Celebrating a major milestone

New ASD unit in Ballyhaise NS is already making a difference

Last week was a week of firsts at the McCarthy household and on Friday afternoon delight was the overriding emotion.

Five-year-old Ciarán had just completed his first week at Ballyhaise National School, where he was a member of the first ASD class in the school.

Mum Suzanna explains that there had been a massive build up all over summer to this week, and thankfully, it went off without a hitch. Her son was diagnosed with autism in May, and got accepted into the unit around mid-June.

Having worked with autistic children for the past seven years as a resource teacher at St Michael’s National School in Cootehill, Suzanna is in the loop when it comes to getting your child enrolled in a special class. She sympathisies with parents who may not have access to this information. Firstly, parents are supposed to apply in February.

“You have to email the NCSE, you have to go to ncse.ie and you have to know who your SENO is.”

Admitting that her words were starting to sound like a “foreign language”, Suzanna explains that a SENO is a Special Educational Needs Organiser.

“It’s really closed, it’s almost like a secret process,” Suzanna comments.

“It’s not an equitable system at all,” she believes.

Another “stupid” element of the system, Suzanna says, is that some SENOs like specific wording on the report.

“If you want them to go to a special class or special school , it [the application] has to be worded the way they like it, in order for them to accept it.

“Luckily for me, the educational psychologist who wrote the report was on the ball and she knew what she was doing.

“Being a teacher, you’re a little bit on the inside. You know what questions to ask, and you know where to go to find the answer. If you’re a parent who works completely out of education, how are you supposed to know where to go?”

Meanwhile in the classroom, when a school gets a unit, the teacher has three days of training, which is an “option”. If this teacher leaves the school, the replacement teacher gets one day of training.

“It’s all voluntary,” she explains.

“There aren’t training and resources available for teachers even, they’re just being landed in these units. That’s why a lot of the time units are being refused in schools.”

Thankfully for the McCarthys, news came in mid-June that Ciarán had been accepted to the unit, which was a massive relief.

“I had him enrolled in junior infants but I knew he wasn’t fit for that.”

On Tuesday of last week, Ciarán pulled on his uniform for the first time, however he didn’t really like the stiffness of his new shirt, or how scratchy it felt on his skin. But that’s okay, his mam let him go to school in his favourite shirt instead, which was far more comfortable. He also doesn’t really like loud noises or crowded environments, which is why the school arranged for the class to come to school at a slightly later time, and leave earlier too, when the playground wouldn’t be crowded with kids and parents. Students in the unit have their own dedicated classroom and play times.

A communication book sits on the kitchen table as Suzanna speaks to the Celt on her son’s very first week at school. The book contains messages from the teacher to Suzanna and vice versa. For example, if Ciarán has had a bad night’s sleep, Suzanna can write a message to the teacher. Similarly, the teacher can write about how Ciarán’s day went, so his mam can ask him about it when he gets home. Ciarán’s mam understands his needs and when effectively met, he can thrive, something which became evident during his first week at school.

“Ciarán has had such a lovely first week, I can’t believe how well he has settled. I didn’t think this was possible but I think he actually enjoyed school more than pre-school.”

That the school is so close to their home makes a massive difference, they can nearly see it from their sitting room window.

“He gets to walk the same route as he would do to his pre-school, just not as far. Stuff like that is really helpful, the fact that it is local.”

Suzanna praises the teacher in Ballyhaise, adding that she is doing a “great job” with the children.

“Already he has had a really fantastic week, I couldn’t ask for more. He’s delighted in school, he loves it.”

By the end of the week, Ciarán had hit a “big” milestone, putting on his full school uniform while also being ready for school half an hour early.

While delighted, Suzanna believes that schools should think about making uniforms “more accessible for children with sensory needs” while also keeping it affordable.

She has also noticed that her son is starting to express himself more, something he hadn’t previously done. He told his mammy he played with farm toys and red colours.

“That’s amazing because he could never ever tell me that kind of stuff. It’s only been four days and already there’s huge progress. He’s enjoying it so much that he wants to talk about it,” she says, adding that he has “the motivation to put in the effort” to speak about his day.

This week, the school will integrate Ciarán with the other junior infants’ class for a few minutes each day.

“That’s the idea of a special class; they don’t go in and stay there. The idea is that they try and integrate them into mainstream.”

Waiting lists

Outside of his academic successes, Ciarán is currently on the speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and educational psychologist waiting lists with Enable Ireland. Suzanna is not sure how long the wait will be, but she has heard from other parents that it could be 48 months.

“He’ll hopefully get support before he goes to secondary school,” says Suzanna, who adds that the wait time is “just wrong”.

On the issue of waiting lists, Suzanna believes: “The people who that are doing this [therapists], they’re brilliant but they’re working within this broken system that is letting children down, so that is the big issue.”

“They’re not looking after their speech and language therapists, their educational psychologists, so a lot of them are going private and you can’t blame them.”

“There’s less people working in the HSE and a greater waiting list.”