do for him. I can only hope that he gets the kind of help that your son is now getting.

Please let us know how you get on as I for one am interested.

[lockstock]

Just checked out that TSI site - amazing approach. Thanks for the link. Now, why isn't it here in the UK? I'm on the case:exit

[JoanneG]

This website is really interesting, I will definitely be looking into this further - thanks for sharing and good luck!

My 8 year old daughter has what I like to describe as attention issues - I have also learned 'tricks' to deal with them and don't like to make too much of it. Her head teacher has only this week suggested that she may have ADD. I'm simply shocked it's taken them so long to figure it out - I knew by the time she was 8 months old! Everyone looks for her reason as if it's something that could be cured. I feel that this is simply part of my daughter, we have to learn to accept her and she has to learn to deal with societies requirements and hope she will find her way and anything that helps us with that is most welcome.

Thanks again.