New to Ireland, need advice. Thanks!

ktl87

Hello everyone. I´m brand new here and hoping to find some advice, support or whatever really.
My 10 year old son is diagnosed with ASD, ADHD and Tourette. Nothing new about it, he has had these diagnoses for a long time. We moved to Ireland last year, I´m doing a masters degree and my husband just started working this month. He needed to stay home last year, to take care of our son who is only attending half school day.

We brought with us the diagnoses from our home, brand new and with all the same assessment tools as are used here in Ireland. Still, they needed to be confirmed by the system here. So, we have waited for him to be able to attend full schooldays for months now, the school always said soon but now they say not until they get a SNA. I understand it, he needs the SNA. But it leaves us in massive trouble, having to pick him up at 12 every day. Finding sitters has been troublesome, and anyways, we can hardly afford them since we used up most of our savings with my husband being a stay at home last year.

My son also hates not being in school full day, he feels so left out and different from everyone else. He is also left behind academically, sometimes I think the teachers think of him as dumb because they hardly give him any schoolwork. I am getting really worried about his school career. We also don't have any support here, we have no family or friends and the meltdowns are getting worse and more frequent and I am slowly losing my mind.

We need support, he needs education (from people that know how to teach, not his mum who lacks patience and skill for special needs teaching), and our family life needs saving. Dramatic yes, but true.
Can you advice me about where to seek assistance?
Do we have the rights of any of the official tutor help or something like that?
Is there a program where autistic children can have a get away?
We live in Limerick btw.

Many thanks for any response!

VonBeanie

Check out autismireland.ie which is the website for Irish Autism Action. I would call them. They may be able to advocate for you with the NCSE (the organisation that manages the allocation of SNAs) or with the school.

Also, google Department of Education circulars on the basis for allocating SNA's. This may give you ideas on what to highlight to school and may help with getting an SNA allocated.

Finally. Make sure you try to apply for Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Incapacitated Child Tax Credit. These may provide some additional money for your family that could allow you to get some private home tuition.

Good luck....

tsire

Hello,

It sounds like you and your family have been going through a lot recently. I can certainly relate to a lot of it as I have ASD and TS as well (and also doing my masters, so I can understand the stress of that too!). Unfortunately, Ireland is very unsatisfactory in ensuring children with complex needs are supported to reach their full potential. While there are good supports for children with learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), the supports available for diagnoses that are not necessarily defined as "learning disabilities" are far from adequate.

I also had difficulties in school, missing several weeks and sometimes months of school each year. I managed because I was good at self-teaching and had a close family member available to stay home with me. It was not ideal, and I still feel a bit sad over the lack of support I received.

I know you mentioned that the diagnoses need to be confirmed in Ireland - has this happened yet? If not, this makes things more difficult of course. If you are waiting for an assessment through the school, this can be a very slow process unless you go privately (which can be expensive). Have you been to your local CAMHS about it? The waiting list here could be slightly faster.

You could also contact your local TD/Councillor - sometimes if the TD makes a bit of a fuss, he/she may help move things along. He/she could also have some better suggestions.

Also, if you ring the Department of Education (https://www.education.ie/en/Contact-Us/), you may be able to ask if your son is eligible for a home tuition package, where you could get some homeschooling by a qualified teacher until the SNA is available for him at the school. The Department of Education also provides something called "July Provision" - this provides an extra month of free education either in a school or at home for children with ASD. More info here: https://www.education.ie/en/Parents/Services/July-Provision/

Support from other people in the same situation is always helpful as well. There aren't any active supports for Tourette's (though there is a Facebook group called the Tourette Alliance and I have been trying for years to set something up, but still haven't managed to get something together), but Aspire (http://www.aspireireland.ie/cmsWP/) has some useful supports for high functioning ASD, and there is also the ADHD association (http://www.hadd.ie).

Hope some of that information will be useful for you and your family. If you would like to message me privately, I would be happy to help further in any way that I could.