Life as a SEN mum

When the referral is first submitted you feel somewhat nervous. Will it be accepted? How long will we have to wait? What happens next? Every time you see a letter come through addressed to “The Parent/Carer” you hold your breath hoping that this is the letter you’ve been waiting for. When you do get the letter confirming that the referral has been accepted it comes with mixed feelings, the relief you’re one step closer, yet the knowing that you could easily be waiting up to 2 years to even see anyone.

How do we keep ourselves sane and focused? Well I’ll be honest I don’t think I have kept my sanity. But you do have to be laser focused. Yes it’s a very long wait, and that’s just for an initial appointment, but you have to see it as an opportunity to gather as much evidence as possible. Diaries, videos, reports, anything you can you’re going to need to create, keep and have ready for that appointment. Speak to anyone else who helps care for your child, whether they’re at nursery/childminder or school. Speak to them and make sure you’re getting regular updates, whether this is a letter or by email, so that you have something to physically show. If you have a child who sees a doctor or specialist for any other conditions, including SLT or OT, keep these reports as well. Anyone involved with your child will be contacted and asked to answer a few questions, but what I find can really help is going through all the reports with a highlighter and picking out things that are of importance, and that may not be covered by the questions from paediatrics.

This might seem obvious, but when you’re in the whole whirlwind that is the process of getting an ASD referral it’s often easy to forget the obvious. The more detail you have the better, we saved a lot of time waiting for additional appointments with Charlotte simply by having everything ready and submitted in advance, so all we had to do was basically a case of formalities and form filling.