wishing we were in the US?

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Hi guys,

I have a 9 year old son with asperger's and DCD and we live in Ireland. The services here are really limited and even private services, which are expensive, have a long waiting list. The government is cutting back on funding for special needs education. So far my lad gets 3 hours a week one to one teaching in a mainstream school. There is no money for a special needs assistant. We are on a waiting list to see an occupational therapist. He desperately needs sensory integration therapy as he has significant sensory processing problems. He barely gets anything done in class .. I'd love it if were in another country that had better resources and services

I'm wondering how the services provided here compare to those in the US? I'd really appreciate it so much if anyone out there could please fill me in on a few things..

I've been doing some research online I see NJ and California have brilliant services for autism or are these being affected by government cut backs too? Do you have to pay for these services or are these paid for by each state?

I'd really appreciate it if anyone could let me know their experiences of services for kids with Asperger's syndrome in the US or anyone who has moved over from the UK?/ Ireland for the services.

Sorry for the babbling email!

Looking forward to hearing from you guys,

Take care,
HC

Well I am not an expert...but basically if you can afford these services then yes they can probably be very helpful....but that is if you can afford it. Some others may have more specific information, but In my opinion now would not be a good time to try to move to the U.S...not sure how exactly things are where you live but things here are rather unstable and going downhill.

Also currently it is difficult for even college graduates to find jobs...let alone non-college graduates or people with mental disorders who might not work as efficiently as those without.

Thanks Sweetleaf, I appreciate your honesty

Ugh, I wish I *weren't* in the US right now. I'm spending the day waiting around for Hurricane Irene to hit my area.

Regarding autism services though, I know there are some school districts which have excellent autism services, particularly in NJ where the autism rate is so high. But I also know that many parents of autistic kids spend tons of money paying for additional services, such as additional OT, speech, etc. (and there can be months-long waits for these private services), so I don't know how well school services generally meet the needs of autistic children. I did briefly work in a school for autistic kids in NY, and the kids there were only seen by speech, for example, twice a week for a half hour at a time. OT services were probably comparable. They received ABA in their regular classrooms during the day, but since the staff: student ratio was about 1:2 (which actually would be considered a great ratio by most standards), about half the kids in class at any one time would be left on their own to stim or do whatever. These were severely autistic kids though, and couldn't do any work without a one-to-one, but it does seem like a waste of classroom time in a school supposedly designed to meet the needs of autistic children.

Hey LostInSpace,

God, you poor thing re Hurricane irene - really hope you're okay. That must be so scary! Anyone else going through that? Let us know how you are!

Thanks so much for your info re Autism classes in the US, really interesting - really sounds like the services are the same as here....

Thanks again,

Take care,

HC

I actually WAS going into an area IRENE was going to be in, but the airline cancelled the flights. OH WELL.

It WOULD be interesting to see how they would treat YOU if you came in as an irish person in need of free services. And t can take a while. They might ven want your child reassessed here.

And they likely WILL cut back. California is in serious trouble! New Jersey's governor is good enough that people are literally BEGGING him to run for president of the united states. Still, he HAS had to cut back!

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/0 ... et_af.html

Hi, happychappy. Yeah, it was a little scary. I was too wired last night to get to sleep so I stayed up through the peak of the storm, which started at about 2 AM. There hasn't been too much damage to my area from wind except for some downed trees, but the flooding has been pretty incredible. My apartment is high enough above the creek to be safe, but some of the historical buildings down low were flooded. Tropical storm conditions are expected to last for another 12 hours or so, but it is definitely dying down.

Hi, HappyChappy!

I'm not sure that mine will be a lot of help, here, but do see my longish post about my childhood in the short (so far) thread "Have I just got a load of small conditions mixed together?" which you might pick up some ideas of what you can do yourself, while reading about Asperger's in general as to the learning your son might not be picking up on. Most of the problems can be "learned around", even the coordination and clumsiness issues with things like private ballet or martial arts classes.

I have a friend on an e-mail List in California whose son has Asperger's plus something else, and while he was mainstream in a mainstream classroom for the full school schedule, he had a State-paid one-for-one Special Needs Assistant with him in a classroom (and at lunch) all the time. Mike also occasionally hired the Assistant himself when he really needed a "baby-sitter", with private arrangement. But, as someone else said, California has horrible economic problems right now (too much "bread and circuses" that the people voted themselves), and Mike, a State Employee (not in Education) is a bit worried about his own job continuing. And that's all I know about State help, except that Joplin, Missouri has an Autism Center which I believe is free. Joplin does have problems of its own at the moment, though, since about a quarter of it was blown away and 160 people killed (and three or four schools reduced to rubble) on May 22. That's not really relevant, though, except increasing the reasons that someone from overseas might not want to move to Joplin! .

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x94703 ... The-Bridge
or
http://tinyurl.com/3r5sr36

The main point of my writing is to suggest that you do a lot of book research yourself on just what Asperger's involves, and a lot of one-on-one home-schooling with your boy, paying close attention to what he's not "getting" that one expects a child to "get" automatically. It would probably be helpful for you to stay on this board any time you have time for the next several years, to get the idea of what it looks like from the inside.

Last edited by Sibyl on 28 Aug 2011, 2:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you do move to the US, be aware of the hurricane the east coast will experience soon. If you're in the right state, you can the special needs care your son deserves. But there is also the matter of how the economy is doing right now (which is not good).

Hey LostInSpace, 2KenKirl, Sibyl and MakaylaThe Aspie!

Thankyou soooo much for taking the time to send all your links and for all your help, really do appreciate that

God, LostInSpace - that must've been awful listening to Hurrican Irene and not knowing what damage had been done til the morning. So sad that old buildings by you have been ruined by floods.

2KenKirl - thanks for your link - maybe I should leave looking into moving anywhere til the recession goes away....wonder when that will that be?!

Sibyl - I shall definitely read what you write on asperger's - bet it will be really useful to get an insight and thanks MakaylatheAspie I shall be hopping onto The Wrong Planet many times in the future to ask you lovely people for advice.

The number 1 problem my lad has in school is transferring what he's thinking in his head down on paper, whether it be english, maths science etc.... As his teacher said, he's got it all going on in his head but getting it down on paper is the problem! He can draw diagram upon diagram of inventions though! I think the problem is visual and auditory processing problems but trying to get an OT here is impossible so, you're right Sibyl, I'll have to do some exercises with him at home.

Any advice with this problem would be soo appreciated, many many thanks!

Well I'd best go!

Take good care over the water guys,

HC

Are you in the part of Ireland that's part of the UK, or the part that's a separate country?

From what I've heard, UK has great services. They seem to be way ahead of Canada, particularly in terms of services for high functioning adults (there's pretty much nothing in Canada for that group, because the Autism Society of Canada thinks all autistics who aren't cured by adulthood are LFA). I'd love to move to the UK if I could because I've heard such great things about the National Autistic Society and other UK autism organizations.

I have heard nothing at all about what it's like to be autistic in Ireland, though.

Good luck immigrating to the US. It's one of the hardest country to move to legally.

The US immigration doesn't just let anyone in to live. Sorry to burst your bubble but it's been my experience.

the45 - it's great to hear your honest answer - I need to hear the honest truth so thanks for that - I think I'll put off moving anywhere for a while while things look pretty bleak.

Ettina - we're in Southern Ireland. I wouldn't move to England as I hear everything's going to pot there, including the education system. Think you're right about autism services being pretty good.

Thank again guys,

HC