Hello to all,
I am a mum of a four year old boy diagnosed last year with ASD. He is a beautiful happy little boy had speech delay until Sept but is communicating quite well now, socially seems to do quite well he has a loveable character and is quite popular but struggles to concentrate and is never still lots of jumping, hand flapping and repetative actions but can be gently guided away from these. I am however becoming quite heart broken at how little people including professionals seem to understand.
We were forced to start him in reception class this year as if we held him back a year he would have had to have gone straight into year 1. School and ourselves agreed he needed a slower transition period and that he would be on half days til christmas then his day would be built up. Nothing happened and when we enquired have pretty much been ignored, then two weeks ago I was informed on a Thurs he could stay an extra half an hour and eat his lunch on Mon, this went well and on the Weds school said he could stay again on Fri, this is confusing him as he does not know whether he needs his lunch bag or not and wants to stay each day. We raised our concerns recently as our son is doing well academically in most areas except writing/mark making and we feel he is not being included and with one term to go he will still be on part days going into year 1. We were informed after Easter they were thinking (after being advised from an unknown source) of putting him on a full day on a Friday as that is when they feel they have resources available. This makes no sense to us he will be tired by Friday and this will be very confusing for him as again he wont know whether or not he is staying the day etc and or he will be expecting to be picked up at a specific point in the day. We feel it will cause anxiety and confusion and increase frustrated outbursts. I'm hoping my thoughts are on this are wrong but it almost feels like he is being set up to fail but I am feeling very disheartened at present.
Anyone else having inclusion issues with mainstream schooling? We just feel so alone and upset we feel our son is not being given the same opportunities as his peers and keep getting stupid comments like he is not ready to build his day yet as he said he did not want to do phonics he wanted to go home and watch Bob the Builder!,,,,,,,,,,,,, well he is four!!!
I've been very concious not to rock the boat as I dont want schools dislike of me to affect our son but have now had to get parent partnership involved as I'm just too emotional about it!
People just dont understand its very isolating he is a wonderful child (I'm biased obviously) but those who spend time with him love him its not fair on him.
Sorry I'm making this too long but if anyone has advice I would be extremely grateful!
