ABSTRACT
A long-standing friendship with an Asian family who were neighbours of Elizabeth led to her being involved in the process of statementing their youngest child, Balbinder Singh. This chapter is an account of how the process of transferring him into a special school for children with moderate learning difficulties happened, seen largely from the family's perspective. Mrs Singh worried about Balbinder a great deal, and was often very angry at his apparent lack of progress. When the educational psychologist produced evidence to suggest that he was suitable for transfer to a special school, no mention was made of his competence in his mother tongue -only of his deficiencies in spoken English. In September Balbinder started at Cedars. Talking to his teacher after a year and two terms at Cedars, it seemed that Balbinder's conversational language was developing well; he could hold his own in a small group, often initiating topics of interest, describing, explaining, and enquiring.
