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General advice on residential school

PeterG

Good morning

This is my first post here and I'm looking for some general advice and feedback.  I was originally from England, we currently live in Canada but we are thinking about relocating back to England.  We have one severely autistic son age 10 and three non-autistic children aged 6 to 12.  Our son is becoming increasingly difficult to manage both at home and at school because of his unpredictable aggressive outbursts, and even the maximum dose of Risperidone is only partially helping.  This makes the other children upset and anxious and we get frequent calls from his school to come and collect him as he has had a meltdown and they can't manage him or put him on the school bus.  We are wondering whether services for autistic children are better in the UK than Canada, and in particular whether we would be able to get him into a residential school in the the UK.

I don't expect that anyone would be able to tell us how the two countries compare, but I would be interested to hear from parents with a similar issue, how easy or difficult did you find it to get a residential school placement?

Thank you! 

  • Hi, I wd wholeheartedly agree with IntenseWorld.  Some of the behaviours your son is exhibiting cd well be down to the points she makes.  That's a lot of risperidone!  My son went to a  day school provided by the local education authority until he was 9.  He then went to a boarding school (autistic) till he was 19.  He came home every wkend + all holidays.  He cd have remained permanently at the school if we had wished apart from a couple of wks sometime during the year.  Whilst my son liked both his schools, he also liked coming home as well + we wanted to see him, so that's why we had that arrangement.  Parents had individual arrangements.  There'll be info via the home pg re. schools so have a look.  Provision varies.  Some local councils had the foresight to provide autism specific schools, some did not.  Some "independent" schools were set up, sometimes by concerned parents + have charitable status.  What both my son's schools had in common was : small well staffed classes (7-9 pupils), staff who understood autism well + how it affected each child individually.  The plus point about the boarding school was that it was 24/7 so they cd concentrate not only on education but on other things such as life skills.  The day school did a good job but it was for 6 hrs a day, obviously.  So, check out provision in the area you may be moving to.  Check out the Inspection reports.  Bear in mind that your local council will be loathed to fund boarding provision, esp if they have a day school.  

  • As you say your son is severely autistic, I would have thought he would be better supported in a special school than mainstream, especially as you say those supporting him are not trained in autism.  I can imagine his frustration.

    I would insist they provide more appropriate supports, and look around for a special school that can cater for him.

  • He has special educational services provided within a mainstream school, but by people who are not necessarily trained in autism, so maybe that's part of the problem.  Consequently he is getting some of the adjustments you mention but not all of them.  He enjoys using computers, in fact he is rather obsessed by them, but he just enjoys flicking through the different windows and clicking the buttons and watching videos.  The video about Carly Fleischman was interesting.  I don't think anyone has made a really prolonged, serious attempt to get him to communicate using the computer so maybe that is something we should try.  Does anyone have any suggestions for software they have tried and can recommend?

  • Meltdowns are a reaction to stressing environmental factors.  Those would be potentially (but not limited to):

    noise, too many people, change without warning; tactile sensory issues, failure of others to understand his condition, frustration at not being understood, prevention of stimming, enforcement of illogical/difficult rules that he cannot understand...could be many things.

    I presume the school are making reasonable adjustments for his condition?  I presume they use a visual timetable, PECS, social stories, or anything that may assist with his communication?  Is he offered an electronic method of communication?

    This link about Carly Fleischman if you haven't already heard of her might interest you, I believe she is Canadian. http://www.myautismmyvoice.com/2012/03/highlight-video-carly-fleischmann-on.html

    (BTW neurotypical children being described as 'normal', with autism being implied to be the opposite, is a less than helpful terminology which some will find offensive.)