G&T and Aspergers

[prozacpopsie]

Hi all. Sorry if this has been raised before.

But my son is G&T (in yr2 but reads to pretty much adult level - not on an official G&T list yet) but also has Aspergers (pretty high functioning). His school don't seem to do much for G&T (I've asked and they said they'll talk to the literacy coordinator, to look at 'extra' work). I've said I don't just want 'extra' work for him, but higher-level work.

If they do an IEP for him, would he need to be tested/assessed somehow? They're doing SATs at the end of this year, but I don't want to wait that long. I'm wondering if the IEP would include his Aspergers (he hasn't been tested for that either, but we're a billion per cent certain that he is on the spectrum).

Thanks for any thoughts/advice!

Do the school agree that he may have ASD? I wouldn't have thought that they will include that on any official paperwork without a diagnosis, since it's not really the sort of thing that people should self-diagnose. If you are concerned, you should get a referral to the multi-disciplinary team in your area that is responsible for assessment and diagnosis of autism.
They may agree to write an IEP for him, but they probably won't do any additional assessments or tests, they will simply write some SMART targets for him to work on, based on moving him on from where he currently is.

My dd also suspected of Asperger, officially, and school monitors her closely. She has TA and is pretty much on IEP. But having TA helps enormously with IEP. Even so, school openly admitted that they do not stretch her enough. But dd has problems at school and this is why she has TA. What is about your son? Is he settled well at at school?

DS is G&T and has Aspergers, except in his case he has a diagnosis and a statement for the latter, and was tested on the BASII for ability when he was 5. The school set the ball rolling for both aspects in YR and arranged the ability and communication tests with the Ed Psych and we arranged for the AS checks through our GP and the paediatric consultant.

His IEP that runs alongside his statement covers both targets for the social development side of things for the AS and targets for attainment.

My first thoughts would be to ask the school if they could have him assessed by the Ed Psych. This can take a while and as school's have limited funds they may already have it earmarked for other children with more pressing assessment needs.

You won't get any help for an IEP for Aspergers unless the school are in agreement that he is on the spectrum. Would you consider going down the route of having him properly assessed?

DS2 has High Functioning Autism and is G&T at literacy. He has an IEP for the G&T but because he copes well in school he doesn't have an IEP/IEB for the HFA. (However he is at a small school where he fits in very well so they are very good at 'managing' his autism without need for an IEP).

DS1 however who has Aspergers, (now at secondary) when he was at the same school, he had an IEB for his AS to help him cope with change/anxiety, but didn't have any G&T recognition (yet his results in reading in Wales were top 1%). Because there were several children in his class working at the same level they didn't need the extra differentiation on a 1:1 basis that DS2 has.

TBH if you are 100% sure your DS has AS I would get him formally diagnosed, it makes it a lot easier to access the services that you may need in the future - e.g. now DS1 is at secondary and had problems settling into the new environment the school have jumped up and down to try and help him (I'm guessing partly as he has AS)