av16

Agree with all the above. They should be making reasonable adjustments and I would agree that they don't seem to know how children with ASD can be affected by noise. Does the school have support from and ASD specialists? Often there are advisory teachers who will come in and suggest adjustments; it sound like your son would benefit from such a visit and their advice.

I haven't been on this forum for a very long time but 9-10 years ago i was a very frequent visitor. I just wanted to give some hope to people that sometimes things do turn out better than you ever dared to hope. My son was diagnosed(finally) at the age of nearly 9 with AS, at primary and secondary school he was excluded frequently - at least once a year even in year 11, often for violence when he was younger. He spent most of his time in the learning support unit at secondary school and I spent hours talking to teachers to try and explain why he behaved the way he did. He did get 8 GCSEs which was a massive achievement for him. He moved to another school for sixth form (which has an Autism unit but he wasn't in it) and the change was amazing, over the last 2 years he hasn't been in trouble once, for AS levels he got good grades and today he has made it to get a place at uni. How he'll get on is another challenge but the success he's had has given him more confidence. I am so proud as after the first half term at secondary school we thought he would have to leave. I didn't give up when he was having difficulties and it's been hard work for the whole family. Today has been a day I never dreamed would actually happen so the message is never give up, keep pushing for your child, guide them and they will surprise you.

Yes I really believe this. I've had a few children with ASD pass through my schools and seen such progression - it can happen. Thank you for your wishes - I am so proud of what he has achieved. He is going on to a new school to do A levels so lots of new challenges but I'm sure that the success he's had will encourage him. (I have to pinch myself to believe that I've written the last sentence!)

I haven't posted on here for quite a while but I wanted to share some good news as I remember when my DS was younger, reading about others successes gave me a bit of hope. My DS wasn't diagnosed with ASD until he was nearly 9 but it was very clear he was different from almost day 1. He had tremendous melt downs and at school would often not comply with instructions, he was given two short term exclusions before diagnosis but when we knew what made him different we set out to find out more (this forum was incredibly helpful). He was statemented by the start of year 5 and things calmed down gradually - at least in school and year 6 was a relatively good experience for him. He started secondary school full of hope for a new fresh start - this lasted until the first half term by which time he was a nervous wreck, hiding for hours at a time in the toilets, shouting at teachers, by Christmas he was in an internal exclusion unit full-time. He was excluded for fighting (the same pupil) twice during the following January, when he was 'allowed' back in the main school part time. I won't go on but as you can see he didn't have it easy, we were asked why we'd sent him there (by the DHT) but by then I was a teacher myself and I set about finding out as much as I could about ASD and education. I spent quite a large amount of time working with the school, challenging some of their actions, the comments of some teachers - not in a confrontational way but armed with background information of what has been shown to work and with information about my DS and what works well for him. At this time I also started to train to be a SENCO which gave me more confidence about how to work with the school. It was never easy as some of the teachers were not willing/able to change their teaching methods - he was excluded internally/externally at least once every year. The reason for this post though is to celebrate his success - he has passed 8GCSEs, in one subject he got a grade B despite not being taught by the teacher in class for at least the last year! He made some good friends who have accepted him for who he is and also built some good relationships with adults-those teachers who have taken the time and effort to get to know him and understand how to get the best out of him. I am so proud of him I honestly would not have believed that he would have been able to do this - even a couple of years ago. My message is to never give up - with getting the best support from school, reminding daily of what is expected of your child and encouraging them to keep going. Use this marvellous forum and the support you get from others to be confident in getting the right provision for your child and keep encouraging them to be the best that they can be.

I'm a SENCo at a large primary school (plus mother of DS who has Aspergers and is nearly 16). We have 9 children at my school with ASD and they all have statements. We are well supported by the outreach service from the local ASD school and I call them in when any of the children has difficulties so it's worth checking to see whether there is a similar service in your area. What I would say in my experience is that until a child with ASD feels safe and comfortable in school then their behaviour will be difficult. It helps if the school work with the parents to work out exactly what is causing the behaviour and then try to address it. For example one child has behaved badly, attacking adults, throwing resources around etc and we worked out that he finds writing extremely difficult - the physical process plus phonics doesn't make sense to him so we tried to find other ways he could record his work and focused more on 'whole' words rather then breaking words up into sounds. After a couple of weeks with the pressure to 'perform' removed and very clear boundaries he really calmed down and became much happier. Also I insisted that when he did break the rules he was spoken to very calmly, the facts presented to him and he was asked what he could have done - definitely no raised voices or heightened emotions displayed. It would be worth talking to the Head and SENCo and asking them to try a different approach - finding out the triggers for the behaviour etc. Good luck!

Just wanted to say well done for your perseverence I hope that your son appreciates your efforts one day - if not now! :clap: I hope things go well for you both

My son (14 with AS) hates to see this sort of thing in the paper as he thinks everyone will think he's the same. None of these stories help people with autism, they're so tokenistic.

I found this very interesting! A few years back my DS who has AS was often in trouble for mimicking teachers, it got worse when he went to secondary school! He didn't like any teacher with an accent and in an inner city school nearly every teacher had an accent - Australian/Scottish/New Zealand/African just to name a few. He was accused of racism which was really unfortunate and not true; the support of a specialist outreach teacher helped him to stop doing it in class and also made the teachers aware that it was not done with the intention of upsetting them. He is still a very good mimick and often uses different accents, he has learnt that people can be offended and doesn't do it in inappropriate situations now. Thanks for your thoughts!

I agree - makes me very angry

I would hope they wouldn't 'diagnose' - not their role, but they should help to identify his needs and give practical ideas how teachers and other adults can help him with learning and behaviour. As Sally says they carry out assessments and get standardised scores so his results can be judged against other children of the same age. It should help to identify what he's good at and where he needs more help. Hope it goes well, their advice is usually really helpful and if their suggestions are put into place you should see some changes.

My DS really loved Keane so we all (him, mum,dad + 2 big sisters) went to see them at the 02 Dome.(he was about 11 at the time) It was very loud but he coped as he liked the music (I think that's why)and we had seats. He sat with his sisters who chatted to him which also helped to keep him calm and fortunately he really enjoyed it. I think a seat is a must. We've been to a couple of things since, he's been ok, again seated. I think it's a good idea to try it out, as long as you don't mind too much if you have to leave early. If you go I really hope you both enjoy it and have fun!

I remember my DS being completely amazed that people were crying on the last day of year 6 - he just didn't get it at all. Is this usual? He went to the disco ( no prom!)but wasn't particularly impressed. Hope it goes well if you can manage to get him there!

Hi, as a senco I can let you know what happens in my area - you are stuck with the EP allocated to the school. The HT can ask for another EP but it doesn't seem like this would happen for you? The EP report is important but as they will be looking at her needs if she doesn't respond well it could act in her favour? She may be considered to require more support? Sorry I'm not much help am I? Hopefully someone can be more help

Hello, I can't offer you much practical help I'm afraid as I'm the parent of a 14 yr old with AS- Asperger Syndrome. The National Autistic Society provide lots of information so you might find it helpful to look at their website. They have local bases so you may find one near to you and someone to help you make sense of all of this. Your local health service may provide some advice too - your GP may be able to help - I'm not sure about this so someone else on here may add some more useful advice. Just remember you're not alone, there's loads of people who use/have used this board and have found it to be really useful in a similar situation to yours. also my son still won't accept his diagnosis (6 yrs on) - it can be a massive thing to deal with and everyone deals with it differently. <'> You're very good at expressing how you feel in writing - this may be a way of letting people know how you really feel? Good luck!

At the school where I work we have a young girl with ASD who really struggles at break/lunch times so we started a Circle of Friends for her which has worked well also the TA who works with her has an early lunch and then runs different activities for her each day- things that she likes to do with a selection of other children, not the same ones each day. This is a reasonable adjustment and they should be able to do something similar for your son. We have some boys in yr 6 with statements for behaviour, they also do activities at lunchtime with a male TA such as football, basketball, cricket & street dance!These are the things they are interested in and other children are keen to join in with them. The TA is from an agency, I've found that they often seem to work in a more flexible way than-in-house' TAs. Think of some things your son would like to do and suggest something similar, see what they say... It can be done and it helps everyone so good luck