Special Ed v. Mainstreaming

Post Reply New Topic

Let me start by professing my ignorance. I am not an educator, and my two autistic children were way too high functioning (Asperger's type) to be put in a special school or special ed curriculum.

My impression from reading the WP forums is that many autistic people who were identified early as autistic and given special ed programming, graduate from high school with very scant readiness for independent living. Those who go on to college seem to be dropping out without a degree, admitting that there are areas where they were badly prepared or that the social and self-regulatory challenges of college are far different than what they were expecting.

So I'm soliciting input from people who completed secondary school as to what worked well and badly in their own preparation for life. Specifically, can you mention (1) which type of schooling you received, (2) how you have done since completing secondary school (e.g. high school) and (3) in retrospect, how should you have been prepared better. Also can you state what year you completed secondary school, or to an approximation if you wish to be more private. My hypothesis is that education of people with autism has undergone theoretical shifts over time.

Optional, mention your diagnoses, but I think this might be the least relevant part of my inquiry. Thanks for sharing the information.

I wasn’t diagnosed with autism until I was 21, but I still had a 504 plan in school up until ninth grade because my issues with organization, processing speed, eating and finding my way between classes were so bad as to be very obvious to my parents and teachers (they blamed it on my premature birth.) I was mainstreamed with supports, but I wish I’d been in at least one special ed- type class that taught life and work skills because I graduated high school in 2011, have a bachelors degree in psychology, but I still can’t figure out how to keep my apartment clean or when and what to feed myself, and I can’t hold a job because my work skills are so lacking.

Well, that was an interesting contribution. I think that if you are pushed into the college prep curriculum, the expectation is that you're "smart enough" to figure out most of those life skills on your own ... WRONG! I think a lot of people have trouble with them, lots of folks without any neurodiversity stuff going on. Young people often seem to have little understanding of how to budget or pay bills, deal with rental issues, or maintain a healthy diet. That's not even including how to get and keep a job.

Anybody else?

With the exception of the first semester of the 8th grade I had always been in special ed. I decided to try mainstreaming in the 8th grade but I wasn't able to keep up with the pace and curriculum.

Right now I am taking a gap year between high school and college.

I think I have been prepared alright. That was part of school especially towards senior year. Being taught life skills in achieving independence or being as independent as possible.

You EzraS seem very balanced and mature for your age. I think you also had exceptional parents.

I was only diagnosed with a language disorder when I was a toddler and had autistic behavior so that put me in special classes and put me in mainstream on the IEP. Then in 6th grade I was diagnosed with Asperger's and I still had my IEP and I got extra help with my school work, I was being prepared for employment in high school than for education like for college like what I am going to do with myself for college.

I was too busy getting prepared to be an adult and be independent I didn't really focus on my skills and what I could do for a living.

Out of curiosity BeaArthur, did either of your kids have an IEP or 504 at school? What are they doing now?

Thanks. My parents fortunately made themselves part of the system by learning much about autism care.

My official diagnosis is asperger's syndrome (but I speak about autism since that's easier for people to understand and these days they're considered to be pretty much the same around here) and I got it at the age of 9. The doctors already started suspecting it earlier, though.

As for education, I was in normal school before junior high, but I had some... what's the word... alleviations when it came to some subjects, like the fact that I didn't always get as much math homework as others or that I got private lessons for English.
When junior high started, I went to a special ed school. I did okay, top of my class in about half the subjects, but that doesn't really say much considering the level of the class as a whole.
I didn't go to high school, no one from that school ever had. Then again, that's very common in Finland. The amount of people who go and who don't is about 60-40 here if I remember correctly, but I don't remember if it was that 60 percent go to high school or that 60 percent don't go... anyway, I went to study business in to a completely normal school, but again with some alleviations. Not much though; I just got extra help with Swedish classes and got the notes of some classes from the teachers since I tended to be too slow to write everything down before they were already being erased. I graduated after three years, just like I was supposed to, along with most of my classmates (few failed to graduate.) And that's it. I've been working (and been unemployed) since then without being able to educate myself further (aside from some language classes), but am going through the options at the moment, trying to find a way to educate myself more without having to take a loan.

No... we did have a conference with the high school and they concluded my son had a few problems but did not meet the level they considered a disability, so we could go take a hike. I did not appeal the decision because my son was very uncomfortable with the whole business. He went to college, dropped out, worked 2 or 3 years, went back, got a law degree, and now works in IT management. My daughter went to college for six years, never got a degree, and has been unable to hold a job for any length of time and is on disability. She has a lot of trouble functioning, but she also has an acquired head injury history which does not help much with the autism. In short, both were college prep curriculum, no accommodations, and one has succeeded much better than the other. Both tested very high on standardized tests. Both could have used a little more "life preparation" in high school, such as classes in diet, organizational skills, money management, etc.

I am ancient, long before they started giving Asperger diagnosis. So I went through normal elementary, high school and college classes. The only exception was that I attended 2 years (3 & 4th grade) special classes of one hour per day for speech therapy (where we recited tongue twisters) and 1 class during my freshman year of high school for reading therapy (which was very much like a speed reading class). I suspect this minimal special training was successful in remediating my deficiencies with speech and reading comprehension.

As far as college was concerned, when I was young I began to work. I began cutting grass and shoveling snow to earn extra pocket money. In high school, I worked after school. I worked my way through college. I worked full time during summers and part time (20 hours per week) during the school term. So my college was funded by one small scholarship, a few student loans but mostly by the money that I earned while going to school. This provided me with a positive work ethic and also helped with transitioning to a career after graduating from college.

In my two children, I emphasized working. This began around the time they reached 13. (This was either volunteer work or part time employment.) It was interesting that before my youngest daughter even graduated from high school, she was working in a medium size department store, they offered to make her a manager of the store. She went onto college and is now a medical doctor.

In preschool I think I was completely in special ed. I believe in a special school. In elementary school K-8 I was in something that would now be called an ICT class . In ninth grade I was moved up to resource but then taken out to a special-needs school later on after home instruction .

I graduated high school in 2016 . I’m now in between high school and college.


I don’t know sometimes I think if I was a mainstream.. more like resource more in high school it would be better off but I’m not entirely sure...

I’ve been recently diagnosed with an intellectual Disability a language disorder and other things as well as my autism .

However I did end up graduating with A Regents diploma which is very good .

I worked hard and even though I had a lot of accommodations it wasn’t easy.

Now I am trying to find a special-needs program for college I have a tour with a special-needs program for college now on the seventh . It is called impactu at concordia College

https://www.concordia-ny.edu/admission/impactu

I was in regular classes in elementary school but in Junior high and high school I was placed in special education during part of the day due to my behavior issues. Didn't really help me, all I did in the special education class was complete homework from the other classes I was in... And in high school I had a bizarre combo of special education and honors courses. I went on to going to getting a bachelor's in zoology from Michigan State University with no difficulties.

I went to a special "brain-injured nursery school"----for my Kindergarten. I didn't go to "nursery school."

I was in a special class with kids with all sorts of disabilities in a public school for first grade.

From the equivalent of 2nd through 5th grade (there were no grades), I was in a special school for kids with all sorts of disabilities. I was put in the academically-oriented track. The discipline was the same as that which occurs in a regular class. The curriculum seemed similar to whatever equivalent "grade level" I was in. I was learning long division in the equivalent of "4th grade," for example.

From 6th through 8th grade, I went to a regular elementary/junior high school. In regular classes. I almost got kicked out.

From 9th through 12th, I was in a special high school for "gifted underachievers," from which I graduated.

IEP's didn't start until I was about in junior high. I wasn't given one then. I was thought of as being a "discipline problem," primarily.

I was sent to the guidance counselor often. Then the "resoure room," in junior high.

Ah school the saga of urrrghhhech

I graduated Highschool in 2005. For my highschool years my diagnosis was Depression, sensory integration deficit, delayed sleep syndrome, and congenital nystagmus. No one would give me Aspergers diagnosis until several years after high.

I was homeschooled for 8th and 9th(freshman year). When I was to go back to regular schooling they did all the testing rigamaroll to find out where I was at. I had to do some one one review work and were going to try to slowly integrate me to the mainstream. It was set up that I would have some accommodations once attending classes, but when I went to my first one I had, what I now know was an anxiety attack and couldn't go back.

I ended up being sent down to their Alternative school. It had various aspects of SPED (20-25 students, 4 teachers, no homework, extra allowed time for tests, had us run errands, and half days etc.) but it wasn't considered apart of SPED. It was kind of a last place to send students to keep them in school.

I graduated and was happy that I NEVER had to go to school again. Ultimately high wasn't as bad was the earlier years but I was so utterly done with all of it. My mother ran into one of the teachers a few years after I graduated, she asked how I was doing. After my mother told her she said "I guess we didn't do enough to transition her". My mother wanted to punch her lol all my mother had done was try to get them to do more for transitioning. So that's basically how I'm still doing. I'm at home, don't go out much.

They had touched on some things like check booking, job interviews and basic budgeting. We were still pushed to go toward collage, they didn't really supply any other options. I'm not entirely sure what I could've used, but I'm pretty sure if they'd actually got to know my strengths and weaknesses they may have been able to drive me in some direction instead of them just being mad that I wasn't initiating anything.