I think that this is an important question because many of us deal with this every single day.
What has your overall experience been with #Autism and your child’s education?
**Thanks for reading**
-Lost and Tired
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Posted from WordPress for Android so please forgive any typos as auto-correct and I don’t see eye to eye. 🙂
My daughter is only five and she has been in pre-K since age three. Her teachers have been helpful, but with her short attention span they are concerned about having her in a mainstream class with more children. Her teacher said that she is too smart for pre-K! We agree that she needs a different type of stimulation in education, but we do not know what the next step would be. We have an IEP meeting on May 1st, and we will see what the recommendation is. I am just thinking of homeschooling, but me and my husband are on different pages on that as well as her diagnosis of Autism. That just adds to the frustration.
My son (15 with Asperger's) has refused school on and off since he was 11. He is intelligent and wants to learn but so many things about schools are just too much for him – the chaos, the close contact, having to do subjects he has no interest in, hyper sensory issues, not wanting to be asked questions in front of his peers, not wanting to be 'watched' etc. We raged within and against the machine for four years to try and get him some home tuition – when they eventually offered it, it was too late and he had become completely disengaged from the education system. With nothing to lose we de-registered him (we live in England) and he is currently going through a period of 'de-schooling'. He wants to start evening classes in Maths in September at our local college, he plays Warhammer with friends and at a club, goes to Air Cadets twice or three times a week and goes swimming with his grandparents. We watch films together, discuss politics, documentaries, everything! Out of the blue he asked for a sketch pad and pencils and began sketching characters from books. He reads fan-fiction avidly. He has a good bunch of friends. Most importantly, he is the happiest I have seen him for years. Not just 'oh you bought me something I'm happy for a minute' type happy, but 'genuinely at ease with the world' type happy! He will always have AS and will always have some difficulties and a degree (or several) of inflexibility but we at last feel he can cope with the world. At first I worried about exams/ qualifications but I believe he will do the ones that are relevant to his plans as and when – I have stopped thinking of 16 as the age by which everything must be achieved 🙂