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Preparing to get the bus to school

ParentingAutism

In all honesty, I am nervous. My daughter will need to get the bus to and from school next year in order to go to school which is what she wants. 

I really don't know how to help her with this transition. She loves getting the bus but she is always with a family member. She did have to get the bus to a local mainstream school and that caused hideous meltdowns and anxiety mainly because of the school kids on them.

I am worried that she will not cope if there are school kids on them which is likely. I can't walk her to the bus stop because I need to take both my other children to school at the same time. 

I do know she will be fine walking to the bus stop from home and getting off the bus after school. I feel she will massively struggle with walking to school and walking away from school. There is a McDonalds round the corner and many shops which I know she will be tempted to go to. I also fear how she would react if the bus was late in the morning to get to school and what would happen if the bus got stuck in traffic. Its a 40 minute journey without traffic. Also what will happen if she refuses to leave school and go home or if she has a bad day and is dysregulated. I am not able to come and collect her because I will need to get the kids from school and my husband will be working but if one of us does, it will take an hour to get to school. I have said that if we do need to get her then she will not go back, unless it's because of the bus or something out of our and hers control.

How can I help with this and also she will be extremely anxious already because of the other changes and she has not done a full school day for the whole school year so who knows how she'll cope. She might surprise us yet but we always prepare for the worst. 

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  • ParentingAutism said:
    I do know she will be fine walking to the bus stop from home and getting off the bus after school. I feel she will massively struggle with walking to school and walking away from school.

    You could discuss this with support at school to see if there is an option for a taxi for her? This will help due to the time it would take for one of you to get to her in the event of a meltdown.

    Since her issues stem from being around other schoolkids then is she not troubled when in school too?

    Another thing I would be chasing your GP and also the school for is some therapy for her to develop better coping mechanisms which may allow her to live a more independent life.

  • in reply to Iain

    She used to get a taxi to school but since she turned 16 she was no longer able to unless we paid for it which we did not have the money to and still don't. 

    Her school is an autism specialist school with up to 20 students who all get taxis and she doesn't have a problem with this. The students I'm talking about are from the local mainstream school around the area. 

    The school does and is teaching her life skills, speech and language therapy and learning about feelings, zones of Regulation and expected and unexpected behaviours. 

  • in reply to ParentingAutism
    ParentingAutism said:
    The students I'm talking about are from the local mainstream school around the area. 

    Just thinking out loud here - do you think some kind of body cam may be useful in case she has any unpleasant encounters with these mainstream school kids? They can be complete monsters from what I recall of that age - real Lord Of The Flies stuff at times.

    This would give some reassurance to your daughter and discourage the kids from harassing your daughter. In the worst case it would help identify the kids in question and allow you to file a complaint to their scool and the police.

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  • in reply to ParentingAutism
    ParentingAutism said:
    The students I'm talking about are from the local mainstream school around the area. 

    Just thinking out loud here - do you think some kind of body cam may be useful in case she has any unpleasant encounters with these mainstream school kids? They can be complete monsters from what I recall of that age - real Lord Of The Flies stuff at times.

    This would give some reassurance to your daughter and discourage the kids from harassing your daughter. In the worst case it would help identify the kids in question and allow you to file a complaint to their scool and the police.

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