schooling woes

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Quick follow-up: apparently there was a witness to the PE incident. The IA saw what happened and reported it. His ABA therapist went and observed him in class, and she got a full report. She hasn't told us all the details yet cuz we're waiting for my wife to be available, but I guess there's a few girls at school he's been having problems with. She assured me my son was not the instigator in any of these situations, and I guess these girls got in trouble over the last incident. There is a bright side though. She told me about a kid who was talking to her and he referred to my son and told her "He's a cool little dude," and told her about a time some other kid started picking on him and he stepped in and defended him. She said the next day that kid and some of his other friends were high-fiving my son. So it seems he is making friends without even realizing it! Knowing that calms some of my worries a little. However, she also told us she wasn't happy about some of the things she observed, and it may be necessary to talk to the administration. I suspected it might come to that.

Thanx for the advice!

It's a terrible, dangerous idea for your son. PE is a rough class for kids on the spectrum, anyway, and having little supervision and more (and older) children in the class just makes things worse.


Here are some common issues ASD kids have with PE:
1 Sensory issues - Gyms typically have bright lights, and they ECHO. Often there is yelling and shouting. There are kids running in every direction, and balls flying through the air. It's quite overwhelming.
2 Touching - Gym is the one class in which children are sometimes allowed to touch each other. They may play tag, or touch football, or throw balls to each other. Sometimes there is shoving or kicking, and it can be hard for ASD kids to tell whether these contacts are accidental or intentional. My own son often gets mad when someone brushes against him, and will shove the person in response because he believes they were being aggressive.
3 Bullying - Because of the nature of the class, some children use it as a "cover" to be nasty. My son has been punched in gym class, and there's no way to be "accidently" punched.
4 Picking teams. A lot of kids with ASD aren't very popular due to their lack of social skills, and aren't very good at sports, either. So this can be a humiliating experience.

Yeah, we were considering pulling him out of PE altogether, but he insists he likes PE despite everything. He spends most of his time following and imitating the other kids, which I could see might get on their nerves...but he's just trying to make friends in the only way he knows how.

BTW my son's one of those sensory-seeking kids, so he doesn't have all the same issues as other ASD kids as far as touching and lights. He used to have problems with loud noises, but doesn't seem to mind em much anymore. He is often the last one chosen for things, something I went through and I guess he's destined to go through that too.

Just something to file in your brain for possible future situations, since it won't apply in this one (given that there were witnesses in PE): telling on a child for a transgression they did not actually make can be used as a form of bullying.

Yeah! Like the time in 2nd grade when some new kid grabbed me and started shaking me. I tried to push him away, and when the playground aide came up and said "What's going on?" he immediately threw himself to the ground and said I was trying to "kill" him! Well, guess who got in trouble for that???

Anyway, good to know.