May

17

Recent Adventures in Autism

Posted by Little Miss Know it All

May 17, 2007 |

Around here, every day is an adventure.  Because our oldest son has Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, we never know what each day holds before us.  Will it be a good day–meaning, will we have no meltdowns and only a few “fusses?”  Or will it be a bad day–one in which he whines all day, gets in trouble at school, has meltdowns and absolutely nothing is right?

 These past few weeks, we’ve had more good days than bad, and I’d attribute that to a few new therapies we are trying.  First, we have started Occupational Therapy again, to deal with poor eating habits.  His amazing OT at A Step Ahead PT has been working with him to try new foods, foods that you and I would consider commonplace but that Dylan would never consider trying because they were “new.”  Foods like hot dogs, carrots, chips and salsa,  or spaghetti.  Our most recent celebration was over eating green beans.  Considering that the boy’s favorite vegetable was a french fry, tasting a green bean is cause for genuine elation!  We’ve also been adding Omega 3 laden fish oil to his daily lunch drink, to boost needed fatty acids that his body lacks.  Since starting that at spring break, we have seen a maturity, a calmness develop that is almost too good to be true.  For any moms considering it, we can highly recommend it.  We use a lemon flavored oil, and our son, who has a highly attunded taste palate, cannot taste it.  We hid it at first from him, but after a few weeks we let him in on the secret test, and now he asks for it, because he likes the calm feeling.

But the real battle these past few weeks, is that we’ve had a roiling debate with his school on repeating the first grade.  I’ve had a suspicion for a few months now that his teacher may not believe that he really has Asperger’s.  I know she thinks he manipulates her to get away with things.  And he does, to some small extent.  Dylan is extremely bright and knows very well how to get what he wants.  His teacher is a good teacher, make no mistake.  But I have had a nagging suspicious for about six months that maybe she and my son aren’t such a great fit.  The confirmation came two weeks ago when she approached us to suggest that he repeat first grade.

To us, we were fully willing to consider this, on social grounds alone.  Dylan is immature for his age, that’s a classic mark of Asperger’s.  But academically, we thought he was doing very well.  When he brought homework home, he sailed through it.  All of his spelling tests and classwork indicated he usually got 90% or higher correct.  That wasn’t his teacher’s argument.  Her argument was that Dylan would not work independently, he required someone to sit with him and keep him on task.  He required frequent redirection to the task at hand.

Well, DUH!  To anyone who knows Asperger’s, this is hallmark number one.  We’ve been talking to his school about this for three years, since he entered their preschool program.  His number one priority on his IEP was to “attend to the function at hand 4 out of 5 times” for the past three years.  His teacher has had plenty of warning on this issue.  We even discussed at the beginning of the year if he needed an aide to keep him on task.  We decided he didn’t, but only because there were going to be classroom aides this year who could help him.  Last week we found out he dominated the aides’ time all year.  The discussion we had with her simply confirmed my suspicion–despite all her assurances, she just didn’t “get” Asperger’s or Dylan.  I know she’s a good teacher and has done as well with him as she can.  Asperger’s is a diverse, confusing web, with each child a unique case.  But in the end, she just didn’t get it.

Obviously, we aren’t holding him back a year.  Retention, they call it in education-speak.  As I was researching the issue, I found case study after case study that cited what a horrible idea this was.  Not just for special needs or autistic children, but for ALL children.  I was shocked to see the level of research, the amount of published studies, and the level of the organizations who have jumped on the bandwagon.  The National Association of School Psychologists, the American Federation of Teachers, even the US Department of Education say its one of the worst things we can do to kids.

Children who are retained in primary years are two to eleven times more likely to drop out of school.  They tend to do as poorly the second time around as the first.  They are more likely to develop behavioral problems.  They may even make a slight gain, but by two years later, they are failing again.  A national study of sixth graders rated being retained as more painful than the divorce of their parents! 

All of the studies also said the same thing:  that schools who retain children have failed the child, especially in the primary grades.  They should have intervened earlier with tutoring, social intervention, testing for disabilities or other interventions.  The studies actually showed that the expense of these interventions was much less than the cost of an extra year of educating the child.  We have been very blessed, as our public school is excellent at providing what Dylan needs.  This misunderstanding aside, they have been very agressive in treating Dylan, almost throwing possible treatments at us when we bring issues up.  Hearing the stories of most moms of autistic children whose IEP meetings consists of threats and tears, we are very blessed.

So now that adventure down, I wonder what will be next?  Oh yes, a whole summer without daily sensory therapy from school.  Better get out my swing and bouncy balls!  ;)


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Amy Greene on May 17, 2007 3:50 pm

    Wow! I have a 14 year old daughter who was diagnosed last summer with Aspergers. She had all the symtoms and wish we had known sooner. With my daughter’s blessing we held her back this year to repeat the 8th grade (we happened to be switching schools too). She is extremely bright but the social gap became so wide the middle school years that she had almost daily meltdowns from her social issues at school. She basically failed school and that was the trigger that got her diagnosed. She is much happier in her new school and is feeling very confident with her academic abilities. Best of luck to you! It’s a challenge everyday.

  2. Amy Greene on May 17, 2007 3:51 pm

    Type your comment here.

  3. Melanie on May 20, 2007 7:47 pm

    If your child has his own aide in the classroom, is this something you provide, or the school? I have a special needs son on an IEP, but he is only 3 and attending preschool. I worry what will happen to him once he reaches kindergarten and looses the great teacher to child ratio he has now.

  4. Little Miss Know it All on May 21, 2007 11:33 am

    Right now they are classroom aides–a special ed co-ordinator who works with three kids in the class, and a first grade teacher’s assistant who is technically there for the whole class, but we’re finding out both aides have been spending the bulk of their time with Dylan. They’ve indicated that next year they will place a full time aide in his class. It is paid for by the school, but only because he needs the redirection necessary to stay on task to succeed academically.

  5. April Showers. :: Just Write on April 16, 2008 9:02 am

    […] fact is problems like autism, child abuse and animal cruelty go on every day of the year.There’s nothing wrong with […]

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