Recent diagnosis of ASD in 7yr old son

I am new to this so please bare with me and I'll try my best. Lond story short, my son has been diagnosed with ASD akin to Asbergers and it has taken 3 years for this to happen. The school he is at had no interest in assessing him until year 2 when his teacher pushed the school to begin formal assessment leading to a diagnosis. The problem now is that he is 7 and has just started year 3 and there is where the problems begin. In year 2 the teacher was amazing, she took the time to get to know his behaviour triggers and adapted her teaching method to suite, she had a class of 15 children. This was his best productive year in school with few incidents which were mainly shouting, refusal to do work but in some cases throwing and hitting.

Move into year 3 and all the progress that was made in year 2 has dissapeared, the class size has doubled (even though they have a spare classroom) the teaching methods used by the previous teacher which were passed onto his new teacher are not used, his aggressive nature in school has got worse and we are now getting instances of him hitting other children, I have been approached out of school by parents complaining and when I try to explain his ASD they so we don't care tell him to stop hitting my child. 

He is on an IEP which the teacher is not implementing and the school are now only applying for an EHC plan, we have given them as much advise as possible but it seems his teacher is not interested in implementing anything and would rather he were removed from the class, which has been the case. He has voluntary 1:1 for 3hrs a day but this is being removed and I fear his aggressive behaviour is becoming uncontrollable in school and the school is not being proactive as for the past 3 years its mainly been a reactive procedure.

He has special social skills lessons but no matter how many times he says he understands that hurting people is wrong he keeps doing it. What I don't want to do is go down the route of medication to subdue his aggression but I forsee a point where I will have 4 decisions, remove him from school altogether and homeschool, change school after the EHC, leave him and hope for the best or medicate. 

The school have been poor so I am in two minds whether to leave him, as he is high functioning it will be another mainstream school needed and availability is sparse and homeschooling means he loses valuable social interaction and my worry with medication is would it change his personality, he is a funny, bright, loving child who I love dearly and don't want to change but find it hard when there is nothing I see I can do to help him.

Has anybody had a similar situation or has anybody used successfully medication for aggression?

  • Hi NAS35371,

    I'm sorry you're having trouble with your son's schooling, this sounds like a very difficult decision. Hopefully people will chime in with their experiences, but in the meantime you might want to look at our pages on challenging behaviour - http://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour/challenging-behaviour.aspx - and behaviour at school and at home - http://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour/school-home.aspx. These have some advice and information about why children with ASD act out physically and strategies for managing challenging behaviour (although I understand that if the school are not helping then this will be of limited use).

    For further assistance you might want to call our helpline on 0808 800 4104, which offers expert advice and support, and explain your situation to them and see what they recommend.

    Hope this is of some use,

    Ross - mod