What would public school do for an AS kid?

March 26, 2009

Hi,

My son was just diagnosed with Asperger's this morning, though we've been

expecting it for a while. We've known he has sensory issues for 3 years and

anxiety and a tic disorder (Zoloft has helped both of these amazingly well,

BTW). Anyway, what might we expect a public school to do, accommodate, etc. if

anything? He's very bright and he does well in school (1st grade) in terms of

academics, but we have the typical social issues that I'm sure most of you deal

with. His school has been helpful thus far in terms of small things that help

him -- letting him sit on the end of the cafeteria bench (so he doesn't get

" crushed " ), having the social worker check in with him when there's a sub. The

social worker also pulls him out of class and works with him. Privately he goes

to weekly play therapy. The psychologist who diagnosed him and also his

therapist say he needs pragmatic speech therapy and also apparently he has some

mild verbal processing issues. Anyway, what could I reasonably expect from a

school system? Will they do speech therapy for something that basically doesn't

effect the bottom line (the all-holy bubble tests?). I would love him, ideally,

to get the speech therapy at school, work regularly with the social worker

(maybe even with a small group to work on his social skills), and have some sort

of understand with the teachers and esp. the aides so that he doesn't get yelled

at (the aides) or in trouble (teachers) when he exhibits his less-than-stellar

but understandable (to me) behavior. It doesn't help or stop the situation, so

it really would be preferable for all involved for them to understand and take

the proper approach. We're in the District of Columbia, BTW, which is about as

dysfunctional as school systems get, but our school is small and we're happy

with the sped system (my daughter is sped and gets good services, but she's

developmentally delayed so it makes more sense to them to help her). Thanks for

any advice you have!

E.V. Downey

Recommended Posts