Labelling Children

Anya I am well aware that OFSTED rate the teacher's, my friend was rated as outstanding. I am just saying that may be the original poster may also have been rated as outstanding and has chosen not to say.

rafichagran 'outstanding' is a term applied by OFSTED not a random assessment on my own.

Greenfinch I'll watch that tomorrow. I'm especially interested as GS1's younger brother, who is the complete opposite - outgoing, sporty, sociable and confident is becoming more and more aware that his older brother is 'different'.

I have just been watching The Black Balloon on catch up. It shows how difficult life can be for the siblings of someone with autism.It was on BBC1 last night if anyone is interested.

Late development of the left brain coul be this
'Wernicke's area is the region of the brain that is important for language development. The Wernicke's area is located in the temporal lobe on the left side of the brain and is responsible for the comprehension of speech (Broca's area is related to the production of speech).'
Delayed language development?

Yes and apparently Aspergers is not now a separate diagnosis I believe.

I thought there was no diagnosis of autism any more. Isn't it all ASD?

Perhaps the problem is that many of us have dealt with very unsympathetic teachers for many years and Lisalou's post touched a nerve and we reacted very badly.

Lisalou I too found the attacks on you uncalled for. Some posters even said they would not want you teaching their children / grandchildren. Well I would love you to teach mine and I find your common sense thinking refreshing . Anya states she was a outstanding teacher, and I have no reaon to dought it, however the same could apply to you, you just did not seem to mention it, and just because you have a different perspective on this and one which I share, does not mean others should attack you for it

You may be right Trisher, and I do spend a lot of time with him. I help him as much as I can. We have spoken about the lies and he has told me, when he was in the mood, that he often doesnt feel like doing the homework, so he lies to not have to do it. It came across to me as a typical pre-teen (12) who was acting out. Seeing as he gets very good grades when he puts in the work, I felt the diagnosis (which was a private one and cost a fortune to his parents) might have been a way for the doctor to justify his very high fee.
I work very hard with him, and give of my own time to help him. I am sorry if I may have sounded annoyed in previous post, but did find some of the accusations and attacks were uncalled for.

Thank heavens attitudes have changed. I can remember children being caned for getting sums wrong or bad spelling. My sister being one of them, today it would be called learning difficulties. And the dunces cap really did exist.

Not a huge amount, personally maybe a handful. Of which my son is one. He was diagnosed with dyslexia early on (around the age of seven) received much appreciated help, but we were to find out later that it was a problem of an emotional nature due to losing his father (he just fell out of his life aged four) which caused him to deal badly with school on a variety of levels.
I have, on the other hand, spoken to a huge amount of teachers who feel the same, and have cases in current classrooms.

Just because a child is 'articulate and bright" it does not mean that child doesn't have problems LIsalou As a teacher you should realise that there are experts in various fields who are able to understand better than you what is going on. I spent a lot of years dealing with teachers like you who believed because my son was articulate, creative and very able in some areas he could not possibly be dyslexic. Even after his diagnosis they continued to insist he would be fine if he just worked harder. They made his school life a misery. Years later we can discuss it and he explained that reading was always hard for him and that when he was tired he found it almost impossible, but he always tried to conceal his difficulties. Perhaps you could talk to the boy concerned and discover why he behaves the way he does there may very well be a reason for the lies about his homework.

I think a postcode lottery[not sure that is the right phrase but I think people know what I mean] may be going on in the UK, which explains at least some of the very diverse answers.

Out of interest Lisalou, how many children do you think you have seen who have been diagnosed incorrectly?
Are you talking say 4 or 5 in your career[which could happen anywhere I would have thought], or a lot more than that?

Jane 10, that is what i thought too, but the boy plays football (well, I am told - not a sport i am mad about) and is articulate and bright.

I have taken a long time to answer, as I have been reading each and every post which has been made, and it has taken some time.

For one, so many of you accuse me of callousness, which I find hurtful, and question my ability as a teacher, which is equally uncalled for; for one, you do not know me, and are basing your opinion on my entire career on one comment, also you do not know how I treat the children, you have no idea.

As it happens, the boy I talk of as lazy and cocky, I know very well and love a great deal. His mother is a very dear friend. When he does his work, he gets great grades across the board, with the exception of one subject, which is foreign language. It is also the case that I coach this boy out of school on a one to one basis for free, to help him; I dont have to tell you this, but feel that it may give you a little insight into the case at hand.

As for the poster who accuses me of discussing a Student on an open forum and not respecting the privacy of said Student – please tell me what confidential information I have given you? Name? School? Location? For goodness sake, get real. You dont even know what country I am in.

For those of you who speak of their own families I apologise if I did not make clear what I was trying to say. It was never my intention to offend you. I am well aware that there are many children with special needs out there, who really need their diagnosis. Teachers are not only happy to know of their conditions, but delighted that there is now so much help available (I did in my original post say how much we appreciate the extra resources we have these days)

I was actually speaking about families where children are diagnosed, not with autism in particular, but ASD or ADHD in an off the cuff manner – usually cases where the parents have pushed and pushed for these diagnoses and who seem to be proud of the label and do use it as an excuse.

Where I live, (I wont say where, I would not want to disclose too much information for reasons stated above) it is very easy to get a diagnosis and I fear that some of them are given out without enough investigation, leading to children who are diagnosed incorrectly and yes, I have seen such cases.

Just because I think that sometimes diagnoses are given out in haste (and I say sometimes, not all the time) it does NOT affect the way I work with any of my children. Please do not presume to tell me that I am a bad teacher for that reason. In fact, I care a great deal, have a friend with a severe condition whom I also teach and who is doing very well thanks to the extra help he receives with the teaching assistants.

Thank you ninathenana,
No,your right,I'm really answering josiebear,
The good and the genuine rant is because there are one or two here who I feel are neither.Sadly went and seen nephew yesterday,and so so sad to see him,guess I'm a little annoyed he is suffering like that.
Any way over and out,I'll shut up now,leave it to the experts.

Marmark I really sorry to hear of your and your familes illnesses and sad losses.
However, I'm not sure what cancer has to do with children/adults who have ASD or ADHD etc. and the fact that the world is full of "good, genuine people"

Stage two breast cancer all lymph nodes affected also traveled to my neck,9 years ago now.
A sister two BILs and a brother died of cancer in the last ten years.a very dear nephew battling a brain tumour today.
My dear friends nephew who was severely autistic killed by a car.Her GS who is also severely autistic having problems at school.
Yes,there definitely are genuine people out there,real people,good people,we here are just a handful.

Where is the OP? Would be interesting to read her views in the light of the above comments.
For what it's worth, I worked in SEN until very recently and, yes, there is increased 'labelling', but that is for a purpose - not as an excuse. So-called 'labelling' means that the child learns (and behaves) in a particular way due to whatever is happening in their brain. The 'labelling' means they can be given help when they are young and strategies to manage for themselves when they are older. Ideally, they can then live a useful, productive and, most importantly, content life.
Again, for what it's worth, Statements were always rare and are now non-existent. They've been replaced with Educational Health Care Plans which continue till the person is 25, to take care of all aspects of their life. Still incredibly difficult to get though.

Badenkate and Greenfinch yes my little man has been fascinated since he was about 3 with sharks and whales, identifying the different species and what they each eat.

There are many many children on the A.S, or have A.D.H.D and many other issues and all the care, understanding and help we can give must be given and and no-one disputes that in anyway, there are also children (just like adults) who are lazy, disruptive and down right aggressive and its either nature or nurture.
No-one is saying every child that has been statemented is a fraud, far from it but we know there are few parents who push and push for a label for the wrong reasons.

It doesn't! There is no big database. Child health medical records are destroyed after a certain number of years. Forget the term 'label'. We're really talking about diagnoses. Professionals don't use 'labels'.

Sorry I can't remember who said about once a child is labled it stays on a data base and follows them for the rest of their lives, good ! That's why we paid for S to be diagnosed. Due to his problems he is unable to find anyone willing to employ him despite many job applications. DWP were going to stop his UC but due to the diagnosis at least he continues to get some money. I take a small amount of 'keep' from him which affords him some self worth. I don't know if he could cope living alone, even if he could he couldn't afford it.

It is interesting that it's generally agreed that more boys than girls are high on the autism scale and that when you think about the area of obsessive knowledge, such as sports statistics or the old train spotting, I guess you'd think of men

Late development of the left brain would affect language acquisition and sensation and movement in the right side of the body. Potentially significant issues.