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Assume Nothing in Asperger Syndrome

© Barbara Fowler

Well, there is no doubt in my mind that this has been our toughest year yet with the school system and my son. From the beginning of the year, when he started desk diving until last week I was fairly sure that we would end up pulling him completely out of school before Spring Break. Things have been so bad and he has been so depressed that I haven't had the heart to make him go to "that place of torture" more than a few days a week. Consequently, he has fallen farther and farther behind in his schoolwork. His self esteem has plummeted and my husband and I have been at our wits end trying to resolve the problems with school, offering suggestions to get our son motivated to even attend classes, never mind paying attention once he gets there.

His special needs teachers were at their wits end by the time Christmas Break rolled around and called in the school district Autism Team to observe our child, which they did in January. When this team called a meeting to gather facts at the end of January, we assumed that at the next meeting there would be all kinds of recommendations that we would have to argue with, such as "The parents have to discipline the child more." or my favorite "Mum spoils the child, so she must be tougher, lay down the law and then implement consequences when her rules aren't followed". However, that was not the case.

We were absolutely surprised at the meeting last week when the teachers on the Autism Team pointed out that many of our son's problems had to do with sensory integration and since he is in a particularly noisy classroom this year, this is the root cause of his not wanting to be anywhere near the classroom, much less in it. Now, we know he is sensitive to noise and could have told them that, but, those words coming from the Autism Team to the school administrators seemed to make a huge difference in their attitude. They willing agreed to have a small cubicle put in the classroom so that my son could block out the noise when it became overwhelming.

The Autism Team also suggested that since my son is so tired first thing in the morning that he actually go to school and sleep for the first hour. (We have been trying to get our son to go to sleep before midnight for 13 years now, which is why he is so sleepy at 8:10, when school starts.) It was agreed that he could either sleep or rest for the first class of the day - which happens to be Physical Education, which he is excused from anyway due to a yet as undiagnosed weak muscle condition. The teachers informed us that it is not unusual for children with Asperger Syndrome and Autism to spend up to the first 1/2 of their day at school sleeping as this fatigue can be caused by the stress of being in a confusing, noisy, busy and bustling school and accommodations can be made for this problem, rather than keeping the child at home.