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Special needs or Mainstream

MisterS

I know this has probably been discussed a number of times before but I wanted to ask specific questions. We all know that each child on the spectrum has different needs. We have a 3 year old daughter and she doesn't have major behaviour issues minus a few repetitive things. Sensory issues exist somewhat.

I've read so many articles and books from parents of children on the spectrum and had decided in my mind that we would push for our Daughter to go to a mainstream school and hoping that she would be adequately supported there.

We spoke with someone over the weekend who is more in the know with the education system and they suggested that we grab a special needs school if it was offered and it's easier to move from a special school to a mainstream school than the other way round. Now that leaves us in a confused state. What do we do ?

Parents of girls will appreciate the dillema. ASD tends to be a more male dominated world and ratios of boys to girls tends to be 4:1 to 10:1 in most of the special schools. What do we do ? It's ever so confusing !

Parents

  • Thanks Mum of 3. The reason's given by the person to take the "special school"

    1) Spaces are limited and therefore difficult to get.

    2) Mainstream schools with support involves support from a teaching assistant or teacher. The speech therapists and other therapists give training to the teaching assistance rather than giving therapy directly to your child. Now the quality of therapy that a child gets from a mainstream school then depends on the willingness and ability of the teaching assistant. With a fully trained therapist the results we would expect would be different. In a special school the child would get therapy directly from a therapist.

    You are right we do need to go and see many schools in the area. We are yet to apply for an assessment which will then get us a Statement. It's a very confusing time and also a little saddened to get a feeling that there will be inadequate support and probably will require some fighting to get the right support.

    I pray so hard that we come to the right decision.

    I spoke with a parent of a girl diagnosed with Aspergers recently. The parent said the girl was doing well in mainstream minus loneliness, some behaviour issues, being misunderstood at times. She was considering that maybe they will need to move their daughter to a special school in some time in the future.

    All so very confusing as to what we should do. Our daughter does speak although communicating is limited. She understands more than she can say and generally doesn't say much to communicate. She will never let us know if she is hungry, thirsty or in pain. She just sometimes tell us when she needs to use the toilet. But most of time we just take her without her letting us know. She had a reasonable amount of vocab and when we ask her simple questions she can answer them.

Reply

  • Thanks Mum of 3. The reason's given by the person to take the "special school"

    1) Spaces are limited and therefore difficult to get.

    2) Mainstream schools with support involves support from a teaching assistant or teacher. The speech therapists and other therapists give training to the teaching assistance rather than giving therapy directly to your child. Now the quality of therapy that a child gets from a mainstream school then depends on the willingness and ability of the teaching assistant. With a fully trained therapist the results we would expect would be different. In a special school the child would get therapy directly from a therapist.

    You are right we do need to go and see many schools in the area. We are yet to apply for an assessment which will then get us a Statement. It's a very confusing time and also a little saddened to get a feeling that there will be inadequate support and probably will require some fighting to get the right support.

    I pray so hard that we come to the right decision.

    I spoke with a parent of a girl diagnosed with Aspergers recently. The parent said the girl was doing well in mainstream minus loneliness, some behaviour issues, being misunderstood at times. She was considering that maybe they will need to move their daughter to a special school in some time in the future.

    All so very confusing as to what we should do. Our daughter does speak although communicating is limited. She understands more than she can say and generally doesn't say much to communicate. She will never let us know if she is hungry, thirsty or in pain. She just sometimes tell us when she needs to use the toilet. But most of time we just take her without her letting us know. She had a reasonable amount of vocab and when we ask her simple questions she can answer them.

Children
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