Academic progress and ASD

[Anomaly]

I had a meeting today with SENCO, class teacher, headteacher about DS1's progress and the interventions they have put in place for him. It all sounds like they're on the ball and doing loads of really good stuff for him. They're happy to refer to an Educational Psychologist and they have had other people in to assess him from the local SEN unit.

The head though seemed to think his progress would be slow and that he's not going to catch up with his peers - he's in Y3. He's likely to get an ASD diagnosis although there are no guarantees.

I just feel so bloody sad for him. He's so clever and at the moment the difference between him and his peers is relatively small but basically this teacher is saying despite all the intervention its just going to get bigger. He's going to know and I hate the thought of his self esteem spiraling downwards which to me seems inevitable. I'm so worried for him and for the future. I feel guilty because I know how lucky I am in some regards he's healthy and at the moment he's happy but I'm terrified of the future. I so want him to prove her wrong but I know I can't make that happen and it upsets me that I can't fix this for him. I'm not sure what I want from posting. Can she be so sure that a 7 year old child is academically going to be significantly behind for the rest of his school life?

I think that attitude is a bit defeatist to be honest particularly if he has not had an EP assessment yet so the school can not be completely sure of the reasons for his difficulties. ASD issues can be a huge obstacle to learning but early intervention and appropriate support can really help.

ds1 and ds2 (both AS) have very similar academic aptitude but because we were able to get appropriate support sooner for ds1 he is doing much better than ds2 at the moment. I am hoping ds2 will catch up now he is in a supportive environment.

Many children with Asd have delays in some areas, most are delayed emotionally and socially, many have dyslexia, dyscalculia, co ordinatiin problems!

However just because they have these difficulties does not mean they cant achieve with the right support.

I am not sure a HT is qualified to make such long term predictions and personally I would wait and see what the EP has to say.

When my Dd3 was tested last year it showed that verbally she is very able but her ability to put her thoughts on paper is very poor, the EP felt that with proper support and some good teaching that could be improved.

Dont lose hope, you have a long journey ahead of you.

Good luck and be kind to yoursefl

The 'professionals' are not always right. In the right environment and with the right support then your child may flourish. Only a good Ed Psych assessment will identify where your DS is and where he is capable of being. Even if there is some learning delay then it's likely that your DS won't be the only one in the class that is behind. When DS was in mainstream there was a huge gap between the highest and lowest achievers in his class. DS was 1-2 years behind in ms (catching up now he is in ss) and there were children in the class that were further behind than him. I don't know if any of them knew they were behind. DS certainly didn't but he lives in a little world of his own anyway!

My 5 yr old is the same. For the last 20 months she has had a lot of intervention however the gap between her and the peers is only increasing. It saddens me. I am sure the school will bring it up at some point. I don't see what can be done other than continue to give her the input.

I dont think ASD and academics are related. Atleast in our case, its low IQ(never tested)

Pls dont loose hope

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm glad there's hope I do so hope she was a bit premature in her predictions and that DS can achieve his potential. Its just a normal primary school so its not like she has vast amounts of experience of ASD. The first comment anyone ever makes about DS is that he's bright the problem appears to be that its not evidenced by any written work.

I would've thought that it was far too early to tell.

In Yr4 my ds (ASD) had drifted down to the bottom groups. His scores weren't much higher than those of his sister in Yr1.

Once he was in the right environment and had the necessary support his scores increased massively. He no longer spent so much of his energy trying to cope with sensory overload and trying to follow instructions that he couldn't understand.

He's now in Yr7 and his school have proposed that he sits some of his GCSEs early. No-one would have predicted that back in Yr3.

I think the language deficit is what makes the key difference on academics. You can work round the other autism difficulties and still achieve academically, but if the language understanding is poor / delayed / disordered then you are going to fall behind.

But I don't believe this is always an issue for everyone with ASD. Often language comes late but the understanding will increase year on year. This might mean some children are not ready to do GCSEs until 19 or 23, but not necessarily never.

Children with SEN can stay in education now until they are 25 if there are outcomes they have yet to achieve. This is great as it recognises it may take longer given their difficult start and barriers but not that they can't get there at all.

I also think for some children there is a tipping point with language. Language doesn't makes sense for a really long time and then it develops to a point where they can understand more and that then opens up a lot of doors academically.

I also believe that children with ASD have great focus and can actually where they are interested in something pick it up quickly.

So at the moment history, geography, science goes over DS head as in yr 3 he has the language of a 3 year old. But perhaps in years to come he will have the language of a 10 year old and then he can go back and read this stuff and it will make sense.

Schools are a one size fits all and he might not progress on their timeline but that doesn't mean he can't progress. It also means perhaps he doesn't have to learn everything the other children are learning right now - perhaps concentrate on fewer subjects. DS doesn't do the whole curriculum.

You have summarised it well Agnes