Were you placed with severely disabled children as a child?

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I grew up in an environment full of NTs, where ever I went. I never knew any other Aspies, or any children who were severely disabled. That is why I'm taking longer to accept who I am - because I've never actually seen anyone else (other than me) struggle with things.

When I was 3, I was placed in a normal kindergaten (In Denmark they're unrelated to school and function more like daycare, as children are in general not taught anything here), which was also around the time my AS was diagnosed (when I was 4).

At age 6, I was placed in an afterschool daycare as I did not want to start in kindergaten class (aka. zeroth grade). This daycare mixed a few autistic chldren with NT children.

I was placed in a special ed school a year later that included severely disabled children. I was placed in one of the two classes for autistic kids. In 3rd grade, I was put in a normal class for math lessons ( I was very good at math, at the point that I could solve half a 4th grade mathbook a day if I put my mind to it). This class was two grades above mine and the math was hard at first, but I quickly picked up the pace and ended up being bullied by outdoing most of the class.
Reading was also quite easy for me. I started reading at age 3 (usually i'd take the book from my dad and start reading him a bedtime story ), and by the end of grade 1, I could read texts aloud with virtually no mistakes.

Starting with 5th grade, I went to a normal school and class, at first with the help of an aide, but later on I stood on my own.

Today, strangely enough, I suck at math (especially crunching numbers in my head) , but I have retained my skills with learning language and differing forms of writing (ie. Japanese writing sets vs. roman letters).

In adolescence I was put in such programs in mental institutions.

Yes I was put in to the special needs system as a child and at the school I went to in 1971, believe it or not there was about 6 allistic children as well as those with severe/profound and multiple learning disabilities and complex needs. Some 1960s neanderthal told my mum I had brain damage. So I never was given a chance to prove otherwise. Either way that start did save my life though but It all went downhill in 1974 when my home life rapidly deteriorated (off topic). However I have since got on better with people with learning disabilities than allistic people who I cant say what I feel about them (allistic people) because it is against the rules of this website.

I was in a special program and there were also kids in there who had more severe disabilities than me. Kids were all over from normal to severe. Then in second grade my parents finally got me out of there and put me in mainstream. I mainstreamed special ed after that. A few times in HS, there were some kids who had more severe disabilities such as Down's syndrome and there was only one girl who was in a wheelchair and one other boy who had something but I am not sure. But lot of the kids who went to the resource room were all normal so I didn't feel like a freak or like a ret*d or stupid.

I was the one who was most disabled in all the schools I went to.

I was never placed in special ed. My mother was urged to send me to a special school for "very bright children" When I was 6/7 and 8. She asked me if I wanted to go and I begged not to because all my friends were at the school I was going to and I didn't want to have to make new friends.

School was always painfully easy for me all the way up until 6th grade. After that, I started having comprehension issues. It was like I hit a wall. Things went from being ridiculously easy to being very difficult. The math didn't make sense to me, the concepts in English didn't make sense to me, the History didn't make sense to me. I went from an A+ student to a B student to a C+ student. By the end of highschool I had failed a few classes and just sort of "scraped by" in my others. This despite actually making an effort most of the time, which I did not make when I was younger.

Despite all this, we were given a reading/writing/comprehension standardized test at my high school (grades 9/10/11/12/13) when I was in grade 9 and I came in 3rd out of about 3000 students. Some 4 years older than me.

I was considered borderline as to whether or not I should be in disabled classes until the 2nd grade, and then I was placed in a class of gifted kids when it was discovered I had uncanny abilities in math and problem solving. And honestly, sometimes I think that was a horrible, horrible mistake.

No, never. TG!

I understand perfectly why OP found it detrimental. My reaction would have been the same.

Not as a child, just when I went to a psych hospital for two months after a suicide attempt. The doctor knew I was different and probably couldn't pinpoint it so he placed me on a unit for people with developmental delays. Some of those people couldn't even read and I thought that, even though they were my people, I was too high functioning to be there.

Yes. When I was young the diagnosis of Asperger's didn't exist but they knew something was wrong with me. I was first labeled as emotionally disturbed, whatever that means. Later I was diagnosed with ADHD, but I always felt that was B.S. too.

Yep at various points in my life due to various misdiagnoses Autism was hinted at two points in my life tho nobody really had a clear idea of what it was so nobody perused getting an official diagnoses. Tho when I was in late 4th through 5th I was in the appropriate setting however when my folks moved to Atlanta I was once again placed with other whom had various stages of intellectual disabilities and that continued until I went mainstream in HS tho special ed services were lacking they decided to place me back with other low(er) functioning students despite my improving grades at that point I quit HS

I'm from a small town so Autism wasn't even a consideration there. I was in special ed until 3rd grade. In 1st grade, they had something like 20 index cards of assignments that we were supposed to do every day. I completed them within a couple of weeks, and refused to redo them. So, I just stopped doing all work. They put me in special ed since they assumed I couldn't read. By 3rd grade, they had me tested finally, and I ended up in the Advanced (we called it PACE) program. Then they wanted to skip me up a grade.

I'm worried that my youngest daughter will encounter this as well, but at least I'll have an idea of how to approach her learning style.

Were you, redrobin, not put in some group home or day care because some doctor thought you had Down Syndrome?http://www.wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=221198
That did not happen to me. I was put in a mainstream school through their special needs program. I had normal classes, just like an NT, in fact some were fun, like I remember playing Nintendo 64 Mario 64 and Super Smash Brawl in Video Game Time period. those were fun! I even took gifted classes with the even 100% NT mainstream kids because the main classes I went to all these years had mix of Mainstream kids, aspies, and low functioning autistic kids. But I remember one low functioning autistic kid that was pretty smart though. There was like at least 1 low functioning autistic classmate in every main grade class I went to, except when I was gifted into the 100% NT claases. Anyway, throughout the school I saw a lot of low functioning (not just autistic kids) in wheelchairs with all types of conditions that cause these things like CP. We also played computer games with age apporpiate assignments and games. I was like a fun NT kid back then, a fan of Pokemon and Powerpuff Girls. But in some classes and some activites were partially devoted to low functioning autistic kids, which kind of made me set back. My mom actually did not want this. In fact in 4th grade, when there were crappy teachers, I was getting into trouble for being an teaser and being a naughty kid. My mom, though she was firm and punitive on me at those times, she blamed the teachers for their poor attention on me. In some computer times, there were even 10 year old 5th grade students playing on Ready Set Learn, which was made for preschoolers.

Some were looking at that and Starfall too

instead of more grown up things like Sonic X, which I also a big fan of. I was also watching adult movies up and around that time, which I became a fan of.
Then when I got to a Middle/High School that is small and private, then things got a lot more interesting. It was also 100% normal and in 6th grade, I had a first real crush on a 7th grader. I stayed at that school until 12th grade. It was an awesome school filled with normally developing kids, some even had Aspergers, and I had a crush on a few aspies. That was a pretty cool time.
My mom never believed I should be placed with serverly mentally challanged kids. In fact that was why she did the extensive and intensive early intervention with me since my sudden regression to autism at the age of 15 months. If it was not for that, I would have proubably be a very low functionining person proubably still not speaking that would really go to a school, care, or group home for serverely mentally disabled adults.

I wasn't put into special education up until 2005. Before then I acted like any kind of "normal" child. I remember the ridiculous tactics my elementary school tried, such as receiving a "star" for behaving well (this was after I had been "suspected autistic"). No one seemed to notice or care though, because elementary school. I think I got sent to a "special school" for 5th grade, actually by my request. My old elementary school was too damn strict.

Then came in middle school. My SpED continued which included a number of speech classes and the associated crap. I probably was thrown in with kids who probably had far worse conditions than I had. I think I remember I was still being put in classes with kids that again, may have been mildly ret*d (no offense). Honestly, I think the SpED teachers made it worse. I've said it before that the ABA tactics made me think I was less than human and it actually impaired my development to an extent (actually, emotionally and cognitively primarily, but an obedient child was worth it; thankfully I've recovered in these areas). Oh, and don't even get me started with the fact that obvious SpEDing made me a pariah in school, so I got teased or bullied.

When I entered high school, in 9th grade every class that I was put in was either filled with SpED students or those that were "troubled" or "at risk" (the only exception was science and PE). Some of these classes were relaxed or quiet (which was a godsend, really), and even having assistants didn't matter because most of these kids in these classes had them anyway, so the bullying was gone too. Not all was rosy though; I distinctly remember the art class being one of the worst classes I'd ever been in, because it was so damn noisy, raunchy, ratchet, etc. I actually excelled enough not only where I didn't need assistants but I wouldn't be holed up in "special" classes. The only thing I have is a "so-called" tutorial class, although I remember still being labelled as needing speech class (which was filled with BS). I'll say it again: the content in that class was clearly tailored towards more "ret*d" kids, and would be fitting for an elementary school child. That class was a nocebo: because it treated me less than human, I actually behaved less than human. Thank god for my cognitive awakening, or else lord knows.

I wouldn't say the other kids were severely disabled, there were a lot of kids with issues where I went to school and its unsurprising given the environments some came from. I had to take speech class, I had some weird group sessions with other kids, and I remember doing some motor skills stuff when I was really young like working lite brite pieces out of puddy. I don't know why I had to do this stuff, it would be interesting to read my records or whatever from back then. I was always in mainstream classes up until high school, they'd take me out as well a couple other students when we had to this other stuff.