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 |
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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