Teachers AHHHH - Autism Spectrum Message Board

bercol1 · 02-03-2006, 04:38 AM

Does autism effect any of your children in a simillar way to my child and do any of you experience the same frustration, I am having at present with Anthony's teacher.
My son is a very bright clever wee boy who has very stong visual skills. He can problem solve very easily and if the task is visual he can work it out with ease. He recently broke into the class computer by reading the passwords on the wall. When they changed the passwords and and took it off the wall he just watched their fingers when typing and quickly got a hold of the new password. So while he was meant to be painting The staff turned there backs when they turned back round Anthony was on the internet playing pac man. Anthony is at a special needs school the children in his class all have a varitety of learning difficulties. From day one i explained to his teacher Anthony doesn't seem to have a learning difficulty he has difficulty in learning due to the language barrier and other autistic traits.

Anthony's grasp of language is very poor and he often stumbles around his small volcabulary till he finds the word he is looking for. When talking to him you have to keep your language short and sweet. he can understand a few words He also looks for contextual clues to help him.

Because he appears very bright anthony's teacher has it in her head that he knows more than he makes out and that he can understand her but he is choosing to shut her off. I have spoke with her about it many times, I have arranged meetings with the head teacher about it I have spoke with the language therapist but she's a bit usless. I have given her chapters on the minimal speach approach. There is not much else I can do.

I was on the phone with her again yesterday and she was telling me how anthony had a bit of a tantrum over a DVD in a shop. I couldn't believe my ears when she said "I took him outside and had a long chat with him explaining why he could not have the DVD" and then commented on how this did not have much effect.DUH.
i was about to launch into another tirade when she realised her mistake and then went on to try and justify it. i told her all she has to say was no DVD bye bye and walk him quickly away, having long chats with Anthony only adds to his levels of stress.
I asked her why she keeps chatting to him. She says she does it and hopes something will click and again says if you bombared him with information then hopefully some of it will stick.She stated that she feels he is so clever and that I am not giving him the credit he deserves.
Am i completely missing something here. I commend her, for her insight into anthony's level of intelligence but why can't she understand that the visual skills and the language skills are two different things.
I don't know what else to do. She just keeps marching on. I am at the stage now I want to shake her. I have another meeting set up on Tuesday with the SLT so i will see if she could help but i am not holding out much hope.
I feel better now I have managed to get all that off my chest

bernadette

Cantdoitagain · 02-03-2006, 09:41 AM

I am sorry B that you are having such troubles and can relate to the wall you have seem to hit with the teacher's type of thinking.

When our son was first having problems my DH and I took a course for parents with Children who have ASD/PDD. This course gave us strategies to talk to our son and communicate with him and to teach him how to communicate and the biggest premises of all is SSS (say less, stress, and go slow). By doing this we are not treating our children like dummies, we are giving them the important words or meaning of the communication to them....OMG I now use these strategies for my 16 month old who is typically developing. She is actually learning to say more words clearly than my first two typical children did.

I used to think like the teacher you are dealing with and was having a hard time cutting down on the words I used and was feeling bad like I wasn't given my son credit for having a brain in his head......but we can't have our children bombarded with words. My typical four year old who understands tunes me out....so I get to the point when I speak with him.....this course was awesome to turn my thinking around.

The example I have used for my parents who did not want to confirm was foreign languages. What if someone spoke a whole long string of german words...what would you understand? HOw lost would you feel? B if you know a second language and the teacher doesn't bombard her with an entire speech and then ask what she got out of it. Then say three words in the foreign language and see if she understands (both examples have the same meaning). I think it would be easier to understand the less number of words.

B...I hope something of what I have said has helped. I just can't believe that special needs teaches are not well informed themselves. I am finding that out with our teacher as well.

All the best to you and your son.

I Love LJC · 02-03-2006, 11:58 AM

Im going thru alot right now with my girl and her school .I have nothing against them i really like all of them and take my hat off to them for what they do its just frustrating that alot of the behaviours with her being in the spectrum they dont understand . At the begining of the year i wrote a story about what to expect from her and im at it again heres whats up.Her teacher has been out due to illness so one of the aides is quote Im in charge and you know how that gos anyway my girl is high functioning she has alot of ocd though its part of her spectrum disorder it gets in the way of her learning so her focus is not up to par thats why shes in special ed in the first place.Shes smart but has a learning disability i wish they would see this.She likes to wear certain things the aide said its getting in her way i said ok and i told my girl leave it at home and told her how they feel at school and they dont want it there they felt its getting in your way and you keep talking about the items at school instead of doing your work your letting your ocd take over she said no im not they are making it up anyway she snuck it in her bag and put it on after i dropped her off in the morning i got a note saying i thought we agreed on this leaving her things at home! Like im a delinquent parent!Sorry im livid right now!I said sorry she snuck it on we told her leave it at home .Shes in time out at home this weekend for this. Anyway to make a long story short we took this problem away but with her its going to be something else getting her off task again she has ocd and i posted the aide about this i feel i have ocd i have to keep telling them over and over again at the school she has ocd its part of her spectrum disorder some days its ok some days its not it waxes and wanes . Dont they know this stuff with their training for special ed?Wheres the school psycologist to train them in this?You no while im thinking about this im going to call the school psycologist and have a IEP meeting about this there never present at my girls IEP meetings? Also shes up in her grade level this year with inclusion they always had her a grade behind doing art work not lanuage arts .They have her in launage arts and they are throwing 4th grade spelling words at her she never even had any spelling words to study at home till now like i said she was in inclusion with art class these past years. She doesnt know how to spell alot of simple words because they never taught her them.There givn her words like birdbath i would think she would have to learn single words first like bird then bath then when she knows the spelling go on to putting them together its crazy im not happy with this im going to the main office if i have to.Im thinking about doing home school could someone post on how to go about doing it.Thankyou very much for listening.

Jana2676 · 02-04-2006, 02:52 AM

I am sorry your having those issues. We have had similiar issues and are now having another set of issues with the teachers at my childs school. I would suggest an IEP meeting with the principal, director of special ed services, school's behavioral specialist, and the teachers. Maybe you can all agree on how to handle situations.

I attended a TEACH conference last year. On their video, they explained the kids aren't trying to be bad, they just aren't making the 'appropriate' connection between their actions and the bad behavior. I had to remind my childs teachers of that earlier this school year. We had positive results.

sprom · 02-04-2006, 04:09 AM

Hi im new to the forum. My son 5 and i am home educating him now due to school issues. He is in asd assessments now and fingers crossed will get a diagnosis 6th march.He stuggles with communication and interaction even though has has language and swears alot in public aswell as home. A simple trip to the local shop is hard and everything in dailly life is a struggle, i am worn out!!!