Ongoing Support

Next Steps…

After diagnosis or if your child already has a diagnosis or undefined suspected additional educational need

After contacting services and having initial interviews or testing done, it is a good idea to arrange a follow-up meeting with your child’s school. If you are not already in contact with any special or additional educational needs coordinator or service at your child’s school, you may want to ask for an appointment to see them. It is generally a good idea to be as honest and open about your child’s difficulties in school and at home. Children with additional educational needs are best supported in a team which includes parents, teachers and other support professionals communicating together.

We appreciate that this may present a problem for parents who have different expectations to the education systems their child is in, or are struggling with understanding the process or the language the discussion is taking place in. It is important also to acknowledge that parents and children may be feeling vulnerable and experience a range of emotions during this process.

 

Questions you may want to ask your child’s teacher/school:-

  • What support is available for my child?
  • What is the process we need to go through to access this support?
  • Where appropriate can my child access extra support? e.g. a computer in the classroom/educational sensory materials?
  • How will your school continue to support my child through his educational development?
  • Does the school recommend getting support from any outside organisations? Which organisations or practitioners do they recommend?
  • Are some of these needs due to her struggling in certain subjects?
  • In particular languages? Maths? or general reading & writing?
  • What does the school recommend for parents to do at home to support their child further?
  • Is there a personality issue or clash with my child’s teacher? Can anything be done about this? e.g. change of class?
  • Is my child likely to fail the year and what does this mean?
  • Is there a system for reviewing my child’s academic progress, complaints or appeals procedure?

Answers to at least some of these questions will give parents a clearer picture of how to work with the school and the outside support they will need to find themselves.

 

Ongoing Support Outside of Schools in Luxembourg

Depending on your child’s particular age and challenges there are several places where Children & Parents can get ongoing support.

The services for children and families discussed in our ‘getting a diagnosis and support in Luxembourg’ section may also be able to offer ongoing support. Beyond this there are English speaking practitioners specializing in many areas of child development in Luxembourg. Unfortunately there is no ‘one stop shop’ for these services and parents will need to spend some time finding the right practitioner for their child.

You can get advice and support regarding this by contacting the Kanner Jugend Telefon Online Help Service for Parents (English-speaking). This service is anonymous and confidential and is open to any questions large or small regarding parenting in Luxembourg.

You might also want to attend one of our monthly Passage Parent Support meetings. We provide a safe, confidential space to discuss anything to do with the challenges of modern day parenting.

Talking to other parents who have experienced similar issues in Luxembourg, even if their child has different challenges, can often help Parents to feel less isolated, confused or frustrated. You may be able to swap ideas about techniques that worked for your family, practitioners you have found helpful or ways to support each other. It is important to find some time to think about your own needs as parents , a couple and individuals. For more information about this see our ‘Time Out for parents’ section.

 

Over to you…

If you have experience as parents or professional expertise in this area please write us an article. We can publish articles anonymously to protect your identity if you prefer but other parents would welcome another point of view. For further information about how you can contribute to this ‘living’ resource’ see our section How to Get Involved or contact us at: passage.parents@gmail.com

 


 

Last updated:  Tuesday 17th March, 2015