Hello! New to this forum,

[heather king]

Hi, I have just found this forum and hope that I can give out as much as I hope to get from this site, I have a 11 year old boy who I knew was ASD from about 6 months old, took 9 years for everyone else to get on the same page..lol.. Ben is in a EBD school which is not the best place but there is no where else he can be, there are 2 other boys in his class of 6 who are ASD and I have been thinking about starting a lunch club for them as its a bit hard for them, so any ideas are most welcome,

[Lyndalou]

Hi Heather and welcome to the forum.

 

I hope you enjoy coming onto the site and that it is helpful for you. You must have had a real fight on your hands all those years trying to get your son diagnosed. It must be a relief to finally 'get there'!

 

Are you thinking about a lunch club at school or outside of school? Do you know the other parents and what do they think about your plans? I'm sure that there are lots of ideas that could come out of discussion with them. There will also be funds you could access if you had overheads you needed to cover, I'm sure. I'll have a think and get back to you. my children are needing their bath!

 

Lynda

[heather king]

We are good friends with one of the mums and we have talked about it, I was hopeing to use the school as its a safe place if there are any runners..lol look forward to hearing your ideas,

[JeanneA]

Hi Heather and a big welcome from me :-0 I think a lunch club is an excellent idea and if you can hold it on the school site then that would be ideal. If this isn't possible how about a after school club held in the home, perhaps you are your friends could take it in turns? Just a thought.

[GRP1919]

Hello Heather!

 

I thank you for your new topic and cordially welcome you to this forum.

 

You share a very interesting story about your 11-year-old son and, as a matter of fact, it does sound quite familiar to me.

 

I have Asperger's Syndrome (AS), am now approaching 29 (b. 1984) and my parents first suspected that there was something different about my mind when I was 4 at the most. When I was 6, a psychologist suspected I had AS, but never told anybody until it was a bit late. I was diagnosed at about 7½ after a formal assessment by a clinical psychiatrist. My parents then informed the same psychologist of my official diagnosis and it was only then when she revealed what she did suspect when she last assessed me. This did cause my parents some annoyance at first.

 

When I was about 9, I was transferred to a boarding school that was mainly for emotionally-disturbed children and youths. We just thought from the other information we obtained that it was a good opportunity for additional support for me, which was then too difficult in a mainstream school. The boarding school had qualified speech and language therapists you could never have then expected in a mainstream school. It is only with hindsight that we know that my 7½ years at that school created more problems than it solved. Generally speaking, I was growing up with the wrong people in the wrong environments. It is just most unfortunate that when I was transferred to this school, we had very little (if any) choice and did not anticipate the heart-breaking impact it had on me over the long term. In hindsight, I just misjudged that school very badly. This was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Nevertheless, I hope your son and his autistic fellows never go through what I have been through (on the negative side). I just hope for everybody's sake that, over the long term, they each live a truly enjoyable and desirable life. I am sure beyond all reasonable doubt that they have better opportunities for personal and social development than I will have had as a child and youth. I have high hopes for them and everybody else concerned and am determined to back you all every single step of the way. Whenever you need anything like moral support, you know where to contact me.

 

Kind Regards

Gareth

Edited February 19, 2013 by Lyndalou

[heather king]

Where we live there is no school for high function ASD so from next year a new unit with Ben and 3 others being the 1st in take so hopefully we will get to help make something really good for our great kids,

 

Gareth I am so sorry you did not have a great time with school and I know where you are coming from I went all though my school year with undiagnosed dyslexia ( no I did not spell that, hubby is my walking dictionary..lol ) so I left school as soon as I could with very little to show for it, in time I may just ask you about what you would say you should of had and things you think could help the boys to get the most out of school as they can,

[trekster]

Welcome to the forum and wishing you well with your lunch club.

[Lyndalou]

Hi Heather

 

Just have a few thoughts... Don't know much about what EBD schools provide but I'm assuming that there are rooms for chilling out in...music rooms or sensory rooms/snoezelens, outside and indoor play areas etc? I'm still not entirely sure if you are thinking about a lunch club throughout the school day or on weekends and the reason I'm making a differentiation is that I know that at my son's school, a lot of emphasis is placed on mealtimes and the social aspect as well as encouraging the kids to try different foods if there are sensory issues so I don't know if you would be able to have a club during this time at your son's school?

 

There is a local school near me where a weekend club meets for kids with Special Needs overseen by the Social Work department. They have the use of certain rooms including a sensory room used by the school special unit and have access to outdoor areas on nicer days. My son has just been referred to this. I wonder if you could negotiate something similar with the school or get the Social Work department in your area involved? There would possibly be the question of liability so I'd imagine there would have to be some kind of contract for use of equipment etc if you were meeting outside school hours....not quite sure how this type of thing works, sorry!

 

I have also quite recently been involved in an activities group locally. We have used various venues for various activities so we have conformed to the rules laid down by each individual venue. Our central activity was a free gym play activity (exclusive) which was held within a large room with padded cushions on the floor and various gym equipment including balance beams, assymetric bars, trampolines and springboards. It meant that the children could spread out and do their own thing or come together to play as they wanted. Bowling was also something we have done which the kids enjoyed although the noise was an issue. We had to ask for the music to be turned off for instance - my son really struggled with this. Again, it's an activity which they can do side by side as opposed to having to play 'together' as such. I negotiated craft sessions with a local ceramics workshop and discussed the needs of the kids and what we wanted to achieve at length. 'Closed' sessions were decided on so there was no disruption and the kids could be given the chance to focus for as long as they were able with instruction given by the owner. She had equipment that would be suitable for children with dyspraxic issues etc. Swimming is also an activity that was decided upon (again a closed session). My son's school has a pool attached so perhaps your son's does too? However, I would think you'd need qualified lifeguards on duty so possibly it wouldn't be a practical suggestion.

 

Various people can be approached for money. If you were needing funding to do trips out in a minibus to a park or the seaside you might be able to ask Rotary clubs or Round tables for money. We got some money donated to us from a local Playgroup even. There are also various charitable funds which you can apply to for specific reasons so you might want to go down this route too?

 

Lynda

Edited February 20, 2013 by Lyndalou

[Lyndalou]

Other thoughts...

 

There's a group which meets that is for children more of your son's age group on a weeknight in our nearest city. They meet in a Secondary school so have access to a large sports hall and they have a sports coach who comes along and teaches a bit of basketball and other ball games. I think they might get local authority funding for rental costs and to pay the sports coach.

 

I looked into my son possibly going to a gymnastics class. He is only 5 and he has a lot of problems following instruction so it's not for him meantime but the gymnastics coach told me he had some boys with ASD who attended his school who were a bit older. I have also considered trampolining.

 

I also looked into the possibility of group music therapy/music lessons. There was no-one locally who provided music therapy (that I could find) but I was put in touch with a music teacher with a number of years of experience who currently comes in independently to teach a couple of pupils at my son's school (again older kids). My son now does individual lessons with her and she is great with him and very patient. She really mixes it up with him him to try to keep his interest and has done things like move the reading light off the piano which was distracting and upsetting him and understands when he has to 'plink' the top key after everything he does! Perhaps there is a similar person youu could access to do music with the kids?