wishingwell Report post Posted June 4, 2007 I hope I have put this in the right post? Dear name of teacher, We are the parent?s of (Name) _____________________ (year ______). Our child has been diagnosed with Asperger?s Syndrome, which is a neurobiological disorder on the autistic spectrum. (name)__________ may have difficulty using and understanding nonverbal behaviours and developing appropriate peer relationships, in part, because his interactions often lack spontaneous exchange. While he has keen interests and skills in certain subjects, he also may have a great deal of difficulty with organization. AS children may appear to lack in empathy, have difficulty with sensory issues and very often strongly rely on routine. You will learn that our child has many strengths. However, listed below are some issues that may become apparent to you as you work with (name)__________? Many of the behaviours you will see are NOT under his control and they are not a result of malice of willful misbehaviour. No doubt, you will learn strategies which will be helpful and we would appreciate you sharing them with _________. Generally speaking an adult speaking in a calm voice will reap many benefits. If you see or hear him behaving inappropriately please take the time, to explain to him how you would like him to handle the situation correctly in an understanding manner. _________ understands his AS and will readily listen to your advice, and his family value the wisdom you have to offer our son. In school on a daily basis he will require your help to improve his everyday academic and social skills. Paleontology, astronomy, and general knowledge are _________?s special interests. Encourage him to share his knowledge with his class, so his peers may recognize his strengths. Science, History and Art are at present his favorite subjects. Remember, _______ seems very mature at times, but still makes social mistakes which lead to teasing. When dividing up assignments, please ASSIGN teams rather than have the other children ?choose members?, because this increases the chances that __________ will be left out. ________- would benefit from being seated at the front of the class with all distractions behind him. When speaking to __________, say his name at the start of the sentence, to gain his attention (use this method even if you are having a one to one conversation). ________ has difficulty understanding a string of directions or too many words at one time. Speaking slower and in smaller phrases can help. He has difficulty making decisions and needs prompting and encouragement to relieve stress and anxiety in these situations. At times, it may take more than a few seconds for __________ to respond to questions. He needs to stop what he?s thinking, put that somewhere, formulate an answer and then respond. Please wait patiently for the answer and encourage others to do the same. Otherwise, he will have to start over again. Encourage him to give short answers, and explain that at a later date you would value hearing the full detailed explanation for his answer. At times, it looks as if he is not listening to you when really he is. Don?t assume that because he is not looking at you that he is not hearing you. Prompting and supervision will be needed to assist _________ with organizing his information and belongings for moving class and homework. He has some difficulty with fine motor skills tieing his shoelaces, tie and handwriting, _________ presents with some immaturities of hand function. Consideration should be given to methods for supplementing written work, i.e. photo-copied handouts where possible. Because he is visually orientated, his vision becomes over stimulated. Fluorescent lights appear to pulsate and distort what he is seeing. The tinted lenses have improved his reading, handwriting, co-ordination and balance. Children with Asperger?s find it difficult to read facial expression, and have a limited range of facial expressions themselves. ________ is unable to give a message with his eyes or use his hands to express himself. Asperger?s children do not tell lies they can be honest to a fault, and they never pass judgment on anyone. The biggest challenge for _________ is unstructured times (such as lunch, break and PE), please try to help and provide some guidance during these more difficult times. ________ will have difficulty organizing himself in class and organizing his belongings to move between classes and when going home. Please ensure all homework is correctly taken down in his homework book, and that all the relevant books are in his backpack. To ensure that unity between homework and schoolwork can continue. We will be happy to share with you whatever information that we find that may be helpful to you in helping _________ have a positive, productive experience in school. Please feel free to call us anytime at tele no. _____________. (hope this can be of help to anyone in this situation because it was very helpful to my son and all his new teachers) (I was also proud of myself, I wanted to be as informative as possible to help him have as smooth a transfer as possible.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bid Report post Posted June 4, 2007 (edited) Just one suggestion...if you organised your letter under bullet points I think the teachers would be able to see and understand everything even more easily?? Just a thought... Bid I tried to edit this after I posted, because when I re-read it, it sounded a bit bossy Sorry WW <'> , didn't mean it like that Hope it edits this time! Edited June 4, 2007 by bid Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wishingwell Report post Posted June 4, 2007 That's the wind out of my sail! Can I retract my letter to work on it? Help! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bard Report post Posted June 5, 2007 That's the wind out of my sail! Can I retract my letter to work on it? Help! I did something along the same lines for my son when he started Secondary, and mosy of the teachers found it helpful. Those that ignored it found that they were having major problems with B, those that read it found that they could adapt, modify, respond correctly and pre-empt many situations. Their smugness then encouraged the disbelievers to read my sheet! You made excellent points and suggestions, along with enough 'butter' to avoid irritating the teachers. I think that all bid was suggesting was a little re-arranging of the material rather than any changes. Large blocks of text can be off-putting to some. No retraction necessary! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bid Report post Posted June 5, 2007 Sorry, sorry WW...awful Aspie moment where it all came out wrong and then the stupid edit option wouldn't work until hours later I think your letter is excellent. Bard said what I meant much better!! Sorry!! Bid Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted June 5, 2007 Thats brilliant wishingwell - wish I'd thought of that when JP transferred. Wondering if its adaptable when he starts work or would that be too "interfering mother" of me? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lisa Report post Posted June 5, 2007 WW, you've put some really good points and a lot of thought and effort into this letter. You should be very proud. I'm going to use some of it if you don't mind and adapt it for my dd for primary. We found out yesterday that the LSA is leaving so she'll start year 6 in September with a new LSA and teacher. We know who the new LSA is going to be, she's done cover for my dd before and L really got on well with her (probably better than her current LSA, so fingers crossed). Lisa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deedee Report post Posted June 5, 2007 Hi WW I agree thats a really well put together letter,what a great idea! It says miles more to the staff than any SENCO file could I'll be pinching your idea too methinks as M has a new LSA in Sept so she'll need a few pointers...Thanks for posting it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wishingwell Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Thanks for the lovely replies, I hope u can use this too. Bid i know u didn't mean it in a bad way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
