son with learning difficulty
 

Our son has learning difficulties, he has the one to one here in mainstream school 10 hours. he has been statemented with developmental delay.

We asked questions when we were in aus in jan, but due to school holidays we could not go to a school and get a better understanding of what is on offer.
any advise from people with experience of this would be invaluable.

thanks
ray + val

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hiya both,

Do you know what area you would like to settle in? I would suggest emailing or even phoning a few schools within the area you are looking at.

Personally we have had no problems what so ever with our eldest lad. He has dyslexia. When we went to enroll him at the school i took along his statement from the UK and they assured me they would accomodate him in every way. He has extra help with certain subject and is doing much better than he was in the UK.

I know your situation is a bit different, but i just wanted to let you know that from what we have found the school has been very helpful.

Take care
Melis

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Will be watching this thread with interest as my youngest has SEN ... dyslexia compounded by speech/language relating to clefting who has daily one to one but in main stream, socially he has no worries... and elder son has unstatemented, milder, dyslexia.. He struggles with/ hates school but gets up early and gets himself there on the one day each week that they play basketball at a preschool club.

One of the reasons we are immigrating is the fact that the UK system is geared to getting kids through a never ending barage of acaddemic tests/exercises which are totally inappropriate for two of my children.. They are set up for failure in a culture which prides paper over physical endeavor. Having said that George is no David Beckham, but he will be the kid at the back working hard to get the ball forward for the golden boots who does the scoring.. and most importantly be the one best pleased that his mate has scored.

In the uk it has become vitually impossible to get an apprenticeship, but I understand that this system still flourishes in AUs. They are both hard working, very physical/active, friendly, polite and pleasant lads... who are happiest when they are outside doing... throwing things, kicking things and running with things.. They don't do indoors very well, they don't do tv for too long and as such they have little future here in the uk. We want more useable space and more consistant weather that doesn't always prevent us using that space...

My two girls are academically bright (not gifted) so will flourish in school anywhere.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi all, can I ask if any of you have had problems with the medicals for your children? I know it is not the same, but we had our meds done 3 weeks ago and said about my 3 year olds speech problem. Doctor said this could be a problem even though I told him it was not a medical reason he had a defect it is just speech delay. I confirmed this by getting his speech therapist to write a report saying this. Thing is, OH is now saying we are not going to get in and won't talk about putting the house on the market etc and it has now rubbed off on me and I now too think we will not get in. Please tell me different.

Nic

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Just want to say that your boys sound ab fab. They may not be suited to an office enviroment (who really is!), but my OH worked in the building trade here in the UK for a little while - hard work and enthusisim will get you EVERYWHERE! Good luck to them and you when you get to Oz. :thumbsup:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

we had our meds end of april, the doc wanted all the doctors reports peadiatrics speach and his future needs. doc told us not to worry, and we wont, cant second guess all what goes on in the process of emigration, stress levels would be on the roof.

i wouldnt worry one bit. if you daughter has only the speach delay that wont put a stop to the process.

good luck

ray val

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Youngest with bilateral cleft lip & pallete and associated speech delay ... Panal Dr said he was no worries as his condition is a, self limiting, b, likely to resolve with time... Gave them the Ed Psych report which said he was well adjusted with good verbal reasoning but a little hard to understand at times... and has dyslexia which may require reader/scribe in later (exam) years... His "problem" wont stop him supporting himself financially, cost the health service much or stop him working... it may just mean he settles for something practical and gives up his dream of being a bbc radio 4 presenter:)

Our medicals landed in Sidney this morning so will let you know as soon as we know...

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Thank you guys, you have no idea how much that has put my mind at rest. :)

Nic

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

hi hope you dont mind me butting in on your topic, but reading your thread has just made me start to jump around the kitchen, i also have a son with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and had more or less given up hope about going to oz due to this, i am now hoping beyond all hope that your able to tell me if you have had your medicals passed yet? and what information you had to supply!

thankyou julie:D

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi Julie
we had to give everything you have ever had from any one dealing with your childs needs/difficulties. speech and language reports, pediatrician. local childhood behavior nurse, school and statement reports. the lot.

we had to get more info after the medical, but it is just a formality. give them heaps and they can bin what they want and send on the relevant info to aus.

where are you in the migration wheel? we are still waiting for the ok or ko.

ray

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Nic and eddy where are you in the process?

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

This thread is very interesting to me. Our son has mild cerebral palsy and autism (Asperger's). We sent our visa's away just over 3 weeks ago. We are now sitting playing the very nervous waiting game. We are hoping to go to Sydney in November and I am just starting to look at the schooling etc.

It is so great to hear others stories a bit like ours and have made me feel more positive that there are others trying too :thumbsup:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi
Thanks for your response, we havent even started applying for visa yet. The agents I had spoken to were not very unhelpful as to whether we would pass the medicals in view of sons condition, I had tried to post on this site earlier in the year, but didnt get any response's. So I was very excited when I came across this thread, as I had thought that we would be refused a visa on medical grounds so gave up (didnt want to go through the whole visa process then get to last bit and be turned down!)
Plus oh job is not exactly straight forward either so we have a lot of challanges to get through, but at least I know if we do get to medicals that there is hope and it wont be a straight no!
Thanks for info and good luck! hope you get the ok to go, will keep watching and im sure you'll let us know when you get the answer.
Thanks again
Julie

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hopefully Eddie will be along soon... but to put your mind at ease I know they got their visa :thumbsup:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

You might find some resource info for your son at www.thespasticcentre.org.au. They have several therapy and resource centres in sydney and in some parts of rural NSW.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

To the posters asking about cleft/dyslexia. We have son with cleft (very mild repaired at 8 months, mild as in private dentists/doctors have not even picked it up), no facial disfiguration at all, will have dental problems tho.

Dyslexia, search on the subject, much will come up, funding is seriously short, you wont get one to one let alone 10 hours! we got a few hours of help with a learing difficulties teacher (total 27 sessions in 5 years) in a group of kids tho but was main help is parent volunteers:blink: HOwever - as someone said school is a no pressure zone here, relaxed to the point of horizontal at times, depending if the parents can relax about that type of education it can be very good for non academic kids.

Cleft, please dont mind if I tell you as it is - funding :eek: OK brisbane hospital sees kids from Cairns to Tamworth NSW and outback as far as you can go. The specialists are so heavily booked, but supported by students from the unversity of QLD, son had some cleft dentistry and was done by a young student who was FAB. We have his normal dentistry done private because the chug to brisbane is a nighmare. Last trip with traffic and wait was 9 hours:eek: but you shut up and put up many people have come down from 17 hours away. Similar system in Victoria havent experienced other states but hear its the same.

Probably best to realise now, you pay for all the specialists things for kids in OZ, unless you can get them throught the hospital. With one hospital in the whole state doing this work you can imagine the workload they have, but they are good, for many things your GP may well tell you quite bluntly - go private, the wait is too long.

Speech therapy, this is easier to access private. Throught the hospital we were only given a kit- log in and read the sounds, no instruction just read it with your kid. Luckily we dont really need speech therapy but had a few sessions private and the cost after our private insurance was only about $25 per session. Hearing tests $90, specialist first visit $300, get back about $80from medicare.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Wow, guess I hadnt thought about the cost side of things! As my son is only 2 he will still need extensive dental treatment which will be a very on going thing and could possibly need further facial surgery.
Think he will definitely need speech therapy as he is still not saying much, although knows everything and how to get it! lol

There is still lots to think about...its a big decision for everyone but when you have a child who needs that little bit extra, it is very scary!

Can you take a private insurance that will cover most of the cost of these treatments and is it that very expensive...:unsure:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

We have private healthcover, its paid back a large chunk of our families dental bills and smaller amounts towards speech and of course other stuff other family members have used. You really need to study what fund you sign up to, they vary, generally the lower the premium the less they pay ours is currently about $2700 per year with medibank private.

With the cleft surgery, the surgeons, often students, are at the brissy hospital but they are soooo heavily booked, but thats covered by medicare, but as I said they see patients from the entire state plus Northern NSW etc. We were down last week for 9 hours all up, but one specialist was too heavily booked we didnt get to see him, they have called us back this thursday on a cancellation. The constant time off school (and work = no pay!) worries me most but you have to take what you can get. They actually wanted him to have hearing tests as part of the check up, had appointment but equipment was not free, so sometimes its just easier to get it done private, thats next week been quoted $90 so not too bad.

If you want any stuff in more detail you can PM me. :)

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Reading your thread with interest. My sister applied to come to Oz. She has a child with Development Delay. Sydney refused their application because of the DD. My sister has appealed and it's now on 'Deferred Decision'..whatever that means. I believe they are waiting for the next assessment which is due in August. It's annoying because my niece is doing great now. She only requires about 1-2 hours a day of one on one tutoring now. Her improvement has been marvellous of late. It's a shame that Sydney can't see that. Good luck to all you who are waiting for decisions.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi

Thanks for all info, think I need time to digest it all! I knew that healthcare would need to be paid for, but thought that this would provide access to a better standard of care:frown:
from the sounds of things it seems worse than what we have here. I have not been able to fault the standard of care we have received from our cleft team(nurse's,surgeons,dentists etc) we have easy access to them all and of course here their free! we have had lots of support from them, and my son would be under their care until hes in his twenties.
Im not sure that I would be happy with having to make do:huh:

Thanks again. need to decide if what I hope would be a better life for us all, is going to be at the cost of my youngest...:unsure:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

I've been away for a bit and am just catching up with old threads.

I have a child with Asperger's Syndrome a mild form of austism. She is in a learning support centre attached to a local primary school and doing extremely well academically, however, her social skills do let her down somewhat.

We were advised to contact Dr Martha Baz, who works out of Sydney and is totally independant of any migration agents and she gives her opinion as to whether it is worth your while applying. Her email address is [email protected] or [email protected]

We are currently awaiting her reply. I did post a thread with children with learning difficulties at the start of June and got lots of support and advice.

Good luck for the future,


Lynne

wife of Crocodileseamus:):rofl::)

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

I AM A SPECIAL NEEDS COORDINATOR IN NSW. FUNDING COMES FROM THE COMMONWEALTH AND IS CATEGORISED. IQ IS A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF FUNDING. I WORK IN THE CATHOLIC SECTOR. IQ LESS THAN 75 - YOU ATTRACT FUNDING FROM THE COMMONWEALTH. THERE IS TALK IN MY CURRENT SYSTEM OF GETTING RID OF LANGUAGE/COMMUNICATION CATEGORY FOR FUNDING. SORRY RUSHING THIS BECAUSE I NEED TO GET ON WITH MY WORK - APPLYING FOR FUNDING! MENTAL HEALTH IS ANOTHER CATEGORY - OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER SITS IN THIS ONE. PHYSICAL/HEARING AND VISION - ALL FUNDABLE. THE INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE IS A GREY AREA AND SITS OUTSIDE OF THE FUNDING CATEGORIES. IT IS LOOKED ON BY THE SPECIAL ED DEPARTMENT OF THE DIOCESE ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS. AIUTISM/ASPERGERS IS ANOTHER CATEGORY. ONE TO ONE HELP IS NOT USUAL WITHIN A SECONDARY ENVIRONMENT UNLESS THE STUDENT CANNOT KEEP THEMSELF SAFE.
THIS IS A VERY QUICK RESPONSE AND OF COURSE A VERY COMPLEX MATTER BUT HOPE IT HELPS. APOLOGIES FOR ERRORS, NO TIME TO PROOF READ.
TARA

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi

I have also been in touch with Dr Baz who did reply to us, but still couldnt really give us a definitive answer, she does offer her services in putting together all the relevant medical info and then will tell you what she thinks your chances are before you go to the panel doctors(for a charge of course)

I have been told she is very good but I havent decided whether to take up her offer as yet..please can you let me know if you have or are going to do so?

Thanks Julie

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Just to share with you all, we got our Visas today! :thumbsup:

Our son has mild cerebral palsy and has also been diagnosed with mild austism (Asperger's type). Although it has been tough and, at times, very hard thinking we were wasting our time with the whole idea of a new life in Australia, we got there in the end!!!:D

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Fantastic, congratulations, I truly believe that education offers more here to kids with special needs. Good luck and PM if you need any help with school applications. I might be able to help.
Tara

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Just to let you know, my son is hearing impaired and when we had our medicals, i told the doctor and he noted down that he wears a hearing aid etc., and he said it was no problem - because they do the test where they stand behind you talking quietly and he didn't hear him at all.

We had no problems getting our 136 visa and my son has even had two masdoitectomy operations since arriving three yrs ago, all on the public system.

He also has had more help than any of the schools in England offered, even when i pushed and pushed for more help. Over here, it was put in place before he started high school.


Just bear in mind, all speech therapy/consultants are expensive and i would get private medical insurance to cover the costs.

Melanie

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Have you tried Australian Hearing ? I use them for my son and I have never had to pay for Hearing tests. They have branches all over the place and are very good and i also pay 25. bucks a year towards his hearing aid costs (repairs/batteries etc) but that is all.

Melanie

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

I have been very surprised as to how they deal with children at school here with learning difficulties. It is all for the good I have to add! My daughter was having problems when we first got here and after one conversation with her teacher she was given one to one help or taken into a small group i.e. one specialist teacher to about 3 or 4 kids with similar problems.

Each school seems to have it's own special department that deals with special needs and for example the school my girls attend fitted the school out with new equipment purely due to a young lad starting with hearing problems - this meant speakers, microphones etc so that hearing the teacher would be easier.

At the high school where I work there are plenty of children with various learning difficulties to physical disabilities and they are all integrated into the school very well. This may be done by means of a teacher aide attending every class with the student or at least the core subjects or by the other students being very understanding and in my opinion a great help to all the students with any problems.

My daughter was seeing a speech and language therapist in the UK and here we have found there has been now need as her language and any problems have been dealt with swifty and smoothly. We have been offered other types of help from extra tutoring for her which would of been at a cost but to me quite minimal.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi all,

Have just been catching up with the threads on here and at last there are some with a positive response.

I was beginning to think that the health care in Australia was very behind the uk. It's great to hear from family's that have children with different needs and that they feel they are being adequately met.

I dont mind paying for private health care as long as I am receiving a better standard and service than if i didnt pay for it.

Thankyou aswell for the posts that show that schools over there do offer extra help for its students as a lot of the posts I have read give the impression that the schools are really laid back about education (which is not a bad thing, less pressure etc) but I also would like to know that should my children need extra help at some point that I wont have to worry about them getting it.

My hope's and dreams for what life in Oz would be like are starting to be restored, I would like to thankyou for that.:thumbsup:

Julie

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know our son who is 7 years old has Aspergers Syndrome. When he had his medical it came to light that he needed glasses aswell. Even with both of these nothing came back and WE GOT OUR VISAS. So just to let you all know there is hope. (By the way we are now into our second week in Victoria and my son loves it!)

Good luck everyone, I'm sure it will be fine.:thumbsup:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

I forgot to say the other thing they seem to have in most schools (full time in High Schools, part time in primary schools) is a Guidance Officer. He or she helps out with any of children if they have any underlying issues but also tests for any learning difficulties and advises.

The other thing I have found is they are more willing to support children that they deem disadvantaged here be it from their background or from their disabilities etc there is special funding to help these children to find a future career (I'm talking older high school children) one new scheme is called Positive Pathways. I have come across several of these schemes in place and there seems to more all the time starting up.

I think it is nice to know as a parent that no matter what problems you think your child will face they have a lot of support for their future at the schools. You may have to ask a few questions however to ensure you find the right person. ;)

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Thankyou, I am so pleased for you I so want to be were you are, at the moment it just seems like a dream.....

Guess the best thing is to just go for it! and then we can see for ourselve's.

julie:unsure:

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

This is the most informative thread I have seen so far regarding these problems. It was one of the first questions I asked about on the forum and we had advice from Crocodile Seamus and his wife Lyn (thankyou!). We have decided like all of you to go ahead and try for visas. I don't know how difficult it will be because our son has persistant speech and language delay, mild autism and mild learning difficulties. If we are refused a visa on account of Alex we feel we have lost nothing - like you all we love our child and the cost of the visa process means less to us than the prospect of an outdoor life. I wish you all luck and was glad to read of sucsessful applications. Reading the thread has prompted me to make sure that all our reports are up to date. I feel nervous about the medicals but will probably stress out more nearer the time.

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

For my daughter she was born with a cystic hygroma to the right side of her face (heaps of cysts all within her face and externally) ever since she was born she has had to have operations. As I said speech therapy, dieticians, delayed learning, breathing problems, hearing problems etc etc

We had reports left right and centre from specialists saying how it effected her and how she was doing at the current time. When we went for the medical the doctor was lovely and explained that she would go as a category B. This means her info would be viewed in more detail by the Aussie medical lot to determine how much she would cost the country if they allowed her to move here. I can't remember the exact figure it is but say it's $200,000 if they worked it out she would cost $199,999 then she would be allowed in but one dollar over and she would have been turned down. A category A is where you go through without any problems.

Good luck to you all

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Have today posted a new thread entitled 'deferred opinion'. We are currently battling with the MOC to pass my 7 yr old daughter who has learning difficulties etc.

Its been a tough long road so far, but reading some of your stories and successes has given us hope.

Good luck to all of us trying and congrats to those who have succeeded.

janie.c

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Janie - sorry to hear you are facing a bit of a battle.Are you able to give a little more detail and perhaps somebody out there may have some advice relevant for a specific problem? I will cross my fingers and hope to hear you have good news soon.
LouB

Re: son with learning difficulty
 

Hi

It depends which state you plan to settle in. If you move to NSW try this link. They wont do the work for you but they will tell you how to go about getting the support your child needs. http://www.family-advocacy.com/index2.php We have been in Sydney 3 years in October. Although we got help for our adopted children (both have global developmental delay), it has been a long long slog. In the UK it was easy and help was ready at hand. In fact this is one of the resons we plan to return to the UK. We believe the UK system offers a much more supportive service for children with any type of learning difficulties. Good luck. Ian