Formerly Homschooled student and testing

[lakemedium]

Hello All!

I am so grateful for all of your wisdom and support on my last thread! Today, I picked ds from his school. He is in 6th grade and is still in the contained classroom.
His teacher has been wonderful. There are 3 other boys in duthe contained classroom 2 are non-verbal and the other boy is also on the spectrum he has limited verbal
ability from what I can gather. My ds has been doing reasonable well there from a behavioral standpoint and I have heard up until today that he is a "hard worker"
and "friendly" also that he is cooperative. His teacher told me that they have experienced a change in routine and has been working w/some new "paras".
His teacher told me that he has been somewhat frustrated and getting silly. She reported that they are working on following directions w/him. He really struggled
w/directions during our homeschooling and when he participated in hockey. She told me that the new school psychologist, yes they finally hired one should be contacting
me within the next 2 weeks for testing. I am feeling anxious about his behavioral changes since the new paras have been introduced and wonder about this new information
coinciding with the onset of the psychological testing. During homeschooling, he started to more uncooperative during the past 2 years and this in part led us to enroll him in school.
I saw that as got older and closer to puberty his behavior changed as I would expect of any child as the more towards puberty. I suppose I am posting to contain my anxiety and
maybe get some perspective.
Thanks!

[lakemedium]

Additionally, the other kids in the contained classroom have a number of behavior problems that my ds can talk about i.e. repetitive noises and behaviors, pacing, easily agitated. Behaviors that are typical of less verbal or non-verbal kids w/ASD. He conceptualizes that they function at a lower level that he does. He says that they are "lazy and act like babies". He has said that he wishes that they could talk.

[healthy11]

It's good that your son is able to express himself and his feelings to you. I can't help but wonder if your son might qualify for an out-of-district placement, once his testing is complete. He certainly sounds like he's more highly functioning than the other students in his classroom, yet he would be overwhelmed back in the regular class setting, even with a 1:1 aide. I know it's hard, but at this stage it really seems like you'll have to wait for the testing results in order to determine the next steps. When you get more evaluation information, feel free to post it here and we can give you our inputs, too.

[lakemedium]

Thanks healthy! You are right-we have to wait and see how things shake out. I agree that he functions too highly for the contained classroom as compared to the peers there now. He isn't ready to function in a more typical classroom setting. I believe he may be able to gain more independence at school and specialized instruction plus therapies but socially except for interaction w/school staff there isn't much for him. Homeschooling worked because it was 1:1 and his opportunity to interact w/peers is about the same. We participated in some homeschool group activities where the kids were typical and hockey where the kids were typically developing children. He didn't interact with any of the kids in the homeschool group or hockey. He isn't able to interact with the peers in the contained classroom either. In the long run the school district should be able to prepare him for adulthood whatever that will be for him.

[eoffg]

You wrote that: 'He has said that he wishes that they could talk.'
So that he wants to interact with these kids.
While the 3 kids are non-verbal or of limited verbal ability.
What this raises, is the potential for him to explore 'non-verbal communications', with these 3 kids?

Given that he didn't interact with homeschool group or hockey. Also isn't able to interact with his peers.
What I'm suggesting, is that these 3 kids provide him with an opportunity to explore 'interaction'?
With these 3 kids, he would feel any anxiety about interacting with them.
If anything, he would feel confident, as the most verbally fluent in the group of 4.

Where this could be used to provide him with a whole new sense of his ability to interact with others?

[empeg1]

Actually, the children described by lakemom as her son's classmates likely struggle with nonverbal communication and interaction as well as speech. I work in two autism specialty classes at the high school level. If your son needs to develop social thinking and social skills and he is interactive, a specialty class with classmates with low functioning autism is not the best match, especially for a verbal child. Your district seems to have placed your child, lakemom, in a class without data, no assessment, and a preconceived idea of your youngster. There has to be other options available than an autism specialty class, not the least restrictive environment, and regular education. I also work in other special day classes at the high school level, with a mixed group of students, who also struggled with social thinking and skills but who are verbal, interactive and who present with mixed diagnoses. There is a lot of support provided in these special day classes as well.

Last year I worked with a 9th grade student whose social thinking and skills were his area of greatest weakness. He was interactive and verbal but placed in the low functioning autism class with a FASD. This young man interacted with the adults but he lacked peers in his class with whom to socialize. This year, he is in a mixed, special day class and he is learning social skills along with all of his classmates. He is also mainstreamed. Best of all, this teen now has the first friend of his life!

If your district does not have an appropriate placement for your son, it will have to pay for a private school or for a placement in a neighboring district. Stick to your guns!