High School Challenges

Deepika

New Member
I would like to know waht are the challanges we face when a child suffering from asperger syndrome or autism disorders goes to high school? Does your child have cognitive delay? Describe their social interaction skills. Any speech or language problem? How compliant is their behaviour?

Thanks!

Deepika
 

KFld

New Member
Hi Deepika and welcome to the board. You may want to post this in the general section. It would probably get more attention from people who are familiar with this area.
 

Ephchap

Active Member
Hi Deepika and welcome. You've landed in a truly wonderful, supportive place. I'm going to move this over to our general forum so that it will get more visibility. You can look for responses over there.

Again, welcome.

Hugs,
Deb
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Deepika,

Hello and welcome to the board. I am a high school math teacher who has had four Asperger students in my regular ed math classes so I can relate my experience to you.

First, I must say it this is based only on my experience in an affluent school district with a lot of tax dollars which provides fantastic Special Education services. My high school has a classroom dedicated to Asperger students with two fulltime Special Education teachers and several parapros. The students are mainstreamed as much as possible according to their disabilities.

One student that I had last year had extreme anxiety issues and was not able to leave the Asperger's classroom. So the Special Education teacher videotaped my Algebra 2 lessons and took notes. Then he and the student would watch the videotapes and the student would then do the homework assignments with the teacher's help. He also took his tests and quizzes in the Asperger's classroom. He made an A in the course.

This year I have 3 Asperger's students on various places on the spectrum. One student is in my Honors Alg 2 class with no shadow aide and is responsible for keeping up with the work himself. He does occasionally take his tests in the Special Education classroom. He is struggling academically (mostly due to absences) at the moment but will pass the class. He fits in well with the other students and they are friendly to him. I related a story earlier this year on the board on how the class spontaneously broke into singing Happy Birthday to him when they found out it was his birthday. He told us that no one had ever done that for him before in school. I don't think he socializes with them, though, out of school.

The other two are Alg 1 students with a shadow aide that they share. Again, they are at different places on the spectrum. One plays football and is socially comfortable with the other students although he speaks a little too loudly at times and comes off as a bit quirky. He often goes into the copy room across the hall with the shadow aide to work on an assignment or test as he needs a lot of prompting. The other student, who ironically presents more classic symptoms of the disorder like flapping hands and inappropriately touching himself at times, is able to function better independently in the classroom. Both boys have a good grade in the class. The second boy is more socially at odds with the other students in the classroom and has little social interaction with the other students. They are kind to him though. We do play a review game in groups and both are able to interact with the other students while competing for points. One boy did have a minor meltdown when he didn't feel that he was close enough to the overhead screen to see the questions. That problem was easily solved by switching him to another group that was closer to the front of the room.

So I guess I would conclude that your difficult child's success in the classroom will depend on the level of support offered through your school district and your child's place on the spectrum. The students that I have taught have had no behavior problems and no speech problems other than speaking a little too loudly and intensely at times.

Five years ago I had never heard of Asperger's. I think regular ed teachers are becoming more and more familiar with autism although I have to admit that I still haven't received any special training about the disorder. I mostly have picked up what I know about Asperger's from the CD board and television specials on the subject.

~Kathy
 
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