Hi, one of our users had an issue with the account they were posting from. So in the short-term I'm reposting their messages so they aren't lost. We're sorry for the technical difficulty
Hi, I am a mum of 3 boys, the middle one is an aspie. He has been having meltdowns since he was 2 years old and was diagnosed at age 8 just after starting junior school. We always knew he was different but was glad to know what that difference was. Anyway, his main meltdown has always been about the school environment. We moved areas to a better school and he lasted 1 month before his first exclusion. He would go back to school, abscond and then be excluded again. He was in his final year of infants, they did not want to deal with it (and neither did I as my m-i-law had just passed away) but they did inform the junior school. During those 4 years he was in education a total of 2 years I would imagine, he was temp excluded lots of times from the 1st school, before permanent, only lasted a week in the 2nd school, LEA home schooling was abandoned as the teacher and assistant found it too traumatic watching my son physically abuse me. After nearly a year off they found him a place in a LSA teaching him how to hug (one of those teary moments for me) but she left and he fell to pieces again and was excluded. The LEA wanted to wait until he joined comprehensive in a specialist ASD unit, I wasn't happy but went along with it. He was permanently excluded within 5 weeks. I had been researching new methods of teaching in the meantime, believing that he would florish in a different type of school setting. The LEA wanted to send him to a school 1 hr drive away, he couldn't cope with the journey to the local one and was banned from transport and I had to take over. This was a specialist school and would have cost them over £250,000 for his placement. During my research I discovered Internet schooling, what an AMAZEMENT. I put it to the LEA to try this schooling as it was only £3000 per year, looking at it on that basis they decided to let my son be the guinea pig and set a precedent for this type of funded schooling. My son is a computer freak and you can more or less persuade him to do things if it is included. He sits at his computer and logs in to his class at 9.30 am and finishes at 11.45 with a 15 min break. He has his headphones on and takes part in a visual lesson. He 'speaks' to his classmates and teacher via instant messaging and if he is feeling especially good will actually really speak over the microphone. He converses with children all over the world, he doesnt' have to get dressed if he doesn't want to, can play with annoying toys while in school without distracting anyone else. He has only missed 1 day since joining in January of this year and is a different child, friends have noticed he has even been smiling a lot. Instead of having at least 6 x 2hr meltdowns every week we are having 1 a month (still extremely violent but at least there's a break in between). The only downside is that he is with me all day every day but the main thing is that he is much happier. We are trying to introduce homework, which is a bit of hit and miss but who cares he's being educated and managing to socialise with his brothers and doesn't express deep depression and feelings of self harm on a regular basis. I would highly recommend it for those with high functioning ASD, with challenging behaviour.
