PARENT PERSPECTIVE
Supporting your child with additional learning needs Suzanne discusses how she has supported her son (a twin) with his additional learning needs both inside and outside school. She offers sensitive, insightful suggestions and advice for other parents in a similar position… Can you tell me a bit about your child and his additional needs for some context for the reader? My son is 16 now and he is a twin and it’s more common for twins to have some kind of learning need compared to singletons. He reached his milestones late, there were some red flags for me, so I had him checked out. There were all sorts of little things really. He had what was called Global Developmental Delay (GDD) and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). He was hypermobile and needed special inserts in his shoes. He also suffered from glue ear, which affected his hearing, [which] coupled with the auditory element of his Sensory Processing Disorder meant he found it very difficult to listen and learn in school, particularly processing complex instruction was difficult for him. There are some working memory issues as well and slow processing.
PHOTORAGHY: MARK WEEKS
What has it been like to be a mother of a child with additional learning needs? It’s been a real challenge over the years actually, and also a huge pleasure to see him respond to the various therapies and interventions that he has had. I have had to be very choosy about his educational setting and he has moved schools a number of times. That has been a real challenge. I have had to be very aware and very on the case whether a school is meeting his needs or not. So, for example, after the Reception year it became very clear that that school could no longer meet his needs, so then he moved. His subsequent school he was at for five years and that worked really well up to a point and then suddenly the other children were working and learning at a much faster pace, so again he needed moving. I think that has been one of the greatest 20 | EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | S U M M E R 2 02 1
