Need help with sixth grade son...

That is the short answer that will in the long run do more for your child than anything else.

Al too often, districts filled with poorly trained and highly opinionated people will dismiss outright the restrictions that subtle “disabilities” like Asperger’s Syndrom present. The schools are so locked into the narrow mindset that to have a “true” LD you must be failing in the classwork that many will not acknowledge that children with milder problems also need assistance.

Asperger’s, although identified around the same time as autism has only been recognized in the US for a few years. It presents a challenge for the opinion of the “experts”, who wish on one hand to limit the expensive services, and who do not really understand what they are talking about. Despite the tendancy for children with Asperger’s to get decent grades (at least in the more concrete classes like math and science), the social and communication barriers are very real, and will remain problematic if left unanswered by an ill-trained team at the school.

You can fight them if you like, or you can seek alternative placement for him. I would suggest the latter. What is important is that your child get proper services ASAP. A point to make with the current school may be satisfying for you personally, but runs the risk of wasting a great deal of your time and your money.

Homeschool may in the end turn out to be the optimum placement for children on the autism spectrum. Good luck to you, and please report back to let us know how things play out.

Every school is different. Every school has its history and its customs. The different cultures of each school create a climate in which children spend their days.

Clearly the climate of your son’s new school is different than the old. While you might assume that the same body of scientific knowledge is regard to learning differences underlies their work, in reality that might not be true.

It sounds as if your son’s other school was more in touch with modern diagnosis and modern approach to children with learning differences. Schools can be different in that way. Where schools are often sadly the same is that teachers can get defensive and it sounds as if his teachers have responded that way.

Most schools and teachers need children to conform. Conformity with the school’s expectations is certainly much easier for some children than others. I’m not sure what your options in terms of another school might be but it sounds as if the teachers are “circling the wagons” and that’s never good for anybody.

>>I am sorry to bother you all with such trivial things, but, we are having a very difficult time with our sixth grade son. He has
not yet been “officially” diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome but is currently undergoing school testing.

This does not sound trivial, so please bother us all you want!

Because of the rest of your description here, I would definitely recommend you obtain private testing and a private diagnosis through your medical insurance, or even private pay. I don’t think you can trust these school people to give you an accurate dx.

>>In the meantime, he
has been diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, Flight of Ideas, Nonverbal Learning Disability, and Sensory Integration Disorder.
He has never had an IEP, and has been a straight A/B student forever (with lots of homework help from us).

>>We just moved to Atlanta, and the school he is going to has no understanding of how debilitating his disabilities are…even
when the Student Support Team met the first time to put the testing into place — the Resource Teacher acted like he just
needed “discipline!” Now, it seems like the teachers have banded together and have decided to give him “strikes” and
detention for every little thing.

If the other children are not disciplined in this manner for “every little thing”, then the school is discriminating against your son. If you use the word “discrimination”, that might get their attention.

Personally, I would send a written letter formally requesting an IEP, even tho you do not yet have an AS diagnosis. You have other diagnoses, and you can use those. The first thing I would recommend for the IEP, is for you to determine which method of “discipline” might work for your son, probably positive reinforcement but you would know your son best. If it is written in the IEP, you have a much better chance of enforcing it, altho honestly this school does sound like one you will have to always watch.

>>One of his biggest problems is changing classes for the first time this year; he has a hard time
getting to class on time, and opening his locker.

Changing classes is a big thing for many AS students, but you can use the current dx of ADHD, OCD, and NVLD to get this into an IEP. It sounds like he needs either an aide or assistance, and also probably a visual map or directions, so he knows where to go after each class. Does he walk slow or otherwise have difficulty walking, or is he distracted, or another reason that he has trouble getting to classes on time? You can include assistance for those issues in an IEP.

Opening his locker you can include under his current Sensory dx. Is it difficult to open because of small motor difficulties? You can include OT in an IEP. Or is this entire situation because his locker is too low/high, or too far away from his classes, or up stairs, or something like that? Include that in the IEP also.

>>SO, they told him that he couldn’t go to his locker in between classes and
since he cannot carry a backpack is being made to carry ALL of his books from class to class.

If other children are allowed to go to their lockers between classes, then again they are discriminating against him. If he has no IEP, he must be treated the same as the other kids until he has an IEP. Why can he not carry a backpack? Is it school policy? Or is there a physical reason why he as an individual cannot carry a backpack? If a physical reason, then I would say that would also apply to carrying ALL his books. Plus the recent report, I think by the surgeon general, that kids should not be carrying backpacks or books etc, that weigh more than I think 10% of their body weight. You can use that against this school, for intentionally contributing to your son’s physical difficulties by requiring him to do something which is officially recognized in this country as a contributing factor in scoliosis and other children’s physical issues. If the school insists this is the best way for him to “learn” to get to class on time, include in his IEP that the school will provide for him, at no cost to you, one of those rolling briefcase type of things, for your son to use for his books.

>> They also have no
understanding of how literal he is…

>> This child comes home everyday hating school, and wanting us to take him out.

Personally this is what I would do, either homeschool him or demand a transfer to another school. The people at this school have already damaged your son’s belief that they are on his side, and therefore he may never trust them even if you do get an IEP in place.

>>We are afraid to mention something to the
teachers before the testing is complete, as we don’t want to make it any harder on our son then what they are already being
towards him.

So they will drag out the testing for months, so they don’t have to implement an appropriate program for him. I would send the letter now, formally requesting the IEP process. The time frame would start, and a meeting would be required within the time specified in your state. Otherwise the time frame may start once the test results come in. I would not want to allow them a reason to push back the results and IEP. Plus, how much harder can they make it for your son? Sounds like his life is miserable anyway. Sometimes when the parent is vocal, teachers do make life hard for the child, but I don’t see how they could make it much worse for him. And sometimes when the parent is vocal, the school actually is NICER to the child, because the school people know the parent will be obnoxious over “every little thing” [just like they appear to be], so they try to fix their case by starting to treat the child right.

You can also send the school a letter that indicates that you are removing your son from the “hostile educational environment” and give specifics, until such time as an appropriate IEP and educational situation is attained. This letter will protect you from truancy charges and also create some attention to your son’s issues.

>>His Art teacher told him today, that in her ten years of teaching, she has never had another child like him!!!!!

I am not sure I understand this comment, it can be interpreted as a positive or a negative statement. But if a teacher has admitted to never having another student like him, then you can also require under IDEA that the teachers and others [including you] at the school have training in the diagnoses your son has, which will hopefully soon also include AS.