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School don't see my daughter's difficulties

jamaicanbluetaz

Hi there, I've just joined the community.  My 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with Aspergers in July 2013.

She has always hated going to school and it got to the point that I changed her school to a smaller school in the hope things would change.  As it is things are the same.

Once I got the diagnosis I believed the school would be willing to help - ah yes, they say all the things I want to hear - then my daughter informs me they are not quite telling the truth.

Recently I had my third meeting with the headteacher - one of my daughter's year teachers and the SENCO.  My daughter does not have a statement.  She does not present symptoms or difficulties at school, however the stress of the whole school - information processing, social etc - builds up and then she has a huge meltdown at home over something trivial.

I put this in an e-mail - what the stressors at school were.

In the meeting I was told that children with asd cannot behave one way at school and differently at home - it was impossible for them.  If she is going to have a meltdown she would have it at school just as easily as at home!!  This is contrary to all the asperger literature I have read and discussed with others. 

Further they told me that they do not see her having any difficulties at school - she is no different to all the other children at school.  She does understand what she is doing, she needs a motivator to get her to work faster (she is slow at processing tasks etc!!) and as for difficulty in the dinner hall they will watch out for this but they cannot staff anywhere else for her to go.  As far as distractions go - she doesn't get affected by sensory distractions otherwise she would have made a fuss many times when there is painting or cooking etc happening in the school.  When I suggested ear plugs for her so she didn't find noises distracting they told me this was only used for severe autism and there was no need for my daughter to go down this route.

They are not seeing that all of this quietly builds up and up until she blows up and that to alleviate her pressure they only have to change a couple of things.

Basically there answer to all of my points was that is severe autism, not aspergers, she does not present this at school but they will watch out for it in future.

Has anybody else had problems like this - silly question I know people have had problems like this because I have heard it but now it is happening to me I don't know what to do.

I know this is a bit of a rant and may not make sense - but basically all the "typical" symptoms of Asperger Syndrome and some not so "typical" are apparent in my daughter at home and with what she says about not liking school and other social occasions but the because the school don't see any of it they are treating it as if it is not happening.

Hoping somebody out there will reply to me.

Thanks for reading.

Jamaicanbluetaz - xxxx

Parents

  • With regard to the NAS website text mentioned above: "Classroom and playground: support for children with autistic spectrum disorders", this is good, clear and concise. It is actually offering teachers practical advice, free of background waffle.

    So it is doing the job it sets out to do, and it might potentially help schools. But are schoolteachers using it? I doubt it.

    For one thing good though the ideas are, and recognising mainstream schools, the text doesn't offer much help how to set this up in conventional classroom environments (whether whole classes or SEN sub-groups). It would work for classrooms with just autistic spectrum kids, but it keeps talking about mainstream.

    The problem Hanbury is trying to address is teaching kids in the environment with their peers. NAS is just carrying on like - peers... what are they? If you write a guide on teaching kids with autism in mainstream schools you've got to demonstrate some understanding of the environments in these schools. You also have to work with the teachers.

    Similarly with regard to playgrounds, some great ideas here, but they involve staff time. Most schools haven't got the free time to supervises specialist groups of children.

    Although it explains things a lot better, including sensory sensitivity, it still hinges on the Triad of Impairments.

    My other big concern is the reading list. Having a guide available on a website gives you the opportunity to provide up to date reading lists. With two exceptions most of the texts suggested are more than ten years old. Schools are going to look at this with some real doubt as to the guide's viability.

    It is all very well NAS offering advice to teachers but you've got to involve teachers. I think the NAS approach offers something clear, concise and useful, but it renders itself unacceptable to schools, owing to fairly minor issues, but ones NAS needs to address.

Reply

  • With regard to the NAS website text mentioned above: "Classroom and playground: support for children with autistic spectrum disorders", this is good, clear and concise. It is actually offering teachers practical advice, free of background waffle.

    So it is doing the job it sets out to do, and it might potentially help schools. But are schoolteachers using it? I doubt it.

    For one thing good though the ideas are, and recognising mainstream schools, the text doesn't offer much help how to set this up in conventional classroom environments (whether whole classes or SEN sub-groups). It would work for classrooms with just autistic spectrum kids, but it keeps talking about mainstream.

    The problem Hanbury is trying to address is teaching kids in the environment with their peers. NAS is just carrying on like - peers... what are they? If you write a guide on teaching kids with autism in mainstream schools you've got to demonstrate some understanding of the environments in these schools. You also have to work with the teachers.

    Similarly with regard to playgrounds, some great ideas here, but they involve staff time. Most schools haven't got the free time to supervises specialist groups of children.

    Although it explains things a lot better, including sensory sensitivity, it still hinges on the Triad of Impairments.

    My other big concern is the reading list. Having a guide available on a website gives you the opportunity to provide up to date reading lists. With two exceptions most of the texts suggested are more than ten years old. Schools are going to look at this with some real doubt as to the guide's viability.

    It is all very well NAS offering advice to teachers but you've got to involve teachers. I think the NAS approach offers something clear, concise and useful, but it renders itself unacceptable to schools, owing to fairly minor issues, but ones NAS needs to address.

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