Anyone Got a Child with ASD in Secondary School?

RSmith on 14/03/2023 - 20:42
Last edited 15/03/2023 - 11:53 by 1 other user

Just wanted to reach out to fellow OzBargainers (possibly via PM), if you have a child with ASD attending secondary school or work in a disability sector.

My child has limited vocabulary and struggles to explain / defend himself verbally and as a result, any incident at school, he is deemed to be at fault as he can't explain the sequence of events or circumstances leading up to it. He attends a mainstream school as his IQ is not low enough to attend special school, but it is also not high enough to be a neuro-typical child.

I am not sure how he will be able to continue schooling in such circumstances. Currently, he goes to speech therapy once a week.

PS: Mods please remove if not suitable thread.

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  AustriaBargain on 14/03/2023 - 20:59

  +4

  Be careful when researching private schools that say on their website they cater to special needs students or are inclusive and all that. Doesn't cost anything to say those things. If there is trouble at his school then I would consider changing schools though. If he's rubbed the principal or his teacher up the wrong way then things can get ugly. When egos are involved there's no telling where things can go. People complain about brown nosing in Australia, but it can get you far in some circumstances, like when the opinion or your teacher and principal can control your whole life.

  He has had an intelligence test you say, I'm guessing a WISC, and it showed no marked deficit in any specific subtest?

  • 

    RSmith on 14/03/2023 - 21:39

    His VCI is extremely low and WMI is very low.

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      Gunnar on 15/03/2023 - 08:49

      +1

      Oh man. Your poor child :-( Without knowing the results of the rest of the sub tests if those two scores are low then they would typically struggle to verbal instructions (or any verbal situations), like the type typically given at school

      The school should be able to read the sub tests and then know how to better support them in a manner that is in line with their cognitive testing scores and communication needs.

      Assuming your child is funded for behaviour support you can get a practitioner to develop some skills on how they can be better supported but also develop their distress tolerance skills. I’m not going to lie though, the number of practitioners who can do this and know how to integrate the retails of a cognitive test are so few and far between it’s not funny.

      • 

        RSmith on 15/03/2023 - 09:21

        they would typically struggle to verbal instructions

        This is precisely the case.

        The school has been supplied with the test results but I don't really know how much they can help. His aide is available for 9 classes in a fortnight. I believe the school wants to help, but I don't think they really know how to.

        also develop their distress tolerance skills

        Will talk to psychologist and the speech therapist about it.

        • 

          Gunnar on 15/03/2023 - 09:33

          @RSmith: Does the school have a psych? They should be able to interpret the test results in a way that would benefit your son.

          I’m also assuming your son’s psych and speechie have expertise in disability? There are ways you can amend therapies specific to a person with cognitive deficits to develop distress tolerance skills (the what and how to are often blended with behaviour-based therapies but it needs to be done on an individual basis that is specific to you son’s needs).

          The aide sounds good, one other thing I would suggest when speaking to the psych and speechie is how they can use the aide to get data and information on how/what your son responds to in the school setting. This way you have some sort of data they can go off to design or fine tune any interventions they are doing for him

          • 

            RSmith on 16/03/2023 - 13:02

            @Gunnar: Unfortunately, the school doesn't have a psych. We have given them the contact details for our psych, so they will try to get in touch with him. Also, the school will organise another IQ assessment, as the last one was done almost 2 years ago (in 2021) and his score was 78. Before that, the one done in 2019, his score was 60.

            There are ways you can amend therapies specific to a person with cognitive deficits to develop distress tolerance skills

            We had a meeting with the school and we discussed ways to help him at the school. We will further talk to the psych and speech therapist. The speech therapist has already been in touch with the school and gave them some ideas. The school seemed happy to work on those.

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  jjjaar on 14/03/2023 - 21:02

  +2

  Sorry I don’t have any specific answers, but I know there are some really great and supportive Facebook groups that should be able to help you. I would recommend looking for groups specific to the state you live in.

  but it is also not high enough to be a neuro-typical child.

  While I understand that you were trying to explain your struggle of your son being almost stuck in the middle of both specialist schooling and mainstream schooling, neurotypicality ≠ a high IQ and neurodiversity ≠ a low IQ. (I know many NDs who have much higher IQs than NTs.)

  It does sound like the school he is currently at is not providing him with the best support. A teacher that understands ASD/ND would make such a difference. It might also be there are other schools nearby that are better with this. I have a friend who is a teacher and ND, and they have students who are also ND, and they are open about their lived experiences as it helps so many of them. Sometimes compassion, acceptance and understanding go such a long way. Is your son eligible for an aid in class, or any other support?

  Hopefully some of those Facebook groups can help provide some alternatives that will help him thrive.

  • 

    RSmith on 14/03/2023 - 21:47

    +1

    Is your son eligible for an aid in class, or any other support?

    He has an aide in the classroom - 9 classes every fortnight.

    A teacher that understands ASD/ND would make such a difference.

    Absolutely. Don't think that's the case currently. He gets overwhelmed by things and completely shuts himself. Even for me as a parent, it gets hard to get to bottom of things and piece together his version of events.

    • 

      jjjaar on 15/03/2023 - 08:27

      +1

      Being ND, I can relate to this. I definitely struggle to articulate things, especially during the aftermath of an incident. And I’m overwhelmed about 80% of the time…

      Happy to take this to PMs… have you tried to ask him how you can best support him, but asking him this when there’s no specific event that’s just happened?

      It might be that he finds it easier to write things down rather than verbally explain situations (I prefer email over phone calls for this same reason), or even mind map things out with circles and lines.

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  wekimekigugudan on 14/03/2023 - 21:24

  -2

  limited vocabulary and struggles to explain / defend himself verbally

  Sounds like me

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  AndyC1 on 14/03/2023 - 21:56

  Use your NDIS to:
  1) get speech therapy for communicating with other people, not speaking from a book. If you or your child do not like the speechie or it is not working move to a different speech therapy company.
  2) Find a place that offers "multisensory learning programs that can help your loved one improve their ability to learn" and get them to do the reading and pronouncing written words.

  This way you have the speechie doing the communication with other people and the other place doing the comprehension. You may see a little bit of improvement after a year, but it will take take 2 or 3 years to see some real progress.

  Expect the first 4 sessions will not produce anything worth while as your child will take a while to get to know the other person.

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  RobBoss on 14/03/2023 - 22:05

  +2

  I work as a special ed teacher in Sydney. My students are all on the spectrum. The setting is essentially a satellite school within a high school. These schools are something you might want to consider OP if you feel like your child will be left behind in the system. That said, some schools also have very good LST for children with learning needs.

  • 

    RSmith on 14/03/2023 - 22:25

    The setting is essentially a satellite school within a high school

    How do I go about finding such schools? I have contacted almost every school and special school in my area and haven't had much success.

    • 

      RobBoss on 15/03/2023 - 13:42

      My organisation is called Aspect, you could look it up. There are some other ones but you might have to do your own research on that OP

      • 

        RSmith on 16/03/2023 - 12:55

        Thanks, I did look it up but I don't think there is a something similar in Victoria. One option that has been suggested to us is home schooling, but I don't think it will work out for my son.

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      AndyC1 on 15/03/2023 - 21:37

      Speak with the school and they will know. The primary school should have let you know as they did for me and let me know the pit falls of them and the advantages of them.