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Hello.
I'm Laura, and the mother to a great boy who is 6 and in first grade. He was formally diagnosed with high functioning autism about six months ago. Every day has it's struggles and good things too. School seems to be the biggest struggle for us. He attends public school and has an IEP, and he's having a hard time adjusting to being in school all day. Thankfully he has some good support, but the lows that come up are still difficult to work through with his teachers and staff. It's a work in progress.
My son is in the first grade too - fully mainstreamed, although he has an IEP that for now includes pull-out "speech," but we're working on getting him in a social skills training group instead. Last year he had an aide for a couple months, but finished out Kindergarten without one. As yet, we haven't found reason to reinstate one.
Thankfully, a great portion of our difficulties appear to be behind us, but I don't want to speak too soon, because all too often ASD throws some curveballs! But, I can say that things have slowly been improving since some of those mortifying moments when he was a toddler!
Hi Laura. I'm Elizabeth. a parent and a co-author on A Wild Ride -- a site for white-knuckled parents. This month our theme is Parent-Teacher Conferences. Thought you might be interested in some of the strategies on our site, particularly those for working with the teachers.
Hi!
I'm Cerys, I'm 19 and I have Aspergers syndrome (I was diagnosed really late: I didn't get an assessment until I was twelve, but I have several family members who work in mental health so they'd already pretty much figured it out by then).
I get all sorts of help from my college: extra time in exams and for coursework, a laptop for taking notes in class, time set aside for additioanl support 1-to-1s, I get to take my written exams on a computer, and my teachers are so much more understanding when I have any sort of freak-out (and anyway, being a performing arts student, I'm one of the more normal, easy-going ones in the class!)
ASD has become so much more widely-known since I was a kid, and I sometimes get little pangs of envy that these kids now won't have to go through the sort of abuse that I suffered from my teachers when I was younger.
I have a blog on my experiences with Aspergers, with an email address for any questions anyone mnight want to ask! http://theaspergersblog.blogspot.com
Hi from another Laura! My boy is 4 and in preschool. He's doing great with it. I never thought about the transition to all day school being difficult to adjust to. I hope your little guy gets used to it soon! :-)
