Autism Classes and No Child Left Behind

A lot of the parents, raising children with Autism, struggle when discussing placement in the school system. Some of the families and the educational professionals believe that the ideal placement is and Autism class.

An Autism classroom is usually in an ordinary school. The idea being that your child has access to typical classrooms and typical activities. My experience is that most children in that type of class spend the majority if not all of their day inside that class. They do not really get to experience the things going on in the rest of the school.

This makes for some interesting situations. A lot of the parents of children with Autism in these classrooms find that their child is calmer and gets into less trouble. They also feel like their child is teased less. Those things may be true.

Unfortunately your child may be missing out on a lot of important and necessary things as well. The children spend a majority of time in a classroom with other students with Autism. There are more staff in those classrooms and sometimes other people in the school just see a child that is in that classroom as those teacher and aides responsibility.

I found that the more my daughters were around other students who had processing disorders, problems with self-stimulations, and difficulty communicating they had these difficulties more. I also have spoken with other parents who in hindsight have made the same observations.

Where it becomes more critical is when academic expectations are changed because a child is in that classroom. If a skill or concept is difficult to learn many times it will be left out of the teaching process.

An important example is No Child Left Behind and children with Autism. One of the important effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is that all children are being tested. After all we test and examine what is important to us as a society. That is a value that with NCLB carried over into the school system.

Unfortunately because teaching children with Autism testing skills it difficult it a lot of times had been left out of their programming. Even when a specific child had the intelligence and skills to learn the material those skills had been neglected in the Autism class.

Your child may have still gotten many other accommodations that they needed for standardized testing. Extra time and staff support routinely is provided. Unfortunately those things do not help the child with Autism understand about bubbling in those little circles. Then our children are doing poorly on the test even though they might know some of the information.

The funny thing is that ALL children are learning these skills in the typical class. As a matter of fact they generally are practicing them several times a day in different subjects. To me that was a major reason that my daughters with Autism needed to be in typical classes. It was not the only reason but it was a large one.

Autism: An Innie or an Outie

One of the hardest things I run into is the difficulty of people who do not have children with Autism to understand children on the Spectrum. Just recently I even ran into a professional that said just because a child could look her in the eye the child did not have Autism.

As any parent of a child with an Autism Spectrum disorder can tell you, children and adults with Autism can, at times, look you in the eyes. It is just torture to try do it all the time and should not be expected. It is not necessarily even a skill that should be high on the list to learn in some people’s lives.

I also run into people on a regular basis, that just do not believe their child with Aspergers has Autism. I will probably upset many parents with these comments. Just because Aspergers has some different characteristics or responds to different techniques they believe their child is better or more elite.

Since I have daughters with both Autism and Aspergers I get to compare the two on a regular basis. Children with Autism usually do not like to look at people. They like things quiet and ordered.

A child with Autism may not like people touching her stuff. They may or may not look you in the eyes at any time. Many children with Autism have difficulty getting what they want or need across to another person.

A child with Aspergers is the same but different. They like life busier, but may respond better to structure. My daughter with Aspergers likes things jumbled and bright. Many children with Aspergers will routinely look you in the eyes, unless they are stressed.

If a child with Aspergers is stressed they like to keep moving and be difficult to get to focus. Children with Aspergers can overwhelm everyone with words. They are trying to communicate what they want or need so hard that it gets lost in the words.

When I watch my daughters they remind me of the difference between an ‘innie’ and an ‘outie’. They are both a belly button. Depending on which one you see first you may not realize they are the same thing. In isolation they look drastically different. But…they are, sort of, opposites.

Remembering

I overheard a young mother, who has been an trained advocate for a while, ask another mom if there was a name for what her child had. It brought back memories of wondering if there was a name for what my child had. I didn't know anything back then. Let alone what Autism was.

This post was stimulated from one of the blogs, Achieving Extraordinary Success, I read and enjoy. You can see it here. Hopefully the link works...

Hello,
Hmmm. I'm definitely one of the parents that continue to blog about the sorrows and more importantly the joys of raising two children with Autism. I guess the reason I do it is because I don't find alot of parents with adult children on the spectrum continue to blog. I also have typical children. One of the things I have learned is that parenting isn't over once any of my children has become adults.

It has changed dramatically. I have become more of a consultant than a teacher at this point in all of my children's lives, well except maybe the last one. (Almost though, he’s 17 years old.) All of them, except the youngest, live on their own. This includes the ones with ASD. Given that I still am involved in their lives, I still have something to blog about.

I baby sit my grandchildren. I still manage the extensive services one of them receives. I try to keep the 18 year old focused. I’m still raising the last one, sort of. I’m kind of busy for a hobby. Oh yes, I also work as a disability advocate for a living and am on at least one group working on Employment for people with developmental disabilities, like Autism and Aspergers.

So maybe you can answer a question for me. I read several blogs by adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. At least a couple if not more of them are really antagonistic towards their parents. I’m at a loss to figure out why. We did this before our children are able. We do this when some of our children are not able to do it.

Please, really, explain. I definitely would not be doing this to hurt my daughters. And please don’t lock me off your blog, I really learn from it.
Thank you!

2nd time post

Sorry if you got this post twice. My link didn't work. God Bless the people who point those things out to me. I'm not very good at computer stuff. Thanks!

Relationships Good or Bad

Does anyone else have a son or daughter with Autism Spectrum Disorders that is in a relationship with someone? How does that work? I don't want my daughters to be sad and they both are in a relationship.

The oldest one has Autism and when she doesn't have a boyfriend, she's sort of sad. The second one lives with her boyfriend and it is decidedly different. I'm just wondering how this works for other people with Autism or Aspergers...

Something happens when I take the daughter with Aspergers to the doctor. I take her because even though she lives on her own no one else will take her. Well and because she's my daughter of course. I want her to get the best medical care we can get.

Anyway the daughter with Aspergers is very verbal. She can narrate things that happen in great detail. She is also very good at answering certain questions. Unfortunately when we go to the doctor he tends to word the questions in such a way she can not answer.

Yes, the words are more complicated, but it is more than that. The doctor's questions are too general. He might ask 'How are things?'. She would say 'Just fine.' I know he wants to know more than that and might prompt her about trouble sleeping.

Then the doctor might talk about the difference between falling asleep and staying asleep. He might pause then and wait for a repsonse. She looks at me and I tell her that he wants to know which is the problem falling asleep or staying asleep.

She can answer that question. It has to be worded pretty specifically and said verbally. She won't just volunteer the information. This is just one instance. It has happened in many different situations. I think it is part of her Aspergers.

I suppose what I'm wondering is if anyone else has noticed this with their child with Aspergers or Autism. It seems to be something about the way they communicate. Both of my daughters do it.

It is just so much more confusing with the daughter with Aspergers because she is so verbal and does answer the correctly worded question so well.