Getting a suitable education is such a fight

Hi,

I am the mother of a 16 year old with Aspergers and I also
run a website with other mothers. As none of our children were getting
the right education and we had spent most of their childhood fighting
the system we decided to do some research into how widespread this
problem is - if your children are under 20 please fill in our
questionnaires We are going to use the data to write
a report to submit to government.

Hi

Could you tell us more about your questionnaire. We are only now in the process of getting a diagnosis though, so I don't know if you only want people 'officially' diagnosed to fill it in?

[quote:524b="Avdp"]Hi,

I am the mother of a 16 year old with Aspergers and I also
run a website with other mothers. As none of our children were getting
the right education and we had spent most of their childhood fighting
the system we decided to do some research into how widespread this
problem is - if your children are under 20 please fill in our
questionnaires We are going to use the data to write
a report to submit to government.[/quote]
Hello and welcome,
Please submit your website details, I am sure we would all like to complete your questionnaire.
Thank you.

The questionnaires are for anyone who has a child with aspergers and has experience of the education system and psychological services etc. The questionnaires have been designed by us in collaboration with a professional outfit to ensue that we cover all the main potential problem areas.
The questionnaires take quite a while to do and are totally anoymous.
They can be filled in on line on our website.

Thanks

we have just moved my 12 year old son school after his last school refused to help my son and instead the school bullied him to the point he wanted to kill himself.

it is so important to make sure the school your child goes to can help and support them all the way.

My son started he new school last week and i've never seen him so happy to go to school and work in years, Just proves what can happen with th right support nd help

Schools seem to be touch and go really.
Last year Alex did quite ok, he had an understanding teacher with good strategies but so far at the start of this new term there has been a few problems, mainly from another boy who is quite a negative distraction for him.

Today at school the teachers couldn't find Alex and the other boy, they should have been in their class. Instead they were found down a corridor, supposedly play fighting.

The other little boy comes across as quite hyperactive, he has a lovely mum and she does struggle with his behaviour. The two boys together are a recipe for disaster.

The simple solution is to move one of them into another class, but the teacher says she won't do that until next year. It's quite frustrating really as it's ruining all the good work that he put in last year.

She's not the most empathetic teachers I've met and seems like she could do without the hassle - career teachers?! [img]https://2img.net/i/fa/i/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]

Makes me want to get into teaching myself, to give these kids a chance!

Don't get me started on teachers! It's such a lottery!

I think some teachers treat the kids like items on a production line, they seem to have forgotten that they are people, individuals, not 'just another kid'.

When Sophie got older she prefered the strict teachers, I think that's because she has such a thing about rules and with the strict teachers she knew where she was because they stick to the rules and make sure the kids do too so she felt comfortable with understanding what was and wasn't allowed.

i have had a horrendous fight for education for my 19 year old daughter over the years and is still going on now as she is considered too "high risk"...if she had been given the correct support many years ago...well i dont want to think about what might have been.

SENCO's, EWO, EBD Residential, Mental Health, Specialist AS College...all tried and failed...you see my daughter slips through the middle of mental health and learning disability services and neither side will pick up the responsibility which means you cant get funding for any provision....one hell of a catch 22 that!!!

One thing is for certain...it does need to change for the better...and some key people just need to open their eyes!

My son has been reasonably lucky so far in that he had the same, male teacher for the last two years (he responds better to males than females). This teacher was not familiar at all with ASD but as soon as I mentioned it he went out and did the research. He found ways to include Osc in class activities that he would normally not be able to focus on, for example he was the class timer and class score keeper. He was also Mr Dyer's Maths Man and was encouraged to use his skills in maths to help the other kids. It got to the point where Mr Dyer said that some of the kids would go straight to Oscar with questions instead of the teacher!

The school as a whole, however, was simply not equipped or informed enough. Because we didn't have an official diagnosis (takes well over 5 years in that area!) they said they couldn't offer more for Osc than two 20min sessions in a small group focusing on listening and speaking skills, this, however, was not continued the next year and may have been stopped earlier as I was never invited to discuss it.

The new school he's at is brilliant though, well informed and pro active. I have had meetings with the head, Osc's teacher and the SENCo and they are helping me to finally get Osc's assessment. They are also very understanding of the fact that Osc has had no help yet and decided not to suspend him after a serious incident because they didn't think it was fair to have it on his permanent record when he hasn't had any sort of therapy or anger management yet.