Hi all,
I haven't been on MN for quite a while as we left the UK and moved to France when my DD was 12 months old. She's now 6, and she has ASD, and is non verbal. I'm French myself, DH is from Ireland.
I'm having huge issues with the French school system now, and I wanted to ask you moms (and dads) if you could tell me how it's really like for young children with autism in the UK school system.
Here in France, kids usually go to infant school from age 3 to 6, then primary school from 6 to 11. Kids with special needs have to have an aide to be accepted in infant school. My DD had only 9 hours a week for 3 years. The rest of the time we took her to a special needs kindergarten, but they believe autism is psychological rather than neurological (the whole "blame the mother" theory.......) so they don't help very much at all. At least it was a friendly kindergarten rather than staying at home with me - because of course I had to quit my job.
From age 6 there are 3 options : mainstreaming with an aide (extremely rare and only for super high functioning kids). Special needs class inside a mainstream school (about 10 kids with special needs, and not just autism), with a teacher and one aide for the whole class. That would be my preference for DD - even if mixing all handicaps can be a real challenge for non verbal ASD kids.
The third option is basically a mental handicap institution, as autism here is regarded as a mental handicap (long story I know...). This is where the majority of kids with autism end up because of zero support and zero early intervention unless you fight like mad for it (DD had some). Some of these institutions are better than others but overall they are NOT focusing on modern methods of education (maybe 1 morning a week?), it's more like a nursery for mentally handicapped young children and teenagers.
Now the school administration wants to send my DD to one of these institutions, which I don't want. I believe she's able to learn and it's obvious that she learns way better in a school environment with lots of structure.
I'm terrified that she will regress in one of these institutions.
My main question is : what happens to 6 year olds with autism in the UK (and any other countries welcome!!)? Do you have the equivalent of these mental handicap institutions for kids with autism? I don't think so, my understanding is that kids with autism are always sent to school no matter what (special needs class or not), but please let me know the reality, so I can explain to the school commission how it's really like in the UK and elsewhere.
Many many thanks for your feedback.