Socially better to be in learning support or mainstream?

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This is a question for anyone who has an Asperger's/HFA diagnosis, who is currently going through/has been through the U.S. school systems --

Were you ever in learning support/special ed classes?

If so, did you enjoy the group that you socialized with there?

Were you ever taken completely out of learning support/special ed classes?

If so, did that help you or hurt you socially?

We have a son going from elementary school to middle school. He is in learning support for Communication Arts. We are considering taking him out of that class because he appears to be doing fine with reading now, and since we have to do as much teaching at home with him as he gets at school, we will just "deal" with his sixth grade reading class (as opposed to a learning support communication arts class). My concern is that he won't have as much time with the kids in learning support. He has friends in his mainstream classes (a few) and friends in learning support, and I wonder if he will miss those friends. He will see those friends in learning support in his mainstream classes as well. This communication arts (learning support) class is just one class out of seven other mainstream classes.

Any input you may have will be helpful.
Kris

Kris,

Here's what I would say and take it for what it's worth. If he's social and you feel he doesn't need learning support now, take him out. He'll have more social opportunities if he is out of learning support. He can always be with his old friends from leaning support in the mainstream classes. He should only be in support classes if he actually needs them. The more mainstream you make his life, the more successful he will be when he graduates. If you keep him in there because he has friends there, it will become a crutch.

I was pulled out of all classes, given a separate curriculum (everything they had and then some) from sixth grade on. I had very few classes with the rest of my peers from that time on (drama class being one of them). That didn't bother me because I want to write all the time and I tend to get exhausted from social interaction. I'm not socially inclined at all. I had friends that I grew up with and they remained my friends. I had my brothers to protect me from bullies. So really, my experience was pretty sheltered and not typical. Your son sounds more social than I was, so I would say mainstream. What they did with me was basically because I went to school before gifted programs. They wanted to keep me busy because I learned very fast and was always bored. Bored kids cause trouble, so they built a program where I wouldn't be bored or in trouble. That only worked because I wasn't social. I think a normal Aspie kid would have found that very lonely.

The school I used to go to when I was living in Jersey before I moved to England I was in a learning support unit which specialised I was taking out of a lot of classes some there choice some mine (only because I was crafty and didn't like those lessons) but looking back I wished I did more mainstream work I don't like learning support at all I have a case of AS which is mild which I don't need learning support

Wow, thanks so much for all of your input and stories. Sometimes I really believe that the school staff cordons off kids in learning support to make life easier for the STAFF, not to make life easier for the kid. Then, they don't have to live with the results, as described by Age1600, where you put an AS kid with a bunch of kids on the edge of society who are really scary. Why would anybody do that? I hope things turned out well for you now.

Kris

Here is my experience, I was in special ed until highschool (I wasn't diagnosed with aspergers until around 14 or 15, I was called "Gifted learning disabled" before- they have no placement for that that I know of ). I do also have a severe learning disability other than non verbal stuff. These classes were often filled with kids who were in fact more of a disciplinary problem than they were kids with learning problems. I went from full special ed in elementary school, to a few special ed classes in middle school to none in highschool.


To your questions: Did I enjoy the situation socialy? It was certainly less crowded but the discipline kids can be especialy rough at times to an introvert. So not especialy, no. But I wasn't as social as your son seems to be.

Was I helped socialy being taken out completely? Not especialy. It wasn't any worse for sure.

I'll add that being taken out of special ed did help me exponentialy when it came to learning, and not being bored out of my mind. At least not all of the time .

Be very, very proactive if your son comes into any problems in middle school. Middle school will often make or break an asperger child. Good luck!

Arbie, your point of middle school either making or breaking a child is exactly what I'm afraid of. We happen to live in a school district where, for the most part, kids are taught to be respectful of others. We've had only one very small and limited incidence of bad behavior (not really bullying), and I picked up on it, and mentioned it to the school, and they did an extremely good job of taking care of it. But I am in the habit of really inquiring how things go with my son on a daily basis, and I try to read between the lines, so I can kind of head off problems before they occur.

My other Aspie son (now 20) had his BEST years in middle school, amazingly enough. I'm hoping that if we do enough social skills work, and acting classes, and develop his interest in music, it will carry him through these hard years so that his middle school years are as positive as his brother's.

Again, thanks, Arbie.

Your school district seems to care, so I think you have a leg up already. In my particualr district, the faculty didn't realy care if it wasn't a problem for them, and them having to take actions was almost like an insult or something. But this was more than ten years ago and things have changed in how the schools are handling this kind of stuff. A bad teacher can damage a kid more than what the kids can do. Kids can only do what they are let to get away with. Again, I wish you and your family good luck.