This seems an excellent forum for gauging the experiences of young people on the spectrum, and their parents, where the impact of the autism is much more manageable.
Some people don't get diagnosed until late teens or early 20s. They get through a lot of bullying, segregation on academic or behavioural grounds but still emerge to be diagnosed with autism or aspergers. Some children are diagnosed as very mild early on but their school experience isn't necessarily a doddle.
The autistic spectrum is often portrayed as a continuum, but this isn't strictly accurate. The presence of different symtoms and manifestations varies widely in its effects on individuals. Someone can be deemed mild, when some aspects of their autism are still severe, but the majority are sufficiently mild to enable them to cope better.
In strategies to help children in education, is it always certain that the measures we adopt to help do not prevent environmental factors which, even if uncomfortable, go some way to modifying the overall experience.
Can we learn something from people on the spectrum deemed milder or manageable in terms of their experience of education?
It would be useful perhaps to hear from parents with children designated mildly affected whether the educational experience was comparably mild, or whether there were real hardships that "mild" didn't prepare them for?
