rickT

Hi Thank you for the links and the comments. They are very much appreciated and I will follow up on them. Regards Rick T

Hi First of all, thanks for a great forum, I posted some questions on behalf of my son who is autistic and received some very valuable help. The reason I'm posting this is because, for some time, since reading up on ASD I have felt that I have Aspergers. The material I read up on about ASD, Aspergers in particular, seemed to be refering to myself more than any other family member. To get to the point...Is there a forum or area that I can communicate with other adults who have been through a similar process? Regards, Rick T Australia

Hi again and thanks for all your help, We have do not have preferred location in the UK. Wherever we have a chance of improving his development best that?s where we would like to re-locate. We were thinking of Kent or Cornwall. Here, in Queensland we have an SEU (special education unit) attached to a mainstream school. My son gets to visit a specialist once every six months (usually not the same one). My son's school refused a visit from Autism Queensland when we requested it. AQ were going to assess his classroom environment and provide any obligation free advice to the teacher and the school in general, all for free. We also have a constant fight to get assistance for him. Level 6 is the highest level of help you can receive from SEU and this is level is suggested by the school to a separate board who then decide the child?s final level. The maximum amount of one on one time in the classroom for a child at the highest level is two and a half-hours a week. Haydn also has an IEP (independent education program). This is a program that is put together for Haydn's personal education needs and this is run in conjunction with his main stream schooling. He also spends sometime in the SEU building, out of class but how much of the time we can't determine. We are finding that the need for parents to know what is happening at the school is not taken as a priority. Thanks for the link to www.info.autism.org.uk/Pages/Index.aspx an excellent source of information. Thank you Annie, we have PM'd you and would very much like to ask you some questions. Regards, Rick T

Hi from Australia, My wife and I are English and have an 8 year old child diagnosed with level 6 ASD. We are planning to return to the UK within the year and are seeking information about the UK system of help for ASD children in education. My son has, so far, coped with school and has achieved good results but at the same time suffered from high levels of stress from a seemingly lack of understanding about his problem from his teacher and headmaster. Having moved up a grade his is now expected to work more independently but, because of his condition, he is rapidly falling behind. He is allocated two and half-hours of one on one help a week. With his severe difficulty in concentrating it seems he is likely to fall further and further behind. These may seem like silly questions but can anyone recommend a LEA, as we are flexible in where we live, or a school in particular? How much one on one time in general can a child with ASD receive? Would the Australian classification be recognised in anyway within the UK? Regards, Rick T