Hi everyone, I'm new here so apologies in advance if I don't understand all of the mumsnet abbreviations!
My 3 year old son has autism, probably high functioning although it doesn't specify on his diagnosis. He is lovely with a GSOH and if he's around people that fully understand him and know how to engage with him he learns at an incredibly fast rate - he is about 3 years ahead in maths and reading and excellent with sciencey stuff. However, this was all home taught - he struggles at nursery. He's overwhelmed in busy environments and does not learn when he is overwhelmed. He doesn't scream or make a fuss he just retreats - plays alone with a favourite toy, so his problems aren't immediately obvious. He is behind socially and has ocd behaviours and rituals, as well as getting stuck on one idea in his play. He has a meltdown if certain things aren't as they should be -eg had an hour long meltdown recently because his coat zip wasn't done up.
We are trying to find a suitable primary school for him and no where seems to be right. It seems that all of the primary age special schools in the uk are for children with learning difficulties - if I sent my son to one of these his behaviour would worsen as he switches off if not stimulated and challenged. But the mainstream school classes are really big and he already struggles at nursery with only 15 children.
Does anyone have any advice? Also interested if anyone else has a child with high learning potential as well as autism and what your experiences are with the education system.
Many thanks x