Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
Thinking outside the box... school's solution for difficult child 2's social issues...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 144289" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>An alternative could be either tighter supervision, or structured activity during recess. having an adult supervisor getting difficult child 2 involved in kicking a ball around, for example. he's still getting physical exercise, you can involve other kids, and he's also getting carefully supervised. This is what we did with difficult child 3 one year, for the last term. I wish I could have insisted it continue.</p><p></p><p>I really get annoyed with the attitude that kids with social interaction problems will catch up if only they are surrounded by other kids. The implication is that it's always best for such a kid to be thrown into the social mix at school, than to be isolated from them.</p><p></p><p>In fact, as we found with difficult child 3 and as others before us have found, a lot of kids, especially the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids, can't learn social skills by osmosis. Simply shoving them into a crowd of kids the same age just doesn't work. In difficult child 3's case, we tried to ease the way by educating the other kids about autism, but he was still a target of some bullies. Even the kids who always looked out for him, who showed consideration, eventually left him behind socially to go play with their friends' difficult child 3 simply couldn't interact with them without a lot of hard work on their part. Every lunchtime and every recess, you would see difficult child 3 walking around the edge of the playground, on his own. Even if other kids invited him to join in a game, the rules could easily change through the game without him realising or understanding, and there would often be explosions as a result. Kids who were fed up with playing t he game with him would also sometimes change the rules just so they could be rid of him.</p><p></p><p>I allowed myself to be convinced by the teachers and education officials who insisted that for an autistic child (and for any child with delayed or impaired social skills) the best place for them to deal with this was in a large mainstream group.</p><p>Then not long after I found this site, I stumbled on the website of James Williams, an autistic teen who wrote eloquently about this very topic, and just how wrong that opinion is. To find it, I Googled "James Williams" and "autism", in one search window.</p><p></p><p>We have an organisation in Australia called Family Advocacy. I sought help and advice from them, and at times I got some seemingly odd reactions from them when I was wanting their support in getting difficult child 3 into correspondence school and out of mainstream.</p><p>It took me a couple of years to discover that their mission statement is along the same lines as "no child left behind". Their aim is for all people with disabilities to be included, and that ANY attempt to segregate people with disabilities is by definition, wrong. They were not happy with my campaign for a Special Education autism class in a mainstream setting - they feel that ALL students with disabilities should be accommodated in mainstream.</p><p></p><p>I agree that removing him from recess is wrong. I think it's too harsh for something like this. Our kids are always doing impulsive things. Take away their opportunity to burn off some of that exuberance and they are MORE likely to act impulsively.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 144289, member: 1991"] An alternative could be either tighter supervision, or structured activity during recess. having an adult supervisor getting difficult child 2 involved in kicking a ball around, for example. he's still getting physical exercise, you can involve other kids, and he's also getting carefully supervised. This is what we did with difficult child 3 one year, for the last term. I wish I could have insisted it continue. I really get annoyed with the attitude that kids with social interaction problems will catch up if only they are surrounded by other kids. The implication is that it's always best for such a kid to be thrown into the social mix at school, than to be isolated from them. In fact, as we found with difficult child 3 and as others before us have found, a lot of kids, especially the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids, can't learn social skills by osmosis. Simply shoving them into a crowd of kids the same age just doesn't work. In difficult child 3's case, we tried to ease the way by educating the other kids about autism, but he was still a target of some bullies. Even the kids who always looked out for him, who showed consideration, eventually left him behind socially to go play with their friends' difficult child 3 simply couldn't interact with them without a lot of hard work on their part. Every lunchtime and every recess, you would see difficult child 3 walking around the edge of the playground, on his own. Even if other kids invited him to join in a game, the rules could easily change through the game without him realising or understanding, and there would often be explosions as a result. Kids who were fed up with playing t he game with him would also sometimes change the rules just so they could be rid of him. I allowed myself to be convinced by the teachers and education officials who insisted that for an autistic child (and for any child with delayed or impaired social skills) the best place for them to deal with this was in a large mainstream group. Then not long after I found this site, I stumbled on the website of James Williams, an autistic teen who wrote eloquently about this very topic, and just how wrong that opinion is. To find it, I Googled "James Williams" and "autism", in one search window. We have an organisation in Australia called Family Advocacy. I sought help and advice from them, and at times I got some seemingly odd reactions from them when I was wanting their support in getting difficult child 3 into correspondence school and out of mainstream. It took me a couple of years to discover that their mission statement is along the same lines as "no child left behind". Their aim is for all people with disabilities to be included, and that ANY attempt to segregate people with disabilities is by definition, wrong. They were not happy with my campaign for a Special Education autism class in a mainstream setting - they feel that ALL students with disabilities should be accommodated in mainstream. I agree that removing him from recess is wrong. I think it's too harsh for something like this. Our kids are always doing impulsive things. Take away their opportunity to burn off some of that exuberance and they are MORE likely to act impulsively. Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
Thinking outside the box... school's solution for difficult child 2's social issues...
Top