How many ASD children per class is average in infants mainstream ?

[purpletoadstool]

My DS has just been diagnosed with a form of ASD called PDA. In his mainstream class of 28 ( undersubscribed year) there is 7 with ASD. One of these has a full time one to one. I asked his teacher would they be spilt up next year? She said the classes are remaining as there is no more SEN children in his class than the other 3 classes in his year ( 4 class intake, big school.) Is this just this school just hot on helping them get diagnosed or is this the case in most schools now? I know not all SEN children have ASD, but are they ones which would of been labelled naughty in the past ?

What I'm saying is I'm surprised there are so many in his class, I know this from the parents chat regarding now many with ASD not the teacher saying. I'm just concerned how can the teacher deal with so many additional needs, I'm sure there are other needs as well as the children with ASD . Now my DS has been diagnosed she has another officially.

7 pupils with SEN in a class isn't an unusually high number.

In state mainstream primary schools the average is 12.6% of pupils on SEN support and 1.6% with EHCPs. Which would be around 4 pupils in a class of 28. However, many schools have a much higher proportion. It varies depending on multiple factors such as socioeconomic level, proportion of boys, school's reputation for SEN, EAL, ethnicity... it could also be the school as a whole has an average priority on of pupils with SEN, by that particular year has a higher proportion.

If you don't think DS's needs are being met focus on that, not other pupils.

I know not all SEN children have ASD, but are they ones which would of been labelled naughty in the past ?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this? If you mean are all other SEN pupils naughty then of course not! SEN encompasses numerous conditions (e.g. dyslexia, DCD, CP, mental health conditions...) and you don't even need a diagnosis to be on the SEN register.

Yes, I think 7 in a class with ASC is unusual given the frequency of ASC in the general population. One reason it can happen though is if one primary gets a good reputation for SEN and other local primaries a bad reputation. This happened in our town where we had three primaries but one had a much better reputation for autism than the others so anybody who thought their child was autistic or already had a diagnosis put that down as their preferred choice. My ds's actually went to the two schools with the poorer reputations as we had no idea they had any SEN when they started school or actually even when we swopped from one school to the other when problems had started to appear. In some ways it is good because the teachers will gain a lot of experience in teaching children with an ASC and how to adapt their teaching. In others ways it can be a bad thing if their needs conflict - e.g. ds1 is a sensory avoider and clashed enormously with another child in his class who was a sensory seeker.

Also, you'll likely be aware, that PDA strategies are quite different from ASD strategies so if the school has a lot of experience with ASD but not PDA, I hope they get some training in low arousal techniques.

The stats @10brokengreenbottles has provided are correct and in my experience there are sometimes more children. Also, I find if schools have a reputation for being really supportive of children with SEN, they tend to have more parents applying so can end up with a higher than national average number of SEN pupils.