Hi all,
We're currently having our 3 year old daughter assessed for autism following our observations and the nursery she attends having similar observations and requesting us to get an assessment. We're waiting for this, and she may also be assessed by an educational psychologist.
We're currently deliberating over schools and areas to live longer term, and would like some insight from others on experiences with schools in the Glasgow area and Helensburgh and surrounding areas, for anyone who has a child attending mainstream school with high functioning autism.
We are split between wondering whether a private school, albeit costly, would be a good environment for her if she is diagnosed - smaller class sizes, on site ASN support, and break out spaces for ASN might help. We are considering the High School of Glasgow, the Glasgow Academy or Lomond School and wondered if anyone had any experience.
Alternatively she might be fine within a larger class size - we won't really know without trying it, and wondered whether there are any particular mainstream state schools which have good primary provision. We're considering the Milngavie and Bearsden area and understand Castlehill has some support, but we are also considering areas like Strathblane or Cardross or Helensburgh with schools like Cardross primary or Hermitage primary and wondered if anyone had any experience of these primaries, and associated secondary schools.
Our daughter has advanced use of language and her speech is great, she seems to have a high IQ, is very focused and enjoys problem solving, books and is very structured and organised. She struggles socially, she is very shy and while she can imaginary play within her own rules she struggles to socialise and play with children outside her own games, she finds change very hard and does not adapt well to changes in routine or normal order, and has a number of challenges with socialisation, eating, sensory overload from noise, and gets overwhelmed.
We see a lot of meltdowns, especially at nursery pick up, where it can take 30 mins to leave as she is glued to the floor - we think this is due to the overload from being in a busy environment all day. We are about to move her for her next couple years to a nursery environment which has more play spaces including a sensory type of room which I hope will give her a place to go if she needs it. We'd welcome any insight from parents or teachers who have experience of any of the schools we're considering - or others in these areas we haven't considered.
With thanks