Does my son need inclusion?
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If my son does not have any stereotypical behaviors, should he be in a classroom with children who do? He does have the ability (not necessarily the motivation) to imitate. He is verbal on a 2-3 year level and has been picking up silly sounds, coming home and repeating them and cracking up laughing. It's hard to get him to snap out of it. We just moved 1300 miles to get a placement in this great school district, and now I'm wondering how he'll do. He also imitates the way his typical peers talk, esp. if they say something silly. Any thoughts on this? I haven't spent much time on here lately, so forgive me if I missed a similar topic. Thanks! I think if he's imitating the other kids and paying attention to them, then it is time to get him around typical peer models. He's still young enough that the other kids will accept him at face value and not really pick up on his differences (or care too much about them). My experience so far with mainstreaming (all of a month) has been positive. One of my daughters is picking up some very appropriate language and social behavior. She even has a typical friend who she pals around with at the 'Y', and this typical friend really likes playing with her (in a mother hen sort of way, but it's still beneficial for Abbie). My other daughter is not developing as quickly socially, but she is now participating in her mainstream kindergarten class -raising her hand to answer questions during group instruction, which she started just a week or two ago. My opinion is that autistic kids pick up language and social skills from the environment just as typical kids do (perhaps more slowly). This might not be the case for kids who are seriously withdrawn and not paying attention to the other kids, but for kids that do pay attention and do have some motivation to interact with their peers, this is the best way, in my opinion, that they can develop. OTOH - if this class does have peer models, it sounds like a good placement. I wouldn't worry about the other autistic kids rubbing off on him as long as there are peers modelling good behavior and language, too. JMHO. My 5yo dd was doing that at the end of the school year last year. i opted for a mainstream placement with supports. It's been really rough for her at times but she is making progress although it is slow. The kids have been wonderful to her though and some do try and take the lead and "mother" her.I'm having a similar issue with my ds when he is pulled out for rest time into the ASD room. His friend, who is the other boy with autism in his classroom, has not been a good influence. He spits on other kids (including one of the twins that is ds' good friend), says mean things, says words that I don't allow (like stupid), etc. Not sure what to do about it, except keeping on telling ds that that behavior isn't appropriate. I'm talking to the ASD teacher about it - but obviously she can't comment on another child's behavior to me, due to confidentiality. However, she can look into it and see if she can work on the other child's issues. It does rub off on him a LOT - and it drives me nuts. Because ds is one to DEFINITELY imitate, but he doesn't have the social skills or judgment to know when it is not appropriate to do so! And, if a friend is doing it, shouldn't he be able to do it as well? better. I will give you an example. There is one little girl in his class who does not always follow the classroom rules. She stuck her tongue out at my son during rug time. My son stuck his tongue out the next day during most of rug time, he stuck out is tongue at therapy and at home. First we ignored it.( I thought is was for attention) and them we put it in extinction. That is one small behavior but I rather he model appropriate behaviors and get reinforced for doing so. As long as there are many more peers who model appropriate behaviors, you are fine. I will add that my son was in an asd playgroup run by our ABA agency and the kids were pretty compliant and were pretty good just the social and conversations were tough. Just because kids are in the spectrum does not mean that they all have major behaviors either. Many of our kiddos have a lot of Behavioral Intervention at a very early age. FLying in and out, didn't read other response. I think some inclusion is good in the areas where your child enjoys the topic of that part of the day. Say, story time or arts/crafts or math. Whatever he will excel in, let him experience sharing that cool portion of his day with a bunch of NT peers. On picking up stereotypical habits from non NT peers. If he gets no internal thrill from the behavior, he will drop it within a couple months. Cole started to go UGH like a nonverbal child while pointing to the goldfish crackers. I'd just say, sorry, we're all out of UGH...if you tell me what you want, I will try to help you. When a blind child was introduced into the class, Cole started walking around our house with his hands over his eyes and bumping into the furniture. He'd bust out laughing over this slapstick Three Stooges type humor. Apparently, he found it funny when this kid would walk into doorjambs and fall on his butt. Not nice, but he was 4 at the time. Anyway, the grunting and blindwalking lasted about two months. I asked the teacher PRECISELY the question you are asking us, and she said that all kids will imitate, just to be playful and experimental. But when it doesn't do anything for them inside, it drops off. She was right. Thanks for your thoughts. I know my son is in a very good school where they really do try to discourage behaviors enough so that the children can be mainstreamed eventually. Today, he came home, made a silly noise and said, "No, Jessie" definetly echoing an exchange between a teacher and classmate. So, I guess he just finds it humorous for some reason. I will keep track of it, and I'm going to start taking him to a regular playgroup on Saturday mornings. As much as I love his school, I can't help wondering how he would do in a mainstream preschool with support. The IEP team in our new district DID assure me that the staff at his school would be the first to tell me if they felt he could not thrive there. I guess we just have to give it some time. The goal of our school is to mainstream as much as possible. I think both special ed, although the kids were NOT all ASD, plus mainstreaming helped my son. He is almost completely mainstreamed now, and is able to "pass" as typical. He still has issues that people can't see, but I do think it helps to keep them with their "typical" peers as much as you can. On the other hand, most of his friends are from his Spec. Ed class, but he has some "typical" friends too. Mostly, though, he only sees them at school. The thing now days is to mainstream most kids. This also saves money for the govt/ states also though. Mainstream was a problem for Daniel cause he was teased/2 times life threatned. The down side to Se all day is they see behaviors that are worse than their own already. I have seen both sides. This is why Daniel's at home this year. I hear 50/50 can work well for some. My biggest issue with mainstream is the kids who get away with teasing Se kids with no punishments. I blaim there parent's though who never taught them this is not ok to do. Some think the bullying laws is dumb. I even had a mom tell me that. This makes me so mad when parent's think meaness is ok. [QUOTE=daniel's mom]My biggest issue with mainstream is the kids who get away with teasing Se kids with no punishments. I blaim there parent's though who never taught them this is not ok to do. Some think the bullying laws is dumb. I even had a mom tell me that. This makes me so mad when parent's think meaness is ok. danielsmom, that really makes a lot of sense. You'll like this article that was just sent to me about a bullying case in FL. I'm going to keep it as a reference. So did you decide to homeschool?
[QUOTE=daniel's mom]My biggest issue with mainstream is the kids who get away with teasing Se kids with no punishments. I blaim there parent's though who never taught them this is not ok to do. Some think the bullying laws is dumb. I even had a mom tell me that. This makes me so mad when parent's think meaness is ok. Dunno if the Mom meant kids should be allowed to bully! But when they counter it by a rah-rah assembly and no-bullying-zone posters, and that meets the law, and they think they have done their job ... THAT'S dumb. You should ck out the new issue of wrightslaw- this is National Bullying Prevention Month |
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I have caught myself almost saying those words from my mother, "Well, if so and so wanted to go jump off a bridge - would you do it too?" Probably not a wise saying to put into his head, so I haven't said it. But BOY have I thought it!