To parents of AS children (and parents in general):
I have found through my life that I would have lived a much better life if my parents hadn't been so slothful and neglectful letting the state school system raise me. The truth is my parents were not college educated, one only had highschool, the other didn't even finish. They managed for themselves very well despite that but at a high price: Living at work 7 days/week, then add in 3 children, and you end up with: No time. Any free time that is left over is left for "me time" or parent recharging time so they do not go insane.
I had serious learning disabilities manifested in auditory memory, my auditory memory was ok if I got words or sentences in short chunks, but long narratives would get truncated and this explains my horrible french marks through the first 9 years of french class (in canada they have french from grades 1-8 in public school and one mandatory in highschool).
My teachers always said I had problems listening and in truth I did, but they had no clue AT ALL of the permanent underlying flaws in my minds ability to process auditory information that would always interfere with learning. It was permanent and there was no way I was going to "learn to listen better" as they suggested on Report cards and progress reports, since the problem was not that I was not listening.
Why is psychometric testing important? Because depression and performance induced stress due to not being able to keep up with other children in school is very real. I'm sure many kids build up a depression slowly hrough the school years with undiagnosed "learning disabilities", which they really aren't, it just means they have weaknesses so that some expectations in some classes will have to be modified.
Depression and performance induced stress create/cause behavioural and emotional problems in a child that will be long lasting and will not go away easily if something is not done.
If you're kids are acting badly or are always moody, you have to make sure they are not stressed the hell out, it is YOUR JOB not to let stress build in your children to unprecedented (suicidal) levels. Many parents today do not give a hoot, nor do they psend the necessary time to assess their children to find their strengths and weaknesses, even if there doesn't LOOK like anything is wrong.
I was fine in public school mostly my marks weren't bad, I got mostly A's and B's, but I had severe weaknesses that teachers couldn't understand because they were so damn clueless. Do not expect "professionals" will care one iota about your kids, because by and large, looking back on my own schooling, 90% of the teachers didn't care or have a personal stake in the kids they were teaching. It was just a job to them (unfortunately). The whole factor-farm model of education is part of the reason we have so many damn social problems to begin with, kids are framed out to people that may or may not (highly likely) care about them.
So they will be this kind of passive neglect in the state school system, you should always expect the worst with school, unless you lucked out and are middle/upper class and/or to be by good schools.
The truth is school is not a healthy place for a lot of kids, it is in fact the opposite. Our society is a messed up one, sometimes I get so mad that most people and kids parents are so caught up in their jobs they are politically powerless to really do much other then work, and pay bills & taxes.
Last edited by Mordy on 11 Feb 2007, 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
06 Feb 2007, 8:23 am
