Children are diagnosed with autism based on the assessment that they are not developing as expected on three levels - social interaction, communication and repetitive or restricted behaviour. At school the behaviour of an ASD child may include the following:
- insistence on sameness; resistance to change - transitions, supply teachers, new faces etc.
- trouble reading social cues from others - not understand that the others do not want to talk about the same subject etc. or stand too close to them while lining up
- difficulty in expressing needs; uses gestures or pointing instead of words
- laughing hard or too loudly, crying, showing distress for reasons not apparent to others
- tantrums
- some may cover their ears when the school bell rings, others may bang on things seeking sensory feedback
- unresponsive to normal teaching methods
- over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain
- no real fears of danger or unrealistic fears of typical events
- physical over-activity or under-activity
- unstable gross/fine motor skills
- not always responsive to verbal cues
Adults like teachers and, if the child has one, an EA, interacting with them at school would need to have a few strategies handy to deal with these situations in order to have the best possible educational scenario for the ASD child attending school.
Please browse the blog at your leisure. You are welcome to comment on the posts. If you are a parent, an autism consultant, counselor, teacher with information on autism resources available in our area, please email your information to benziesangma@gmail.com. Your information will be added within 24 hours.
At School Social Stories
Local Autism Support Groups
Parents Engaging Autism Quinte (PEAQ), an autism parent support group, meets once a month on the first Tuesday of the month (no meetings in January, July and August) at Kerry's Place, 189 Victoria Avenue, Belleville at 6:30 to 8 p.m. If you have questions or suggestions for autism topics that are important to you so that we can invite appropriate autism professionals to speak at these meetings. Next PEAQ meeting is on June 5.
Autism parent support group meeting hosted by Mental Health Agency, Trenton and Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) meeting is on the Second Thursday of the month from 6 to 7:30 p.m. If you have require any further information please contact Marya Peters for more information at 613 392-2811 ext 3953 or email marya.p@trentonmfrc.ca
For info on Community Living Prince Edward County Parent Support group, contact Resource Consultants @ 613 476 6038
Central Hastings Autism Support Group meets in Madoc at the Recreation Centre. Contact Renee O’Hara, Family Resource & Support, 613-966-7413 or Tammy Kavanagh, Family Resource & Support, 613-332-3227
Transition planning for elementary school students with autism
Saturday, February 13, 2010
In it for the long haul...
I created this blog with my sincere wish that those of you reading this will want to share your own stories, both good and bad, what worked for you and what didn't and together, we can make it easier for the next family beginning their own journey of discovery. By posting what you know, where you have recieved certain services, who you have talked to, whose expertise you trust, how you navigated the school education services and by responding to questions in the discussion thread, know that you have helped a family in need. So, parents, experts in the field, counsellors, teachers and everyone who has any information on resources available, please feel free to post on this blog.