Problems at Preschool - sorry v long

[notfromaroundhere]

Hi

DS1 is 4.5, dx with ASD. He gets 1.5hrs 1:1 support out of a 2.5hr session at preschool.

The SALT visited his preschool 6 weeks ago and said they needed to change things so that he was following adult-led tasks in the form of a visual time-table. Previously he had a choice board preschool would put out a few different tasks on his board, DS1 could choose what to do but would accept adult direction for whatever it was.

Since introducing the timetable DS1 refuses to comply with whatever it is, so claims he can't hold the pen if it is a drawing thing, deliberately gives incorrect answers if it is the workbook (which he loved when it was a choice), and so on. He is also now creating merry hell at snack and circle time. He will no longer share toys with the other children and has all but stopped any kind of interaction with them apart from DS2 who he encourages to join in his clowning about antics at circle time (and DS2 does not need a lot of encouragement!). And this is at every session (he goes 4 mornings a week).

I totally agree with the SALT that DS1 needs to do adult-led tasks and I am under no illusions that DS1 bucks against it but I do also believe that part of the problem is he is the only child who has to do set tasks as the rest of the children are having free play (and it hasn't gone unnoticed by him). DS1 is also quite anxious about getting things wrong and I wonder if this is also contributing towards the refusal i.e. he feels tested so wants to retreat and whereas before he had a passive response to these situations (hiding under tables or silent sobbing) he is kicking off.

I've tried contacting DS1's SALT as has preschool to see if she has any suggestions but she has been unavailable thus far. Also not sure what she can really suggest?

Statementing is underway atm as he is due to start school in Sept - stat assessment was agreed and assessments by all but the SALT have been scheduled - and I am having big doubts of whether a structured timetable for him will work in a mainstream classroom as I understand Reception is mainly play-based.

Any advice appreciated

DS1 is very oppositional and benefited from a first...then approach in nursery and reception (for him, all in the same area with the same staff, but with more directed activity for kids in reception.) So basically FIRST he had to spend x time doing y activity with z, then he could do something of his choice. It made adult direction a whole lot more palatable to him, at that age.

Of course, he's in Year 1, now and has developed a whole new level of resistance to the point where the ASD advisor has agreed that it's best to forget about anything that hints at being a visual timetable/choice board because he wants nothing to do with it because the other kids don't have it. It worked for a while, though!!!

Ah yes I should have said First/then no longer works nor has the time-timer helped yet. Thanks for hte reply though, our DS's sound quite simliar on the oppositional front. How is your DS1 coping at school? I am concerned that my DS1 will become v disruptive if he doesn't get past this not doing as he is told thing, but have no idea how that can be tackled when the educational settings are being told that more time has to be play-based. I'm thinking an ASD unit would be more appropriate for DS1 but they don't actually exist in our LEA.

DS1 did really well until after Easter, last year, then his behaviour started to become much more trying at school and at home. He reached the point after Christmas, this year, when he could no longer cope with a full day at school. He is just finding year 1 so difficult - not academically, since he is very bright, but he really can't cope with the routine and the amount of directed time they have. I pick him up straight after lunch, now, and most days, he does participate in class and quite enthusiastically at that, but then there's days like today when he's just totally driven by his sensory needs and is passive one minute and totally hyper the next. At either extreme, he is dancing to his own tune and near impossible to engage in any constructive activity.

My feelings are at the moment are that THIS mainstream school is the place for him, since it's very supportive and nurturing and with only one exception, the other kids are great with him. We're waiting on CAMHS to get themselves organised and complete his ongoing ADHD assessment, at the moment, since that seems to be causing him more difficulty than his autism, to be honest. (His current diagnosis, given when he was 3, is of autism with associated attentional difficulties and hyperactivity. We were told at the time that he might outgrow the latter part of it, but that if he didn't we would almost certainly know by the time he was 6. We certainly know, now!) Anyhow, if we can get some sort of handle on that and the school can get round to implementing various strategies they've bid for funds for, hopefully he will find school easier to handle.

We do have a couple of special schools/units that take high functioning children with ASD in our part of our (geographically very large) county, but they're an unknown quantity to me and the idea of taking him out of his local village community at this age doesn't appeal. I'd take a lot of convincing that if we did get to the point where we felt we had to move him that we wouldn't simply be moving his problems with him, plus adding in some new ones.

It's 4-5 years time when we're looking at secondary schools that really scares me.

Sorry for the long answer ;)

No don't apologise your post is really helpful.

DS1 has gone from being on the sedantary (sp) side to extremely hyper, his fidgetting almost seems beyond his control atm and I can well imagine that causing more difficulties for him if it doesn't subside. DS1 is cognitively quite able but he only lets on what he knows when it suits. He appears to have gone from knowing zero letter sounds to all of them and to being able to spell his name and type it but I seriously doubt it was as overnight as it appeared.

He also has a deep sense of personal injustice - so today when he refused to sit down for snack time they took him off to the library bit and he went wild. When trying to get out of him why he is unhappy at preschool he said he didn;t like the playschool ladies taking him to the library. I said if you sit nicely for snack time that won't happen but he just kept going on about being taken to the library!

We too live in a village though we have been strongly advised against our own village school but the one recommended did not appeal. We're leaning towards another one which is small and has a SENCO who is very on the ball, only downside being she is only based at that school 2 days a week. I think fear of the unknown is playing on my mind as he's not there yet so no idea how it will pan out.

Our nearest secondary school is under special measures again so I am blocking that part of the future out for now!