ASD child - “he looks through me when speaking to me” ???

If his behaviour is challenging, she may be listing something she feels has changed - maybe he seems less engaged, less inclined to share his inner world. I agree her phrasing isn't great and it's not clear this behaviour is actually causing problems?

Top of the list of traits/tips I give all my DS's teachers is something like "DS doesn't display typical listening behaviours even when he is listening very carefully, so you need to confirm verbally that he's heard and understood." We also got "whole body listening" taken off his targets because as long as he's retaining information as best he can and not disturbing others, it's not a problem. We can work on appearing to listen if he wants to when he's older, and when it's less important that he actually takes the teacher's words in rather than worrying about if his eyes are looking in the right place.

It's not ASC now; that is just the preference for some. Personally, I prefer Autism being used.

I was more just challenging that poster's assertion that using ASD is now ring, it certainty isn't wrong to use it in any way whatsoever

Potato - potato...
I only heard about it the other day. Makes zero difference to me but there is a whole movement of autism activism of which I am decisively not a member so I guess it matters to some people.

You don't get to decide that.

I'd be upset.

All my eldests assessors reported that "he had a blank expression" "he appeared to be looking at me but not engaging, as if he couldn't see me and his mind was somewhere else" this was mentioned in every report.
To say he looks straight through me by a teacher I'd instantly react like I feel like she's saying he's rude/bad mannered or ignorant. I'd be asking her to explain herself better and be complaining about her lack of understanding tbh

I’d be concerned that she’s his teacher with that lack of awareness. Sounds like she needs to do some more training.

Maybe the teacher is concerned because she thinks he is unhappy? She may not be saying his behaviour is “wrong”. I would just explain what is normal for him.

This 100% thank you @WaitingForMojo

I had a teacher complain how upsetting and frustrating she found it that my seriously ill selectively mute child never spoke. Well fuck me that must have been absolutely awful for her. Fucker. Teachers are not saints and some of them are not empathetic or nice at all. @Ricecakesaremyjam your son’s autistic (asd for me) nothing she described is unusual for people with ASD, and I can’t see that his facial expressions need to be policed, critiqued or “fixed”.

Nobody told our consultant 🤷‍♀️

https://dy55nndrxke1w.cloudfront.net/file/24/xT2FqUxTh55_JA5xTMYZxb.dfV0x/NAS_How%20to%20talk%20and%20write%20about%20autism.pdf

NAS guide ASD still in diagnostic manuals, condition is more of a social movement although not loved by all.

@Babanafroufrou I’m glad to hear it but Im told there’s next to nothing in PGCE and i frequently have to explain the basics to teachers.

My experience is that teachers get little training.

'Teachers have very little training in autism'
Seriously? Definitely not my experience working in primary schools.

I’m autistic. I dislike ‘condition’ as much as ‘disorder’ - autism will do nicely.

Spare a thought for those of us who also have ADHD, and get the double whammy of deficit and disorder within the same diagnosis.

I'm assuming it's a mainstream school? Teachers generally, while training to be teachers get very little input on SEN. Definitely ask the SENCo to either do an Inset session on it for teachers or get some external input. It sounds like the teacher doesn't know enough about Autism.

This teacher needs to educate herself then! Is she new to the profession? When she comes to you with “concerns” turn it back on her and ask what she’s putting in place to support him. It’s her job to learn about the condition and try different things until she finds what works with your child.

It's a personal thing though. My autistic dd really dislikes "condition" . She says a condition is something like atheletes foot 🤣

Also ds2 tries so hard to make eye contact (because people tell him he should) he ends up staring into your soul like a psychopath in a bad movie he tries bless him

This.
It’s very typical for children with ASD so it may just be confirming what you already know. Eye contact was on my son’s Learning Support Plan and I really fought to get it taken off; there are a million other ways to check if a child is listening without forcing them to do something that makes them uncomfortable.
Also to the poster that said it’s ASC, since when? Could you provide a plausible link that says this because I’ve worked across the NHS and in Education and we still use ASD in both.

It's quite normal behavior ds2 switches off its completely blank and can be a bit disconcerting he literally looks like he has disconnected from the mainframe then he sparks back up again

We say he is "buffering"

I have ASD, diagnosed this month. DD3 has ASD, diagnosed this month. DD3's diagnostic report says that some people refer to it as ASC so we may see it written as either but it means the same thing.

Stop policing language, you don't get to decide when things change.

That doesn't sound unusual for a child with ASD OP, I agree with others that she probably has very little knowledge of it and is telling you things that would be unusual in an NT child.