DISASTROUS School Meeting

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Oh Mikomi, you are going through the grief of a parent of an aspie child who wants the school system to deliver. As an aspie yourself I think you are handling things very well.

I have seen the frustrations and grief of my daughter Smelena in grappling with the school system. Legally her sons have IEPS. Unfortunately their interpretation depends on the mind set of the teachers.

You are all fighting the system as individuals. Can you form an alliance of some sort, develop and collate literature, even set up teleconferencing when these meetings take place? Give this alliance some name and use it as an authority.

Yes, I am off topic. These ideas are forming as I write this post.

The heartbreak of parents really upsets me. I am a product of the system myself, being an ex teacher so I would like to reform the system, the bureaucy. Is such a thing possible?

Robyn

Good idea--This sounds less adversarial and more conducive to positive collaboration. Once a lawyer's introduced--you have control, but you do lose something in the process. I would reserve lawyer for last resort. You'd pay the consultant the same fee (most likely).

equinn

Your school personnel are obviously not very well educated in aspergers. The manifestations they are expecting usually only occur after anxiety level is acute. At this age with an understanding family this would be unusual. They are expecting move classical autistic indications.

I agree with equinn, get a copy of Tony Attwoods The Complete Guide to Aspergers Syndrome C/2007 (available on Amazon for about $25), as a mater of fact order 2 so you can give your school a copy and mandate it as training in the IEP. Then read it and copy the sections, which apply to your child and highlight them and present them at you next IEP meeting. This will also help the clinician when you go for a formal diagnosis.

While my child was older, I went in with 25-documented needs and there associated accommodation (41 pages which included supporting references to globally respected clinicians). Yes it scares the heck out of the rest of the team when they know the parent is an aspie and has done100s of hours of research and preparation for the meeting.

One last thing, be very careful of ABA, in the right clinical hands it can be very good if it starts with the proper analysis and includes and commitment to social skills training at its core including theory of mind and EF supports. Otherwise it is just a “feel good” bandage and have very little long term benefit in the generalized setting and can keep your child from getting the supports that are really needed.

I would strongly suggest against home schooling unless you school is totally unsupportive and process is not effective. This just avoids the issues which are going to come up later in life and at that point are much more difficult to deal with.

You should also expect that a 1 on 1 paraprofessional would be needed in a year or 2 to help with anxiety and for generalization of the non-academic curriculum.

It is really important to educate your school’s personnel because once they “get it” they can be some of your strongest allies. There will always be 1 or 2 dinosaurs.

bookwormde