Your chance to tell teachers how to help kids with AS

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Thank you all for sharing. I'm sorry that the school experience was so negative for so many of you. Those are the kinds of stories I hear so often and stories like that are my motivation for going back to school and putting myself in a position to be able to educate teachers.

Our project is called "Creating an Autism Friendly Classroom"and although initially we'll be presenting to our own cohort, I already have a date on the schedule to go present to the Sunday school teachers at our church, and I am hoping to present to the teachers at our childrens' school in the fall.

Speaking of church...Kevin, it's a good thing that crabby old teachers at parochial schools probably have no part in deciding who goes to heaven or hell. If you truly do believe such places exist, you must be willing to accept that the people who will most likely be populating hell are the very ones who would dare tell someone else they will end up cleaning toilets there.

ooooh, I forgot to add in mine... another thing a teacher did that was just terrible for my son... she had ALL KINDS of decorations all over the room. I mean, balloons hanging, streamers sometimes... couldn't see the walls due to all of the posters... bright red rug, lettered tiles on the floor, etc.

Then she blamed him for not concentrating... come on! lol. I'm still amazed that nobody else commented on this to her, as in kindergarten the attention span usually isn't all that great to begin with, but when you are in a cyclone of color like that, from floor to ceiling... there just wasn't any hope for him in that class, lol. This is the teacher that said he needed more discipline and nothing was wrong with him.

That is exactly one of the things my presentation address, so your comment will back me up nicely. That along with covering hard surfaces with soft stuff to reduce echoes, hanging solid-colored sheets over jumbled, open shelves, etc. etc.

The thing is that a lot of this stuff would help almost all of the kids. Not many students actually benefit from a riot of colorful, fluttering things when it comes to learning.

1. My kids were 9 and 10 at the time of diagnosis. My 8yo is not typical but not in the spectrum.

2. Allowing the child not to participate in an activity that they are not "getting." My eldest, diagnosed at 9, has had significant delays in some of his academic abilities, while being precocious in other areas. He could not read until he was about 9. He memorized a few sight words, but couldn't get that sound and symbol could be connected, just couldn't get it. Letting him work on what he could do, and come back to the things he can't do later helped a lot. In 4th grade he could NOT get his head around writing fiction. He could not accept that writing untruth could be acceptable. Letting him work on other writing skills, and skipping that regardless of standards really helped. In 6th grade he was able to write fiction.

3. Being inflexible is the worst thing for my eldest. Letting the class get out of control and loud is the worst thing for my middle son. He HATES when the kids are wound up and won't focus on their lesson. He totally shuts down. He can become depressed and overstimulated. He should be allowed to go to the library or something until the teacher has things in control, or at least out to the hall with a book. School work is easy for him and he easily gets all As, so he should be allowed to work independently someplace quiet sometimes. His teacher this year is very nice and very sensitive to his needs but I don't think she always knows what to do with him. Still, she's one of the best.