How Do Your Kids Do in Classes? | Autism PDD

Thats what a child psych told us too (she was a former preschool teacher also). But he will be starting a regular preschool and I am concerned that his inattentiveness will stick out like a sore thumb compared to all the other children. I specifically put him in this school because it was touted as a developmental preschool with an emphasis on social skills. He's a very perceptive little boy and I worry alot that he will recognize he's different from the other children...and that it'll affect his self esteem. Sunflowers, NO child enters pre-school with the ability to sit and listen to
commands, pay full-attention all the time, etc.
Our kids have a much more difficult time for sure, but that is what pre-
school is for. The help our kids learn these skills. They find ways to
support our kids so they can hopefully be successful later. When Jasper
began his special ed. preschool (fully inclusive and collaborative), he had
to have a teacher literally sit behind him at all times during circle time to
help him pay attention. Later, specific issues were addresses by his team,
and the OT, and school psychologist came up with some strategies for
the teachers to work with. His first year ended, and he can sit most days
by himself. He has "off" days, for sure...but mostly he is able to HAPPILY
attend.
They work on the very issues you are concerned about. These are the
kind of things that can be successfully addressed in your IEP.

Jasper used to wander away, get distracted by many many things, have
horrible auditory sensitivities, He has come a LONG way. Sure, he has
just developed naturally as he gets older, but his pre-school has been
one of the most imprtant factors. I don't think anyone expects your son
to be "ready".

My son is good one on one. His speech and OT instructors all claim his attention is fine and he usually followed their directions/instructions easily.

Just today we did alot of arts and crafts and played a board game - all at the kitchen table...and he was very focused and calm and able to do it all.

But in a group environment he's less skillful. I've noticed him watching other kids to see what they are doing and following their lead. But I think it's true that if he isn't spoken to directly he seems not to understand that any directions were spoken to him at all. And in a group setting, even if he were given explicit instructions directly, within two minutes he sometimes runs off and does his own thing.

After class when we ask him why he ran off away from the instructor, he always comes up with an excuse. Last week's excuse was "Oh I saw Miss so-and-so putting the balls away in the bin and one fell out so I was getting it to help her...that's why I left the group." So from this answer, it seems to me that he knew he wasn't supposed to run off away from the instructor.

What is it about ASD children that makes them do this? Is this ADHD?

Can your child still follow directions in the familiar home environment?

My son is 9 years old, and I still don't sign him up for classes without a parent or an extra adult who can help him stay on task.

Gym class at school is a particularly challenging situation for him. The teacher says it's like throwing a switch -- suddenly he gets hyper and doesn't follow directions well. I believe it's the sensory environment of gym, with lots of noises and movement that is hard to track visually. As a preschooler in Mommy n me gymnastics, he made very little progress because he was either running off or shutting down, depending on the task. He made a lot more progress, motorically, in the much smaller and quieter play group run by the physical therapist (also held in a gymnasium).

Besides the sensory challenges, my son has trouble with auditory processing -- hearing and making sense of what is said to me. It is not his fault that he can't follow directions that aren't said to him directly.

If your son is like min, he'll probably need to be taught directly what is expected of him in class situations, and will probably still need accommodations like directions given together with visual cues and/or repeated to him directly. He will probably not just "pick up" those skills by being placed in a class situation.

Good luck with everything.

     My 3.5 yo son is having a very hard time with focusing and paying attention to his teacher in gym class. We put him in an independent gym class where he is, for the very first time, without any parent, and must follow instructions given by the teacher. We did it as a way to prepare him for preschool where he must also be alone and follow a teacher's instructions.
      It's a class of about 7 children ranging in ages 3-4 and many are NT. Each time, my son is the ONLY child who has a hard time sitting still. He listens to only half of what the instructor is saying. He takes off to go explore something somewhere else in the gym even though he's supposed to be sitting there with the rest of the kids. He is continually redirected by the teacher. He does show about 10% improvement with each class, however. But he is the ONLY child who needs to be redirected so frequently. At times he is disruptive to the other children when there's an obstacle course because while the other kids go through the it one at a time, he just doesn't seem to get the sequencing of an obstacle course. Overall, he doesn't seem to 'get' that everyone is supposed to listen and obey the teacher. He pays attention part of the time and then seems to just go off to do his own thing.
      Has anyone put their kids in soccer, gym, or similar classes alone? How did they do?My son had and still has, to a certain degree, this problem. We discovered the main problem was with the verbal multi-step directions. He just can't process all of those steps verbally. Since he was a very early reader, we started having teachers write down the steps, in numbered sequence and that did a world of good. We have to do the same thing when it comes to cleaning his room. 1. put all dirty clothes in the hamper. 2. put all paper trash in wastebasket. That sort of thing. If your child can't read, a simple picture of what they're supposed to do may work just as well. A picture of your child sitting, listening to the teacher, etc.But the bizarre thing is that at 15 months my son used to follow three step directions. If I asked him to go to his toy box, get a particular toy, and bring it back to me, he would!! Now, at 3.5 however, he appears too distracted and totally lacking in focus. How can things have changed so much?T did well, even in SWIMMING class, with all the echoes. BUT, she got very slowly accustomed to group time, in her preschool/daycare setting. They permitted wandering and not attending group, until about age 4 so she had the chance to voluntarily do this.

Ali is EXACTLY this way! I hear her dance teacher call her name sometimes literally 30-40 times because she is wondering off or running around the room or just spinning instead of doing the dances. She has been in dance a year now. It is tough cause she was improving....then she started getting worse with inability to pay attention, spinning and running around the room, squealling, hand flapping, and hyperactivity (she does the dance moves with 10 times the speed and force necessary)

Good luck to you and your child! All I can say is the teacher makes a big difference. If Ali had any other dance teacher, I do not think she could do it and if she had any other teacher, the other kids would lose out because of her behaviors... We are blessed with the teacher Ali has...but what about other teachers?! Ali's subs on occasion have almost sent her out of class and have little control over the classroom with Ali in it. That is why I am afraid how regular school will be starting in September

I think it depends on their functioning level but also for motor tasks - there may be other issues here. Your son may not be able to process multiple-step directions that involve motor planning.

We currently have him in private swim lessons. I couldn't do that any other way - he has such a difficult time listening when it is even one-on-one that he would just be LOST in a group setting. But, if you put him in a tumbling class - I am sure he would do fine - even if it was in a new environment with a new teacher (as long as the teacher wasn't totally un-bending/unwilling to work with him.

By the way - he did fine in pre-school even though he required the one-on-one tumbling instruction (which actually occurred toward the end of his first pre-school year). But, every child is different! It is good to have him in classes beforehand. We did ECFE classes (not ECSE. ECFE is something in Minnesota available to ALL families to have infant/toddler/pre-school classes) since ds was 8 months old. So, he was used to listening to a teacher. We also had him in music classes since he was 14 months old until he was 5 as well.

How my son did in classes prior to kindergarten was primarily related to verbal v. visual. In all classes where it was very visual (i.e. he could just look at what the other kids were doing and just copy) such as gymnastics, art, he was very typical. No aide, no issues. However, we did sign him up for a woodshop class (just picture a room full of 5 year olds with hammers and nails) and after the 1st session the instructor recommended an aide because C was having trouble with the directions, so we got an aide (a high school girl thorugh the park district) to sit with him in class and help him with his projects.

Multi-step directions are tough for C too, but I'm pleased to see him developing some coping methods. His soccer coach last year was somewhat long winded in explaining the upcoming drills. I could tell C wasn't catching it all, but when the coach would then say something like OK, line up and put out your arms, I would see C line up. Then he would look from side to side and see the other kids had their arms out, so he would put his arms out too.