Has anybody's DC moved from ASD unit to mainstream?

[Osospecial1]

Can anybody share their experience of this please? If they successfully moved to mainstream with 1:1 (ABA) support when still primary school age and if it was a good move for them? Thanks

What age is your child? how long have they been in specail school? how will your child cope with the change? These are thing I would think about, also is your child academically bright? how are they with friendships? lots to think about x

Shes 6 and has always been in a special school so no experience of mainstream, I think she would cope with mainstream and the change ok but academically would still be very behind her peers. She's not very social with peers only adults but that's the same in special school, she doesn't really have friendships yet.

Is it yourself wanting to move her or is the school pushing you to do so?

Do you have a mainstream school in mind?

Yes I do have one in mind and I know they already have a DC with ASD there who has good support and is doing well there. It's myself thinking about the move.

In that case I would contact the headteacher and ask for an appointment with them to discuss your dd and how they would support her. Then contact your ehcp co ordinator (or Sen centre at your local council if you don't have one) to request the move. I think as long as you feel it's best for her and she will be well supported then it's definitely worth a try :)

Thanks, im not sure if it's best so I'm scared of making a wrong decision as I know I'd never get her place back where she is now but yes I think an appointment with the head would be a good idea to find out more. It's not a bad place where she is, if it was it would be an easy decision but I think she's capable of more and that mainstream would bring this out of her as she's getting older. Just trying to gather as much info as possible to help me on this one!

DD moved from mainstream to specialist in year 3. She was well supported before that time, but by year 3 her anxiety went through the roof and affected her badly at school. She moved to the specialist setting and once again I have my happy child. My daughter does struggle academically in some areas, but even so for me the concern of moving to the special school was the academic side. After much questioning and thinking it through I realised there was a lot more to the move than the academic levels and that education can be a lifetime thing. If she doesn't get GCSEs at the normal time she can keep working at these later on. For me the important thing was to help her keep her self esteem and not lose her otherwise pretty positive outlook on life that she has when she isn't completely stressed out. I am not in any way regretting my decision since I moved her and whilst I see her younger sisters now moving ahead of her academically I can still see she makes progress and is also learning a lot of life skills that are hard for her and wouldn't be considered at mainstream.

I would think very hard about moving back to mainstream especially at this young an age as the pressure of school gets more as they get older. Perhaps later in time when she might consider things for herself too it could be revisited. Meanwhile there is nothing to stop you working on things with her at home too if you think academically she wants to move on a bit.

Can the special school push her further with academics? Or can you (or a tutor) do this at home?