I'm the mum of a six year old boy diagnosed with asperger syndrome, and a three year old boy who is in the process of diagnosis. My older boy was diagnosed three years ago, so I feel like I should be quite knowledgable with all the support networks, but I have large gripes about my kids at the moment, and find myself not having a clue where to get help!
My six year old is very bright, and has (with much family support) learnt to cope with daily life, and manages at a mainstream school quite well. I find, that because of this, many support doors are slammed shut in his face, and he gets no help whatsoever.
When we raise serious concerns with the school, they just say that they are impressed with how he copes. At his school they have a lunch hour of 1 1/2 hours which my son finds quite challenging. We have asked for support, but don't get it. We even resorted to offering to pay a lunch time supervisors wage but the school said they weren't allowed to do that!
Who can help my child?
More to the point, who will help my child?
I feel totally helpless and feel the only option left to me is to bring him home at lunch time. I don't want to do this, as it would leave me totally tied during the day. Also, my son has the will to form friendships, he just needs a bit help. If i take him out of school at lunch time, those social opportunities will be lost and he'll never learn!
How can I find out what my children should be getting?
My three year old was assessed last week and it was reported that he didn't interact at all with any of the children. Because he is also bright, chances are he'll get no help either. I asked the Outreach team how he could be helped to learn social skills, and they went on and on about the imput they give to secondary school children! He hasn't started primary school yet! How can I sit back and let my child be a bystander through his entire primary schooling, before any social input!
I feel so helpless as their main problems are social, and the main opportunities to learn social skills, are when they are out of my care.
