To think that there should be special schools for severely autisic children who are bright.

[Reallytired]

A lovely little boy who is severely autisic did a trial week at the special school I work at. The problem is that he is far too bright for the particular special school. Yet his language skills are non existant and he would be eaten alive in a mainstream school.

Surely austisic children deserve better provison.

Totally and absolutely agree with you. My ds has Aspergers. He is bullied like nothing on earth in mainstream. CAMHS on Friday declared him clinically depressed and he is on anti-depressants. But what else is there for him? He is too NT to go to a special school but too autistic to remain in mainstream.

And the Government keep on closing down special schools......

With any luck, when David Cameron gets in, he will be more in touch with special needs and give the LEA's a kick up the backside.

The only chance I have of my ds getting a good education is if I either have a Statement for him or can afford £140k for annual fees for an Asperger school. Getting a Statement is hell on earth when they say he is "intelligent" and does not need one. Thank goodness for CAMHS, they are now putting their two top consultants onto his case. My ds does not need to go to hell and back to get the education he deserves.

yanu
all children with sn deserve a good education. there are not enough sn schools and inclusion is a cheap option and a joke.

Ah yes!

Not sure why DC would be mroe in touch with SN (being as GB has a child with CF) but apart from that- yes both of mine need ASD provision; for one, a school that can cope with his bright abilities (he needs TEACCH i think to progress, but that's not available in MS for him), and one that can cope with DS3 as well please (more severe- my guess is eventual dx PDDNOS- cant attend the ASD school as still wearning nappies).

Many children with ASD (and other SN of course!) have plenty they can contribute to the workforce etc but will be denied the chance due to lack of a suitable education.

DC has a child with severe cp who currently attends a special state school.

There is no reason why a child with cf can't and SHOULD attend a mainstream school. cf is a life limiting condition, however sufferers of cf have tend to have severe medical needs rather than intelligence problems. They may require extra funding to cater for their medical problems, but they do not require a radically different curriculum to healthy children. In fact I attended an academically selective school with somone who had cf who got into medical school with straight As.

I think that DC has more understanding of special schools than GB. Especially since GB's child is not of school age and as far as we know is neurologically typical.

Yes, but I think that once you have a child with problems or difficulties, it gives you some idea... or rather it should. FWIW I don't think either of them has a clue, unless your average parent can afford 24 / 7 Nannies or the extra bits of respite etc that money can offer. Not that i begrudge it- they do time consuming jobs- but I seriously doubt either of them has ever appealed to the DLA, or tried in vain to contact SS for an assessment. And don't forget GB lost a child, so perhaps hads empathy stemming from that as well.

Which makes me sound a Labour Party member- i'm not actually. But I can't see DC having a clue what the average parent of a disabled child struggles with- so much (IME) of the difficulty isn't with the child or the condition, its with the agencies and the finance.

Round the Bend - what is the aspergers school that you mentioned?

Agree totally with op. So many children do not fit into the categories and cannot be squashed into the system in a satisfactory way. The system copes better with classically severely disabled children who no one would ever suggest should go to mainstream.

BTW from my experience cerebral palsy is incredibly wide-ranging in its impact on intelligence, varying from very severe effects to no effect at all.

Cornsilk It is this one www.prioryeducation.com/schools/index2.asp?school_id=52&showme=3.

My apologies to anyone I offended about GB. I just felt that David Cameron has talked more about special needs than Gordon Brown ever has.

Completely agree.

I think that children on the autistic spectrum are badly served by the education system across the board tbh.

In MS school, and also the fact that far too many special schools are closing.

I feel that special schools should not be closed and should get better funding.

And that children on the spectrum who could cope with MS should get the appropriate hours of support that they need, with proper special units attached to MS school that would help to cater for their particular needs.

But all that costs money, and will not happen and so children will suffer.

Roundthebend I think I may be in the same situation as you. DS is clearly on the spectrum, very bright, depressed and currently refusing to go to school. I am at my wits end.

Our mainstream primary school has an ASD unit. We offer places to children with ASD who can access at least part of the curriculum, so they spend part of the time in the mainstream classroom with support and part of the time in the ASD unit.
I would be interested to know whether this sort of provision is common in other parts of the country and if parents on here feel a unit like this would meet the needs of their own children.

My ds has attended school for 2.5 days in the last 13 actual school days. I have received a letter in black and white from the school detailing how he was taunted about his Aspergers and physically hurt by the children in his class. The Head Tutor apparently really tore the children off a strip for their cruelty. But that does not help my ds and me when I sit here this weekend thinking that all this taunting, bullying and emotional havoc have caused my son to be declared clinically depressed. It breaks my heart to be honest.

roundthebend i've just read your last post and cried. My son hasn't had the bullying that yours has, but he's depressed and not able to cope with school. he describes it as a physical pain.

Agree that bright SEN children often get overlooked within the system. Better provision is needed for all on the spectrum.

Our school refuses to accept that ds1 is bullied because he lashes out in reply- I know he can't be allowed to do that, but when large groups of children follow him around calling him names, and getting in his face with keywords (for some reason chicken and piggy always cause an overload) I consider that extreme provocation as well. He's miserable at school- but the only alternative is home education, and as I am pg and DS1 has a history of violence, I worry about how I would cope with that. As far as i can see he's just ging to drop through the botom of the system.

DS3 is completely different- he starts school PT in january and we really fear for him. He's been granted 16 hours a week (DS1 gets 10 hours) but he's so much a risk to himself- eg we have had to ask for people not to give toys labelled as suitable for over 3 year old for christmas as he still puts things in his mouth and could easily choke. One child is getting full 1-1 because he's a danger to toehrs (ADHA) but because DS3 largely sits alone and causes no bother, he only gets 50%- but they acknowledge he cant progress on that (he can abrely string a sentence together). Like ds1, he's being left to fall through- and its a horrid thing to see. DS2 therives in school, has friends and is popular. DS1 comes home and hides inhis room, cries and has nightmares. yet the system only seems to have an interest in preventing actual ahrm, progress or attainment don't come into it!

My ds also has problems with school but we are so lucky that we have found a school that is willing to adapt to his 'ways.' He originally went to another school - total nightmare. Not all parents are as lucky as us and I am really worried about secondary.
I would pay for him to go to an aspergers school if there was one near me.

In this LEA kids who really cant be fitted in eventually get funded for boarding at an AS school- I see boardninga s a threat rather than a help- would hate every second (and that's me, DS1 would be worse!)

Its why I took ds out of school at age 7 to home educate him. He ha Asperegers syndrome. Couldn't cope with mainstream but being bright didn't fit the criteria for the local SN school.
Best thing I ever did.

Blimey- boarding school! What a strange thing to put AS kids through.

The school I linked to is not far from us, so I would not be considering boarding for him. DS would hate to be away from home and I would worry about him all the time too.

When there are so many children with severe AS, but with an IQ above 80 it seems silly that such children have to board. Why can't there be a day schools for severe AS children? They could be catered for and it would cost a lot less than 140K.

needmorecoffee, i think that would be the perfect solution for our situation, but we can't afford for one of us to give up work. Really can't see a way forward right now

DS3 is currently home educated, will be aprt time after christmas, school FT after Easter but we're really not convinced they can cope. Home Ed with DS3 isn't hugely hard though- if its not singing, puzzles or identifying the letter H (we're grwoing it in cress Thursday LOL) then he just switches off and goes into an absence. We do lots of short bursts of things, with breaks to watch C Beebies or the few things that hold his attention.

We couldn't afford to give up work either but I did. Mind you, now dh has given up work too to be the carer for dd(3).
Most Home ed parents I know are pretty poor because there's only one earner. Pretty sad that todays society requires 2 earners just to put food on the table
And Home Ed is cheaper than school. No uniforms, no flipping notes wanting money for something or another, no car needed to get to the place.
But I saw it as I'd rather be broke and make sure ds was ok - and to be honest - he is waaaaaaaay better than he was and has 'normalised' to a huge degree in the 8 years he was home ed. If I'd left him in school he'd of got worse and worse. He was becoming more withdrawn, more aggressive, worse about noise/smells/lights/people the longer he stayed in that place and he was bullied because he was 'different'. I think taking him out saved his life.
But its wrong that parents who can't or don't want to home ed should be forced down that route cos the schools are crap or there aren't schools that cater for bright disabled kids (and dd's school is the same. Its for severely physically disabled children but they still patronise and treat themlike morons. Its doing my head in)