Hello everyone! I’m new here and hoping that you folks can help. My 5yo son was dx’d with Asperger’s Syndrome this past summer and entered K in a regular class with no IEP in place. Aside from being terribly inhibited and very dependent on the teacher and aide he has not been a problem. He had great difficulty just getting the basic routines down -ie hanging up his backpack and is not able to work independently. The teacher has sent notes that he requires her assistence in starting, continuing and completing task. Despite this, she scoffed at the idea of his having an aide although I know many AS kids do have aides in K.
He did very poorly on the K assessments scoring 16/50 on integrated language arts and 12/50 on math. The teacher said that 30 is generally the cutoff point whether they want to see kids entering K and that there was no way he could accomplish the tasks of preparing for first grade. This was before telling her of his diagnosis. He only recognizes about
6 or 8 letters and is unable to associate any sounds with letters. He is suppose to be learning sight words which the teacher pretty much concluded was impossible since he doesn’t know letters.
I try to help with what I can at home but it seems like my efforts only frustrate us both! He is highly resistant to anything connected with numbers or letters -and always has been- no matter how creative or playful I try to be. He’s distracted, silly, whiny, negative and I know that he’s not just trying to be difficult but you can tell him “this is P” and immediately ask “what letter is this?” and he does not have a clue! He is reasonably bright and had very precious language development.
I’m not sure if he has a seperate learning disorder or whether he is just immature and not ready to learn this stuff as a result of the AS. I don’t what to have him pushed beyond his limits, but I don’t want him to be left sitting and getting further behind if he needs help with the academics now. I don’t know how to distinguish those two possibilities or even what to ask the school for. I’m sorry this is so long but I’m just so lost. Alot of AS kids are very good with the basic academics so I haven’t been able to find much info. Please help if you can! Thanks, Monica
does he like music?
because that may be the way you can reach him….in a fun way…
Sounds Like Fun by Discovery Toys has a great song on it to learn letter sounds…and other language concepts…most kids love it including those with Autism..
Re: Help! first IEP mtg for 5yo with Asperger's and learning pro
Although AS kids are often good at academics, it is quite typical to have poor handwriting and poor (or fantastically good) math skills. Some AS kids do have reading problems and dyslexia is more common in AS than the general population. That said, AS kids are very often quite immature. My school wanted to hold me back in kindergarten. My mom not so hep on educational jive, said that kindergarteners were by definition immature.
Bless her. :-)
Anyway you may like the OASIS website:
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/
—des
Re: Help! first IEP mtg for 5yo with Asperger's and learning pro
Des, I’ve never read that dyslexia is more common in the AS population. I don’t doubt you.. I just would like to read more. Can you point me in the right direction.? thanks
5yo
Karen, my son did have a neuropsych workup as part of establishing the AS diagnosis, but he had a horrible meltdown at the beginning of the second testing session so the only testing that got done was an IQ test. It did show average verbal IQ with the performance IQ being about 25 points less. The neuropsych stated that because Zach’s fine motor control was so bad it was hard to get an accurate assessment because he just couldn’t do the pencil/paper tasks. So unfortunately, I don’t have much info to work with. Monica
5yo
thanks for the idea Patti. I will check that out. I got Earobics to try but it’s not working on our computer! We did do Handwriting without Tears over the summer and that seemed to help but he’s just so far behind.
Monica
5yo
des, thanks for your post. I definitely agree with your mom! K’s are immature and mine’s more immature than most. I have read some articles that do mention learning problems in AS but haven’t found anything specific. If you know of some resources, please share. So many of these kids seem so far ahead in the early years, I am feeling very alone with this. Nice to know my child isn’t the only one! Monica
Re: Help! first IEP mtg for 5yo with Asperger's and learning pro
RE: the thing about dyslexia and AS, I don’t know where I read that. (BTW, a great theory of mind question— how people perceive their own and other’s mental states: ask an AS kid how they know something? It is supposed to be very revealing.) Anyway, I am sure I read it somewhere. It makes sense from a deficits angle thing. (I mean to say that one deficit and you are likely to have others in the same general category— my belief is that AS is a kind of LD.) The BIG problem in AS is of course social skills. But there are other kinds of issues. They tend to go to extremes. The AS kid can either be very good at math or poor; very good at spatial skills or poor; I’ve never heard of a coordinated AS kid but some are very good at fine motor skills (ie if it is legos). OTOH graphomotor skills are often terrible in the same kids. Also some kids are terrible at fine motor skills generally. I, myself, have good handwriting but don’t like cursive too much (even though I can do it). There are hyperlexic (good reading— tends to be poor comprehension though)— so in a way dyslexia being common makes sense. Just not sure where I read that.
It is a good thing to get a handle on your kids deficits and strengths as soon as you can. I recommend you not have the school do this. Early intervention is highly preferable to waiting til there is a problem.
Work on social skills using Carol Gray’s (Grey?) social stories is great. My nephew got worked with early on this and he is pretty social. I wouldn’t wait til he learns some of these things at 40 like I did. :-) If you can draw stick figures, you can do this. They teach what to do/how to behave under specific circumstances. Also dealing with some of the sensory integration issues— perhaps you can try to get this at school. There are some great school OTs.
Well mom did have somethign there but one can really be immature in kindergarten as compared to other kindergarteners. So I’d suggest you try to deal with some of these issues early.
Do look at the OASIS link I gave you. You might join one of the discussion groups where the parents are very good on this kind of stuff— like the folks here are on ld. I think some practical background on this stuff beats much of the reading material on the subject. You might look for Tony Attwater’s book: Aspergers Syndrome. OASIS also has a book of resources.
HTH,
—des
5yo
des, thanks for posting. I enjoyed hearing your thoughts…but I have to tell you “I read that somewhere” is my line! Zach has problems with fine motor skills and we were doing OT but I just couldn’t afford it. The only group I could find nearby was not in network so I had to pay the full fee up front and then wait for the insurance company to pay me. This was also during the time we had the neuropsych done which I also paid out of pocket -talk about broke! Anyway, I am hoping that the school will provide some OT.
Social stories I am familar with though I need to really start using them!
I’m at the OASIS site alot -loved their book!
Thanks for you help! Monica
Monica, I think you do need to figure out if he has any learning issues in addition to his being AS. You don’t want him to get frustrated if he needs a different type of instruction. When he was dx with AS, did you get a full neuropsych evaluation? I’m guessing you have a lot of good data on him, perhaps you can just fill in some of the blanks. Oh, and welcome!