Heather, It is a real pain to do,m but I do think you should visit any and all options available and try see which ones might be best for Tom.
I don;t have any advice on private school, as we were only in a private school at the preschool level Actually I have experience of public and private special Ed and private regular ed at preschool level and of the three, the special ed Public school rocked the house. So you never know...
Peter was in in a self-contained class for HF kids from 3yo to 3rd grade. (in 4 different schools). He really needed the quiet environment ands the small class size. He did great with it. They started to mainstream him in 2nd grade, then more in third and he is mainstreamed now in 4th grade, He still gets ST OT, PT a shared aide and resource room, but he is doing all of the 4th grade work, participating in all the state testing and keeping up with the academics.
He went from a class of 4 kids last year to a class of 23 this year and he is doing fine. He needed the extra coddling in the early grades to help him make up for the huge communiction deficit he had (IMO). Peter was 4½ when he finally gained functional language, so there was a lot of catching up to do.
I hope this helps. My earlier advice about the vomit test still homds, BTW ;)
Make sure it is a class for HF auties! I can tell you our issue with having a hf asd in a low functioning group.....the bar gets lowered. I hate to say this, but it's been true for us. Liam's class is supposedly for the hf kids (as there is another classroom for the more affected asd kids). Imho, out of 5 kids TWO are verbal; the other three are shriekers, screamers, rockers and foreign object eaters.
This is why we are fighting tooth and nail to get Liam out of there as much as possble. Liam himself doesn't reflect these behaviours, but the teachers are so busy with those kids, Liam and the other verbal are a bit ignored; the expectations for Liam have been dropped quite a bit, academically and behaviourally.
What happened is it was set up as a hf room, and the powers that be sent in out with some more affected students to get it started and now they have no where else to place them; and other parents have gotten wind of the class and demanded their kids be placed there. So in essence we don't have a hf class; we have a moderate to LF class and Liam and B are the role models, which absolutely SUCKS for these two boys, although I hear it's fabulous for the other 3....sigh. OK, off my soapbox.
Heather,
It is a real pain to do,m but I do think you should visit any and all options available and try see which ones might be best for Tom.
I don;t have any advice on private school, as we were only in a private school at the preschool level Actually I have experience of public and private special Ed and private regular ed at preschool level and of the three, the special ed Public school rocked the house. So you never know...
Peter was in in a self-contained class for HF kids from 3yo to 3rd grade. (in 4 different schools). He really needed the quiet environment ands the small class size. He did great with it. They started to mainstream him in 2nd grade, then more in third and he is mainstreamed now in 4th grade, He still gets ST OT, PT a shared aide and resource room, but he is doing all of the 4th grade work, participating in all the state testing and keeping up with the academics.
He went from a class of 4 kids last year to a class of 23 this year and he is doing fine. He needed the extra coddling in the early grades to help him make up for the huge communiction deficit he had (IMO). Peter was 4½ when he finally gained functional language, so there was a lot of catching up to do.
I hope this helps. My earlier advice about the vomit test still homds, BTW ;)
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Make sure it is a class for HF auties! I can tell you our issue with having a hf asd in a low functioning group.....the bar gets lowered. I hate to say this, but it's been true for us. Liam's class is supposedly for the hf kids (as there is another classroom for the more affected asd kids). Imho, out of 5 kids TWO are verbal; the other three are shriekers, screamers, rockers and foreign object eaters.
This is why we are fighting tooth and nail to get Liam out of there as much as possble. Liam himself doesn't reflect these behaviours, but the teachers are so busy with those kids, Liam and the other verbal are a bit ignored; the expectations for Liam have been dropped quite a bit, academically and behaviourally.
What happened is it was set up as a hf room, and the powers that be sent in out with some more affected students to get it started and now they have no where else to place them; and other parents have gotten wind of the class and demanded their kids be placed there. So in essence we don't have a hf class; we have a moderate to LF class and Liam and B are the role models, which absolutely SUCKS for these two boys, although I hear it's fabulous for the other 3....sigh. OK, off my soapbox.
Dee