Hi everyone, I've not been around for a while because I'm having huge problems with my education authority in getting them to agree where my son should be educated.
I'm getting lots of contradicting information from the so called professionals/specialists. Some are suggesting he should stay in his current mainstream school and needs no extra supports (lol!), others suggest another mainstream school with a specialism in autism. The professional I trust the most has told me I really have to make a decision about whether I want to improve my son's education or socialisation. She is recommending that because of his autism and sensory issues he would be better placed in a specialist autism unit. In this unit he would get more one to one input and access to other professionals such as Occupational Therapy. Hopefully he should improve and learn to read and write (he is now 7). So far he is unable to read and write, although everyone involved keeps telling me how bright he is. But in this unit there are more severely autistic children, which he is not, and I am fearful that he won't have anyone to socially interact with. But this same professional is saying that she will recommend that he is allowed to socialise with other children from the mainstream school and play games with them.
The alternative to is keep him in a mainstream class so that he can socialise, but his autism and sensory difficulties will make it impossible for him to access any kind of learning.
This professional has advised that really I have to put academic stuff first at this stage, because if he cannot read/write he wont have any chance of attaining anything academically and this will affect his possible life choices.
I suppose I'm just looking for re-assurance that I am doing the right thing. I don't know what he will think about this unit and the other children he is with. In some ways he is very capable and I am worrying that it will affect his self esteem. But he has been in a mainstream school for 3 years now and has achieved very little academically and if you observe him in class he appears totally oblivious to anything that is going on around him. Yet when he is at home with me we can have really quite in depth discussions about things and that sometimes makes me doubt how autistic he actually is.
So I've come to the conclusion that 'the environment' plays a big part for him, and therefore a unit might be much quieter and have less stimulation making it easier for him to learn there.
I'm getting lots of contradicting information from the so called professionals/specialists. Some are suggesting he should stay in his current mainstream school and needs no extra supports (lol!), others suggest another mainstream school with a specialism in autism. The professional I trust the most has told me I really have to make a decision about whether I want to improve my son's education or socialisation. She is recommending that because of his autism and sensory issues he would be better placed in a specialist autism unit. In this unit he would get more one to one input and access to other professionals such as Occupational Therapy. Hopefully he should improve and learn to read and write (he is now 7). So far he is unable to read and write, although everyone involved keeps telling me how bright he is. But in this unit there are more severely autistic children, which he is not, and I am fearful that he won't have anyone to socially interact with. But this same professional is saying that she will recommend that he is allowed to socialise with other children from the mainstream school and play games with them.
The alternative to is keep him in a mainstream class so that he can socialise, but his autism and sensory difficulties will make it impossible for him to access any kind of learning.
This professional has advised that really I have to put academic stuff first at this stage, because if he cannot read/write he wont have any chance of attaining anything academically and this will affect his possible life choices.
I suppose I'm just looking for re-assurance that I am doing the right thing. I don't know what he will think about this unit and the other children he is with. In some ways he is very capable and I am worrying that it will affect his self esteem. But he has been in a mainstream school for 3 years now and has achieved very little academically and if you observe him in class he appears totally oblivious to anything that is going on around him. Yet when he is at home with me we can have really quite in depth discussions about things and that sometimes makes me doubt how autistic he actually is.
So I've come to the conclusion that 'the environment' plays a big part for him, and therefore a unit might be much quieter and have less stimulation making it easier for him to learn there.
-
Re: Education vs Socialisation
Sun, July 6, 2008 - 11:37 AMMy son's school people (teachers/home liason) are pushing the socialization route towards my son / I right now and I do agree with this approach //// in other words, having him interact and socialize if possible with 'normal' kids ///
working on it -
-
Re: Education vs Socialisation
Sun, July 6, 2008 - 3:53 PMBut if you had to decide between Education and Socialisation, which would you put first, at least for the time being.
I am thinking that if he cannot read or write he won't have any life choices later on.
If he gets those basic steps, then I can consider moving him again. If he could read, for example, I think he would read books on the subjects that interest him. So it is just getting him started.
If he's around mainstream kids and becomes more able to socialise, but unable to work as an adult would that be a better outcome.
He can socialise, and I do pay for him to go to private Play Therapy sessions. But most of the time he is unaware of his environment and other people and what they are thinking or doing. If I explain it to him he is able to know what to say or do. But without my input he would be unaware. -
-
Re: Education vs Socialisation
Sun, July 6, 2008 - 9:29 PMIf you are only considering the fact that he is in a mainstream classroom to be socialization, then I'd move him where he needs to be to get his academic skills up to par. If his current placement offers OT and a social skills class and the alternative doesn't, then I'd leave him where he is. Unless you home school him and never take him to the store, on play dates, etc he WILL have socialization. I'm guessing schools are set up a bit differently over there than here in the US, because when my son was in the aspie program here it was a class within a mainstream school - he always spent part of his day in a mainstream environment.
On a side note, as kids get older socializing gets harder. More "unspoken rules" are incorporated and from 3rd/4th grade until 7th/8th grade kids are more likely to ostracize those who are different. Social skills CLASS was a lifesaver for my son (as well as students of mine) because it spelled those things out for them.... stuff like eye contact, body language, vocal inflections, etc. -
-
Re: Education vs Socialisation
Tue, July 8, 2008 - 2:05 AMUnfortunately in the UK there just isn't the amount of provision needed for these children. The school he is in at present is mainstream and has no understanding at all of autism. An Autism Advisory Teacher visits a couple of times a year and that's it.
The school I want to move him to has experience and expertise in autism and each class has children on the spectrum in the class with other mainstream children. However the ratio is a fixed one, and the school is 'full'. So if I send him to this school as a mainstream child they are saying he won't have access to the extra support his diagnosis/statement says he needs. He might cope socially in a mainstream classroom but would not be able to concentrate to learn and he definately wouldn't be able to cope with playtime. In the autism unit he will get a one to one/two ratio of teacher to pupil. But he will be with children who are much less able socially than he is. In an ideal world he would have some classes in the unit ie. maths/english and come across to the mainstream class for other subjects, but have playtime/dinner in the unit. But they just don't seem to be able to do that, and they are not even agreeing to him going into the Unit, eventhough the professionals all say he needs to be there at least in the beginning.
Add onto that that the local education authority do not think that OT is an educatiional need and you can see what I am up against! We are trying to agree to the contents of his statement now and for funding purposes the LEA will not agree to OT being included even though he has recognised sensory integration problems. So I have appointed a solicitor and we will be going to tribunal over all these issuses ie. the contents of the statement and the school placement. But it is crazy that I have to spend my time and money doing this.
As you've mentioned he will still be socialised by me through home and places I take him to. I just don't want him to look at the other children he could be placed with and think he is the same because he is more capable. Unfortunately, although the unit is supposed to be for more able autistic children who need the quiet environment to learn, it has actually become an overspill unit for more severely autistic children because the other special school is full.
-
-
-
