Asperger's syndrome
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the ripe old age of 26, long after I was a pupil at South Hampstead High School. I often wonder what difference it would have made if I’d been diagnosed earlier and hence qualified for the various perks (support workers, extra time in exams, a free laptop at university and so on). How do GSA member schools deal with Asperger’s pupils?
Your comments
I only wish I could have counted on that level of support in the workplace. As it is, I left school with AAB at A level, studied at St Andrews and Oxford (Somerville) but have been fired twice.
If a student is diagnosed before entry or it is suspected and then diagnosed, I believe that it is the caring ethos of many of the GSA schools enables a student to develop and flourish. I had experience of a student with Aspergers when I was deputy head. At my school, the child was given freedoms that only we could have coped with: we allowed her to have ‘escape’ routes within the school, both in terms of curriculum provision and actual physical routes. The school was small enough so that all the adults on the site knew her and she had set patterns of behaviour which we ‘managed’. The classes were small enough to allow a different curriculum to be given (in some subjects she was 3 years ahead of her peers) as well as the individual attention when she needed to catch-up because she had missed so much in other subjects. We allowed her to change classes and teachers to suit her needs and developed a programme that was more like a sixth form course than that of Y7 to 11. She was given ‘special attention’ to enable her to succeed at one of the most prestigious universities.
I firmly believe that it was the girls-only environment that allowed her to be so successful (5 A grades at A level) as well as allowing her individualized personal development not to suffer.
Whilst reasearching for a book on Aspergers, it soon became depressingly apparent that most children with Aspergers were not getting what they needed to function and flourish. All the examples that were successful, came from small school setings where a flexible and properly individualy tailored approach was offered. In addition the small settings had some exceptional staff and a community ethos. I fully support Mrs Robinsons approach and only wish there were a few more Mrs Robinsons around and a few less City Academies.
We are researching into parents’ experiences of the education and care system in relation to aspergers and need 1000 people to fill in our questionnaires (we are a quarter of the way through). We shall then produce a report and start lobbying for change base on empirial evidence. www.asteens.co.uk
Edited by the author on Tuesday 28th July 2009, at 12:02pm