help!! appealing to the school board

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my 13 year old daughter ( Angie )was recently diagnosed with Aspergers, i am presently tryin to get a Teachers Aid for classroom assistance, i have been told that this may be a battle due to underfunding, i am in eastern Nova Scotia Canada, i would appreciate any advice any one can give me. My daughters school is very supportive, they are formally requesting an aid for Angie, but explained that it is up to me to "lobby" the board to achieve a positive result..i have an appt scheduled for this week to meet with the head of student services about this issue. I am so afraid she will slip thru the cracks again( she slid under the radar thru the school til last year when her guidance councilor took a keen interest in her and the testing for Aspergers began). Angie is very capable of the work but needs one on one to guide her thru. If anyone has been thru a similar situation , i would greatly appreciate any advice...

thanks so much, AngisMom ( Linda)

Hi Linda,

Just a few points that you might be unaware of... (We were unaware of them in our son's first few years).

Teachers Aides are for the whole class, not just for your child
Yep. You'd think that if YOU get a teacher's aid for YOUR child that they'd stay by your child's desk and help them. It doesn't happen. We fought for one and got one and then were told that the teacher's aide was for the whole class and that your son would benefit because of increased availability. Don't pin you hopes on the teacher's aide as a solution - it isn't.

The IEP is Critical
The IEP is the most critical piece of paper you can have at your school. Make sure you have one. Make sure that you attend the meeting and DO NOT sign anything at the meeting until you are satisfied. The IEP should address the strengths and weaknesses of your child. If your child is aspie, you should probably expect to see some social things in there as well as academic things.

Academic Aid is best left to Tutors
The majority of primary school is about socialisation. If your child needs academic help (ie: in Reading/Writing or Mathematics), then you need to consider seeing a tutor. You could take your child out of school for an hour each week or you could do it on a weekend. However you do it, an hour of one-on-one teaching is better academically for your child than a whole week of classes. Don't bother with assistance past Reading/Writing/Mathematics in the primary years. There are other ways of teaching History, Science and other subjects. Aspies are very visual, consider television if and when you need assistance with the other subjects.

Social Skills Classes
Your school is unlikely to help much with social skills. There are various ways to assist your child in this regard. Expensive ways include sending your child to social skills classes and/or weekends. These are specifically for people with aspergers and can be found via your local community centres. They're very helpful. A less expensive way would be to get your son into a social activity. Something like Scouts is going to be better than soccer because it contains more socialisation opportunities and teaches children to rely upon each other and problem-solve.

Use OT to overcome everyday obstacles
Occupational Therapy can help your child overcome everyday obstacles in classes, such as organising their books, and solving in-classroom problems. If possible, try to get an OT who is close to (or even better, works at) the school.

I hope these ideas help.