Education Info

EDUCATION INFORMATION: FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING AND LANGUAGE DELAYS / DISABILITIES

Prep year

When my son was starting his first year at school, of course I was the normal anxious Prep Mum.  But there was an additional layer of anxiety . . .  I had a child with a language delay and I feared the worst.

There was an advertisement on TV at the time about children slipping through the cracks in education – was this going to be my son?

I had nights of interrupted sleep.  Where they organised?  Had they read ALL the reports?  How was this going to work?   How was I going to talk to the teacher – I worked full time?    I didn’t drop him off every day – were they able to provide Speech Therapy at school?   What was Speech therapy like at school?   I wouldn’t be there?   Would he have visual cues like at his early intervention transition to school program - or would he be lost?   Would they understand him?

Arghhhhh…. sound familiar anyone reading this?   Well I put my little bit of confidence, and a whole lot of faith in the education system and was found out was to be the reality.

The reality of our education system and the special needs child

Fortunately I have meet teachers and therapists who have been eager to learn, just fantastic and we have been a great team.  But then I also have had to push the system to the brink to ensure I was getting what my son needed at school.

But again the reality of accommodating for a speech delayed child in a mainstream school classroom, from my experience is limited and unless you push and educate them, it isn’t a priority.  The system lets them down our kids, and the teachers.  Without the funding, and this is slowly diminishing for language impaired children here in Australia they don’t have enough or all the resources they need to really help.

One important lesson I have learnt, and I’m not a shy person so if you are or don’t like to speak your mind you may struggle with this part.

You will need to advocate for your child and advocate as best you can.  You know your child.

There are services that can assist with this (I will list them in the Specialist and Associations section when I get this site really get going) – and friends and family can be the best ones.

I will provide lots of information in my e-store on this topic as it’s so important to Be informed!

Read as much as you can and be informed so you can feel empowered. You may change schools or find there is another programme that you can introduce to school.

Partner together as much as you can. This section I will also be resourcing further and I will ensure you have access to as much news and up to date information.

I also will share my learning’s from early intervention and kinder and some of the great programs my son has been exposed to ‘outside’ of the education system along the way.

Kid’s speech matters.

Cheers,
Sandra