Post 16 provision blues

[call me jaded]

Arrrggghhh.

 

Four weeks in to his post-16 provision (same school, new campus) I've learned today that DS has been deemed most suitable for the practical drama course. This is so far away from his natural leanings that it couldn't be any more inappropriate if they'd tried. He has rarely taken part in any kind of performing art and has huge sensory issues about entering any kind of hall or open space. Just what will be achieved is beyond me. When they told me they would spend the next three years building his life skills and finding a curriculum that would be tailored to him and his needs, I believed them.

 

Beating myself up that I didn't see this coming. With hindsight I should have seen it coming. Just when I thought I had three years to give some time to my other children... Does it never end?

[Kathryn]

Oh dear. What will you do now? Leave them to figure it out for themselves or step in and sort it out?

 

Does it ever end? Not from where I'm standing it doesn't. (We're having post 16 provision blues of a different kind. )

 

<'>

 

K x

Edited October 1, 2010 by Kathryn

[call me jaded]

What's being offered is no more than glorified child-minding. I can't face the thought of him sitting outside a drama studio for three years at enormous expense to the tax-payer. I've asked for a meeting 'to find out more about the curriculum'. I'm beginning to feel we're freaks as even an autism-specific special school is struggling. Where do we go from here?

[Sally44]

It's awful when stuff like this happens.

 

You just feel you've done it, reached the goal, can take a step back, do something different, spend time with the family etc - and then something happens and bites you on the bum again.

 

You know what you are doing, but this will have knocked your confidence in the school and I think it would be helpful if you could actually say that to them without them taking offence.

 

I think you need to talk it through with them so that they can explain what makes them think that drama is something your son would want to do or be good at? And tell them why you think it is inappropriate.

 

Is there any possibility that he might be able to access it and join in? Is this 'drama' a 'new idea' - there have been alot of 'autistic x factor' type TV programmes this year.

 

I have heard of other kids doing drama and enjoying it. I have not ruled it out for my son as he spends alot of his time repeating things learnt. He is often chosen as the 'narrator' in school because he can repeat it back verbatim. Whether he would be able to 'adapt' and play a role, I don't know.

 

Will you let them have a go, or do you think it will cause too many problems.

[call me jaded]

Thanks Sally, I have definitely been bitten. It's all in my first post - he has had lots of opportunities to do drama, including some trials I organised myself. The greatest barrier is getting him into the room - they aren't going to be able to do it and if they'd only spoken to the other site they would have told them. It's like starting all over again.

[Sally44]

I too have a 'similar' feeling about my sons current school, which is experienced in teaching children with an ASD.

 

When I visited and looked around they said all the right things. Then in the day to day practicalities they do things that are so difficult for children with an ASD that it makes me wonder.

 

For example they changed how dinnertime was arranged. Instead of the child going into the hall and seeing what the food was and chosing it then, they decided to print off 'menu' sheets and the child has to chose in the morning. This menu is without pictures. My son struggles to chose if he cannot see what he is going to get. Even the class teacher admitted she expected to have huge problems with this. Yet they did it. My son has now been moved to sandwiches because he would order a certain food and then not eat it when it arrived because it wasn't what he had expected!

 

The other bizarre thing is that they have really loud hand dryers in the toilets. My son falls to the floor when they come on. He was refusing to use the toilet because whilst in there another child might use the hand dryers. So they had to arrange for him to use a small single toilet.

 

And don't get me onto 'how' they are trying to teach him. He has obvious different ways of learning that are known to be common with a certain type of ASD group. Yet they just will not deviate from what they are doing. His learning is not individualised or child centred. It is what all the children (mainstsream) have to do.

 

I think you need to talk to his current school and get an explanation of what they are doing and whether they have spoken to his previous placement.

 

Our children are so very different. It takes a long time to get to know them. You would have thought that any new placement would be keen to be given a good profile from a previous placement to save them alot of time, effort and upset.

[lizj]

Call me Jaded, you have my sympathies. I too am wondering if it ever ends. My son is now in the nightmare of 19+ provision, at which stage we have to pay tuition fees for him to not receive the teaching and support we were promised. £700 for him to sit on his own and stare out of the window for a year!

I dread to think what it is going to be like when he eventually leaves education and we enter the great world of (un)employment and work training.

All we can do is keep on kicking up a fuss and doing the best we can do for them.

[call me jaded]

Well my very calm email has prompted them to call a meeting with the EP and numerous others. Hope we can get this sorted.

[Kathryn]

Hope so - glad to hear they're taking it seriously.

 

Fingers crossed.

 

K x

[Mandapanda]

Hi

 

I have a friend (yes really!) and her son (dx Aspergers) did drama at secondary school - he chose to do it. He had no end of problems with the whole situation and ended up getting excluded for throwing chairs. The other kids and the whole situation were winding him up and he couldn't express it. The teacher wasn't realising what was happening and pre-empting the problem. My son was encouraged to choose drama as they felt it would improve his communication skills, interpersonal relationships, and confidence. I'm glad he didn't choose it! For some drama is too 'loose', it doesn't have a start middle end, there are no right/wrong answers, they have to improvise, people have to put on different (strange) voices and facial expressions etc.

 

No doubt they mean well as our school did, and sometimes our children do surprise us by embracing things we wouldn't expect them to, but I think having a meeting and discussing your reservations is an essential step.

 

You don't mention what he thinks about it (not sure how verbal your son is)?

[Suze]

Good luck with that meeting Jaded <'> ><

[call me jaded]

He's not verbal at all and it's a special school, so the options are going to be very limited. They seem very willing to address this, so here's hoping.

[call me jaded]

Update!

 

Practical drama in DS's case is all about turn-taking and social interaction - a social skills programme by another name. No expectation of performance whatsoever. Phew!

 

He is now entering the classroom. Not taking part in anything, but becoming part of the group. They have actually changed the lighting in the room to get him in there and are doing more over half term to make it accessible.

 

Apparently they had a 'challenging behaviour week' last week with most of the students, lol. DS came through fairly unfazed.

 

Looks like we're through the teething troubles.

[bid]

Good to hear Jaded

 

Bid

[Kathryn]

Glad there was a simple explanation and that it's going OK so far.

 

K x

[call me jaded]

I think I found it so alarming because when I said I wasn't sure about it they said they weren't either! But I went in and we spoke mostly about the room, which seems to have been his major stumbling block.

[Mandapanda]

How fantastic that they are willing to try things and to listen to what his problems are and make some changes!

 

Well done!