Ds advice please re possible aspergers.

[twitchypalm]

Hi all I've been advised to post on this board regarding my ds and school. My dsis in year 1 oct born hes 6. He is currently at level 3c across the board. The school have mentioned possible aspergers with him as he is disruptive in class he rushes though his work and then gets bored as his teacher wont give him any harder work.

At home he is having massive meltdowns after school temper tantrums like a much younger child. Now my feelings are that he is bored in school as the work is far to easy for him. his teacher says at the end of the day hes year 1 and thats the work he should be doing.

The teacher wants to push for assesment into aspergers. Ive got a meeting with his teacher for next year tommrow. I'm at the end of my teather with his meltdowns at home as i don't know what to do to stop them. They always seem to be after school he has them.

If anyone with any experiancr can give me some advice I would apreciate it thanks.

bump please anyone

It's a bit hard to know what to advise you on because I'm not really sure what you're asking, but I can give it a bash...

Not giving him challenging work because of the school year he's in is absolutely unnaceptable, yes things need to be covered, but no pupil should be routinely left with no work to do because they've com

Sorry I hit post accidentally

completed their work. It doesn't matter whether he gets disruptive or just sits quietly - it shouldn't happen.

As for the asperger's issue - It is entirely possible for a child to have AS and also be finding work too easy and it's very very common for a child with AS to have meltdowns after school from the stress of being at school all day, equally though a child without AS who is miserable at school could react in a similar way.

I think the two issues are seperate really, he shouldn't be finishing work and being left with nothing to do, that needs dealt with whether you think he could have AS or not.

And you need to think about whether you agree that AS is a possibility, but remember that agreeing to assesment doesn't mean a diagnosis, if he doesn't have AS that's what the report will say.

There's a very useful book called 'Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults' which goes into some of the problems you're talking about.

Aspergers and giftedness can be very similar and occur together a lot, and there are different ways to deal with them according to what the exact issues are.

If you google 'twice exceptional' too you'll find a lot on-line.

I would say that if he's working so far ahead, it's the school's duty to support that - have they got him on their Gifted and Talented programme? And I would be asking about an IEP too!

I think it will help if you tell us more about his behaviour and his development. Does he flap his hands when excited? Repeat what you've said when you ask him a question? Does he have empathy when someone's upset? How is he socially? Will he stick to a routine rigidly? Will he only eat certain foods? Is he touch sensitive? Does he take things literally?

I posted on your other thread. My son was thought to have aspergers. He was assessed, and the community paediatrician just laughed and said no. He's a very bright boy, struggles socially as he can't find many people who are on his level. He finds the other boys in his year 'immature' and gets on better with the teachers. The problem here is that he see's the teachers as his friends, and will get a little too chummy when he's speaking to them.

There's certain things that children with aspergers do, hence why I asked you for information. It's very hard raising a bright child. They do bore easily because their brains process new information and concepts very quickly. When any child is bored they generally do mess about, there are exceptions though as some will think of things to keep them occupied whilst waiting for more work.

You also need to remember that their maturity will not match their academic age. Teachers will look at a child's work and expect them to have the behaviour to match.

You may find that your son's behaviour improves when he has a new teacher. A lot of younger children shout out and walk around, yours won't be the only one.

My eldest was so disruptive when he started school that they had him in all the bottom classes. They then diagnosed him with ASD and found out that his IQ was in the top half centile and started to give him some more challenging work as well as things like visual timetables. Within a year he went from barely being able to read to reading at the level of a 10.5 year old (at age 6), and he is now among the best in his class for everything except writing (unfortunately dyspraxia is also common in ASD).

His behaviour also improved enormously. He still has tantrums but they're getting fewer and he's starting to be able to calm himself down without help which I am really, really happy about

I say go for assessment, as Tabulahrasa says it might come out negative and you'll have an amusing story to tell his future partner.
But also, it's worth researching Aspergers eg here as you might pick up some tricks on handling him even if he's not on the spectrum. Or it might ring some bells re his early development. Do you or your OH have any eccentric relatives or relatives known to be on the spectrum? It is usually genetic so that would be something to mention when talking to a professional.

Thanks for all the responses sorry for delay getting back the meeting with new teacher went on a bit.

We havesat down together minus his teacher from this year and gone over his work and the levels he is currently at. His new teacher doesn't agree with the way things have been run this year with regards to him being left to his own devices when he finished the work and then he getting told off for being disruptive when hes bored.

What his new teacher has asked to do tommrow and she has our agrement and the heads aggrement, is she is going to take him on a 1:1 tommorow for the morning and asses just how far ahead he is. She is then going to give us some stuff to work on at home with him. She wants to give him till the oct half term to see what his behavoiur is like when he has work set at his academic level tailored to him.

She said the ed psyc who do the aspergers test often take a while once referal has been made so she is going to start the ball rolling on it and see how the first half term goes with him.

Me and dp feel better now we have had this meeting as his new teacher is taking him seriously and not just labeling him. Now we have to sort out the meltdowns that are happening at home after school.

That sounds really good, twitchy. His new teacher sounds fantastic.

Good news.