education

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Autism: ‘If only I knew then what I know now’

Autism and education

Autism and education

Special school teacher Siobhan Barnett shares what working with autistic students has taught her about autism

Every student starting teacher training should expect to learn about autism in their course, following the publication of the 2016 teacher training framework. I’ve been a teacher for 18 years and wish this training had been in place when I was studying. It would have made a huge difference to my early years in the classroom.

Almost straight after my initial training, I started teaching an autistic student, but I hadn’t been given the knowledge of autism or tools of the trade I needed to understand and help him learn. No doubt many other colleagues feel the same. To this day, I still reflect upon that student with a great sense of guilt, convinced that I did him a disservice through ignorance.

As recently as nine years ago, I taught my second autistic student and only fared slightly better in the classroom. I continued to make mistakes. For example, when I was taking her class on a school trip to the theatre, she had a panic attack when due to be seated in the circle and kept asking if we could sit downstairs. It had not occurred to me to book seats in the stalls and seat her at the end of the row so that she could take a break when feeling overwhelmed. If only I knew then what I know now.

Lessons I’ve learned about autism

When my own son and then my daughter were diagnosed, I had a crash course in autism. I have attended numerous courses and read everything I could on how to help autistic children to access learning, as well as the world around them. Over the years, I’ve learned a huge amount and wish I could share this knowledge with the teacher I was 18 years ago.

Read the article here

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Dear Teacher: Heartfelt Advice for Teachers from Autistic Students

Autism and education

Autism and education

Children with a formal diagnosis, such as autism, Asperger’s, ADHD, learning disabilities, Sensory Processing Disorder, and Central Auditory Processing Disorder–along those who just need to move while learning–often find it challenging to shine in a traditional classroom. The kids who collaborated to write and star in the “Dear Teacher” video represent such students. So, they wanted to share with educators how their brain works and offer simple ways teachers can help.

For more information on autism and education please check out this great article from Trisha Katkin!

Dear Teacher: Heartfelt Advice for Teachers from Students from Brain Highways on Vimeo.

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Autism and Education – Please can you help my wife and I with a problem? Thanks

Autism and Education

Autism and Education

Yes I know the theme of this weeks blogging about autism seems to be education.

But I can defend this on the grounds that John, our eight year old son, is still in education. So it is of great interest. But I really need you help and advice with a problem which has just arisen.

So firstly a bit of background!

As we have mentioned before our son attends a ResourceBase which is a halfway house between a specialist ASD school and a mainstream one. I’ve blogged in some detail here if you are interested.

Now as I have mentioned in previous blog posts both my wife and I are very pleased with John’s development at the Resourcebase. The numerous staff are committed and caring. Above all they are properly trained to do their jobs and that training is on-going.

Indeed John has progressed in the nearly two years he has been at the ResourseBase in leaps and bounds.

That being said he still has some way to go before he reaches parity with his peers. There are a number of reasons for this, but most especially, there are his problems with handwriting which in turn are caused by his many issues with fine motor skills. He does need some intensive work, in particular, in occupational therapy to help him go forward.

So his mother and I have suggested to the school that they keep him down a year next year so that he can cement the skills he has already learned and develop those he needs before it is time to move on to new challenges. He also needs to make up for lost therapy during his time in mainstream education.

The school’s reaction has so far not been positive. This is not really from the school but from the local government body which deals with education. For those of you who do not know my family and I live in London England.

There are a number of reasons stated – but mainly it come down to transitioning our son to other schools when he has finished his current stage. In the UK this transitioning normally takes place at the age of 11. But we know from our own experience that it has been common for children with ASD to be “kept down a year”. In fact with much success.

So why would we like your help.

Very simple.

It would be great if you could share your thoughts on this problem in the comments section below.

In particular we are interested in your views on the following questions.

a) Do you think keeping a child with ASD “down a year” is a good or bad idea in principle?
b) Have you any experience of this yourself? Please tell your story in the comments section below.
c) What happened when you child transitioned out of education or to a new level such as high school or university?
d) In general when you disagreed with the proposals of your child’s education providers how did that work out?

My wife and I would love to read your comments so that we can help prepare a case to give our son the best education possible.

Many thanks in advance.

PS If you know of anyone who might be able to help with any of these questions please can you share this blog post with them. Thx.

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Special Needs and Dance – read Colby Nielsen of MVD Dance’s guest post on how dance can help students with special needs such as the autism among others.


Welcome to our latest guest blog post at PatientTalk.Org.  Today Colby Nielsen of MVD Dance tells us about their dance programme for people with special needs and their plans for growth.  (And how you can help!) I know our son , who has autism, derives great benefit from his weekly dance session so this is well worth a  read.

Colby Nielsen

Colby Nielsen

Colby shares “Most activities and programs for people with developmental disabilities are great for many reasons but two big ones that stick out is promoting inclusion and teaching skills pertinent to life.  A key aspect of living your life is socializing.  At MVD dance studio, we have been running a special needs dance program for the last 6 or 7 years.  It helps to show not only the community but our dancers as well that anyone with or without a disability can do anything. The program and the studio came about from a fateful trip to a conference on special needs in school and how to promote inclusion.

The founder of the program and the owner of the studio, Shanelle and Michelle respectively, we asked to attend a national conference due to the success of their partners program at their highschool, Shanelle a Sophmore at the time and Michelle a teacher at the school. The program paired up mainstream students with disabled students to compete in sports and do various activities.  This not only promoted inclusion but broke down barriers in the school and perceptions of the Special Needs department.  Many kids who would tease the disabled students would be entered into the partners program and the results were great.  Not only did they accept the disabled students but they built bonds and friendships.  The students would stand up and defend disabled kids throughout the school and it really did a lot to show everyone at a young age that disabled or not everyone is a person and deserves to be treated as such.

While they were on the their trip to the national conference, Shanelle and Michelle saw a singing group that was made up of people with disabilities.  This struck home very strongly to both Michelle and Shanelle.  Having worked with the special needs program so much they were always looking for ways to support and develop inclusion and education of those with special needs.  Having been heavily involved in dance, Michelle the highschool dance team coach and mom of several dancers and Shanelle the captain of the highschool dance team, before they even returned from their trip they began hatching plans to start a dance program for people with special needs.  In order to have a dance program, they would need a studio to do it at.  Thus MVD was born to house the program the Super Stars. When they returned, they put together a dance workshop for people with special needs.  They told their friends with disabilities about it and worked with the local Special Olympics to promote it through their other activities.  They turn out was decent and they sent everyone home with a flyer for a weekly dance class they were starting.  This was to become the Super Stars.  From this initial workshop, they had gathered just 5 consistent students.  That was all they needed.

The Super Stars began performing as much as they could to help spread the word.  The results were inspiring.  After every performance we have someone come up that says they are affected by special needs in one way or anther and appreciate what we are doing.  Most would like to have their friend, or brother, or sister, or cousin join the program.  Needless to say it has become very popular very quickly and become the largest of its kind in the state.  From our initial 5 we have grown to 20 – 25 depending on the week. While the program has become very popular and we feel a very positive thing in our community and very loved by our community, it has begun to hit two walls.  First being that the space we have is too small to fit the growing number of students wanting to participate.  The second being that we are on a second level and our friend Dillan, and many others, who is in a wheelchair is unable to join because he can not traverse the stairs.


Our eventual goal is to own our own building and renovate it to be as handicap friendly as can be.  Offering not just dance but art  classes and other performance based arts as well as turning it into a day-hab facility for the special needs community in our town.  For now we are looking to gain a larger space and have started a Kickstarter to do it. Kickstarter is a website that you can create a project on to help fund it.  You have anywhere from 1-60 days, your choice, to raise your goal amount, also your choice.  If you become a backer and the project doesn’t succeed your card is never charged but if you become a backer and the project succeeds there are several gifts you can receive based on how much you were willing to back with.

Please take a look at our Kickstarter project and show our program support so we can continue growing it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/104170557/a-new-home-for-mvd-and-our-super-stars”

Colby Nielsen www.mvddance.com

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Autism and Education Part Two – Compromise or Half Way House? Our Autistic son’s educational journey explained. What is your child’s journey!

Autism Awareness and EducationChildren

Autism Awareness and Education

Sorry about the odd title but this is one of those opportunities to write a more personal blog about autism than usual.

As you may know we have a seven year old son who was diagnosed just over four years ago with what can be described as classic autism.  Pretty much since the day of his diagnosis on 1st September 2009 (around 11.00am) (yes I do remember without having to look it up) he has been in the education system here in London, England.

Just before his third birthday (I should mention that he showed serious regression around his second birthday) he entered a kindergarten/nursery which catered for pre-schoolers with autism.   What was novel, at least for me, was the nursery was part of a mainstream school.  Referred to as a ResourceBase it provided a specialist autism unit which existed within and was supported by the mainstream primary school.

The hope was that pupils in the unit would move on at the ages of 4-5 to a mainstream school, having been provided with the tools to be able to cope in such an environment.

Our son, after two years at the unit, progressed to our local primary school.  The first year, we all felt, was a success for him and the school.  However, he experienced a great deal of difficulty at the age of 5-6 dealing with the more formal instruction provided by the school after the initial year.  I have to say here that both his teachers and his support workers were absolutely brilliant but it was felt, and we agreed, in the short to medium term that our son would benefit from more specialised support.

So you can imagine our delight when we found out that another school in the areas was providing the same ResourceBase education.  This time for children aged 4-11.    After a certain amount of waiting around he was offered a place.  The key thing about this approach to educating  ASD children  is that, while they are based in a specialist unit, around 50% of their time is spent in mainstream classes with their own age group.

While the transition from mainstream to specialist unit has been hard, (he hates changes in routine!) we have found, two and a half months in, that we now see some real improvements.

Firstly he no longer cries when he has to go to school.  Yes, a bit of complaining but nothing like the previous school.  Secondly he is starting slowly to make some advances in academic work.  Indeed this morning on the way to school he asked me how various words were spelt.  You cannot imagine my delight – this has never happened before.  Unless you count his discussion about numbers yesterday afternoon.

That being said, making friends still seems to be hard.  He does seem to prefer the company of neurotypical children.

So, all in all, for our son the middle path between mainstream and specialist school seems to work.

So what about you?  I’d be really interested in finding out a bit more about how our readers with autistic children have fared in the education system.    You may wish to think about it in terms of the following questions:

a)   What was the exact diagnosis of your child and at what age were they diagnosed?

b)  How would you describe their overall profile in terms of behaviour and cognition?  What are their biggest challenges?

c)    What sort of education have they received?  Do you follow any particular strategies both at home and at school?

d)  Have they changed schools during their education because of their ASD?  Please tell us how this transition has worked out.

e)   How would you, in a perfect world, have had your child educated?

f)     What advice about education would you give to somebody who has just has their child diagnosed with autism?

Please feel free to use the comments box below to share your child’s educational story.  You can read the first part of our autism and education series here https://patienttalk.org/?p=977

Thanks very much in advance.

 

LindaGiguere I Really Enjoyed Reading This Post. While I’m Not The ParenT Of AN Autistic Child, As A Teacher I’ve Come To Know Many.
lovemyboy charlieandme234 lovemyboy  I am glad the dyslexia has been recognised. It is sometimes argued that the frustrations of dyslexia cause all the behavioural issues so they may be trying to wriggle out of a autism diagnoses that way. If your son is anything like mine then the meltdowns are way more than that. Many children at the ‘higher end’ of the spectrum do make friends and do make moves to be social it is not until the rules get more complicated and the other children more observant that the problems really start. My son has only being having problems in the last year it started with party invites dropping off and now he is down to one friend and being bullied. Not trying to worry you but I would just encourage you to get a full assessment done. I was also told for many years that ‘he has friends so can’t be autistic’. My brother was diagnosed with aspergers at 27 (he was diagnosed in school with dyslexia), he made friends and didn’t have issues with other children until secondary school. Good luck and I hope the conformation of dyslexia helps with your sons reading and writing. x
charlieandme234 lovemyboy charlieandme234   hi there we have just had a cognitive report done and we have been told that he does have dyslexia  which is a great step towards helping him at school but now they are say they are not sure if he is autistic  because he is to social so we are back to square one it is driving me crazy  we have another appointment with a doctor to get him another assessment. hope things are  getting better for your boy
lovemyboy charlieandme234  My son is also seven (coming on 8).He could not read or write until six months ago. He has been waiting for an assessment for ASD with an expected positive diagnoses (at the asperger/higher functioning end). He goes to a mainstream school at the moment and has terrible problems with socialization, I agree totally that our sons do not need fixing, it is the other children’s reactions to my sons attempts at friendship than anything he is doing ‘wrong’ that are the problem in my eyes. The turning point for my son was when he had a test for dyslexia (which is not uncommon to run along side ASD) and is now getting schooled in a way that he understands, he has really flown since and has almost caught up with the other children in reading and writing. It is very important that each child is taught in a way that they understand (they have not failed to learn, the education system has failed to teach). Good luck with it all. x
charlieandme234 my son is 7 and still can not read or write and it was thanks to his teacher we got a diagnosed and for thank i am very thankful many people thought it was that i need to discipline him more  or feed him more fish oil and less junk food. The teacher thought it was ADHD but when told it was autism and that he was social and emotional age 3 she understood him more and has done everything in her power to help us. we are not waiting on a cognitive report to see how best to help him learn as the doctor told us it is not charlie that needs fixing but everyone else. It’s still not easy when everyone is looking at you with judgment in their eyes when he is having a meltdown after school or why he is always caring around his monkey teddy but we continue to try and education these simple minded people and carry on focusing on him and his education and always telling our self that is will not last forever
RaeRae1 Don’t any other parents feel like they are autistic too?  I feel that way.  Which makes it harder to work with the system I suspect.
My 13 year old son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5, in kindergarten.  It was too much, and I ended up taking him out of school and homeschooling him until 3rd grade, and we found a neat little charter school in it’s prime, it was a natural sciences environment where he thrived for a year until they made too many changes and moved away from the nature aspect. During this time we got a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder with some comments and a little social and physical therapy. I then home schooled him for half a year and got sick myself so ended up mainstreaming with an IEP for 2 years, which was mostly a struggle and I had to be in constant contact with the school.  I feel rather disagreeable towards the constant interaction required for him to be treated humanely.  He’s now in 7th grade, a specialized program full of kids on the spectrum where he goes to regular classes but has extra support and supervision.  It’s hard to tell how that is going, because he got mononucleosis (Epstein Barr virus)  from drinking from the school fountain how only an autistic kid would, so he has missed probably 2 months of school and it’s only December.  But the bullying there seems pretty severe the times he does make it, so I am leaning towards trying a community college type approach or one of the online schools so he can still get the education he needs, but I would need to find some social therapies to involve him with if I go that route.  It’s a constant challenge for me, as he is where I stopped being able to attend regular school as a child, but never having a formal diagnosis I never understood why it was so hard for me.  I did great in college etc. but my challenges never were academic.  The change and number of people and harshness of everything just seems destructive to my world, and I wonder the point of acclimating a child to it when even as an adult they will not tolerate it well and will find ways to work away from those environments.  Anyhow, that’s just my two cents.
missyj6342 I have a son who is now 14. He was not diagnosed with Autism until the end of his fifth grade year of school. Up till that time we were told my son had ADHD and teachers and doctors were treating him as such but I knew their was something more to it. In elementary school setting he was primarily in mainstream class with resource help. But when middle school came and classes became harder and beimg popular was important my son regressed hugly. The school he was attending was not suited for a child like my son and the teachers couldn’t “handle” him. They tried to place him in a special day class and that made dealing with other students more difficult. My son was not meant for that type of class because he was not so slow in learning, he had more difficult time socializing. After only one year their with whay seemed no help from that school I decided to fight our school district to send him to another school. I foumd a school with a program that was for children who had more emotional issues then learning issues. Where he was taught everything in a mainstream class but this class was smaller and the students all had emotional behavior.this helped my son learn to cope with classes his emotions and the issues of being a preteen and teen. Now in high school. My son is taking all mainstre am classes with 2 periods of study skills where he is learning how to handle differwnt social environments and social cues. I truly feel that had I not changed schools and look for an alternative that my son would have continued to regress. Now at 14 he is thriving. Doing great academically and socializing in the minimum but still willimh to try