Nursery mentioned the pre-school and assessment centre one day I was picking my son up and said I should check it out and have a think about it as an option.
I looked up online and read over the handbook for the centre:
- Assessment of pre-school children who require close observation
- A small group setting
- Develop a profile of strengths and development needs
- Well balanced range of activities in all key aspects
- Curriculum adapted taking into account the complex needs of the children
- Encourage children to make progress using their full potential
- Children leave with a comprehensive assessment and strategies for a clear way forward in learning and life, for them and their families
They aim to develop confidence in children and their families motivating children to communicate and learn.
The more I read the more I knew this is exactly what we needed. To be honest, I didn’t have to look into it before I said I wanted it. As soon as nursery mentioned it I said let’s do it! Anything to help my son I was going for.
The best time to have a placement is the year before school starts so that was our aim. Though at this stage we were still of the thought that we were going to defer school a year. We received the diagnosis in the October, but we just couldn’t think of anything until the new year. We needed a couple of months for it all to sink in. Once January came along we were on a mission!
An educational psychologist is required to assess your child in order to determine if you can apply for a pre-school place. Nursery then complete an application.
We heard that our son got a place, and we were delighted! There are not many places each term, around 8, so we were very lucky. We were invited to the centre to see it and meet the staff. What I liked about this visit, was that we were then asked to decide if we wanted to accept the offer. They let us see everything before we committed to the placement. Of course we accepted.
They do not give a diagnosis on anything. They focus on providing an in depth report, more so than nursery will give, to allow school to know how to focus his learning needs.
The placement is 12 weeks, either mornings or afternoons. We picked afternoons as he was already in nursery every morning. They are collected in a taxi but as we were so far away, he was going to be in the taxi for over an hour collecting him then other kids, so we said we would drop off and collect. In hindsight, he would have loved the taxi, but I was scared to let him do that.
We got a diary home every day telling us what had happened that day. We had a short meeting half way through the placement, like a parents night. We were told he was doing well. Not much more communication throughout the placement. He was coming out happy and seemed to be enjoying it so that was the main thing.
There is then an end of placement meeting where they go over the report they have created on the placement. We received a copy prior to the meeting so we could ask any questions we wanted.
The meeting was attended by:
- the centre’s head
- the key worker
- our speech & language therapist
- our health visitor – even though we hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, they needed an NHS representative
- our nursery manager
- the principal teacher from the language unit at the primary school he was going to attend – during the placement we found out we got a place
- the educational psychologist
- me, my husband and my dad!
It was a big group!
At the meeting, we went over the report with the centre head and key worker expanding on points to give a reason why something was stated, or an example of something my son did to reiterate the points made.
The report is far more in depth than the handover report from nursery to school, so gives school a lot more information on strengths and developmental needs. It is a comprehensive report covering all areas of development and strategies for learning.
It was a very interesting meeting, and what was so nice was that they kept saying how lovely a boy he was and that he will be missed – I’m sure they say that to all the parents, but it feels nice.
We didn’t notice any big changes in him after going here, but the report was very beneficial for school.
Super Autism Mum 