Secondary School with ASD support

[ImMeeMee]

MTMT03:

My DS is diagnosed with high functioning autism and is academically able. He is giving the teachers hardtime in primary school now and we have been working with the teachers to help him in the mainstream.


We are worried how he is going to survive in the secondary school. Hope to hear from parents with child diagnosed with ASD whether the child has good support in the mainstream secondary school.

MTMT03

I have a 7 yo daughter in PL, so I do not have any real life experience dealing with secondary schools yet.

But I thought maybe I could share the list of secondary schools that support this area as follows, as far as I know.

MOE has a list of secondary schools that support special needs:
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/program ... ted-in-aed

Pathlight also has its secondary school program, although I dont know what is the entry criteria. It teams up with several mainstream schools to offer its satellite school program. The link is here.
http://www.pathlight.org.sg/aboutus/buddyschools.php

By inference I would then think that the mainstream secondary schools that team up with PL would have a relatively more supportive environment to accommodate special needs.

As for the specific schools, likely you would have to check them out individually. Hope this helps and all the best.

[Double E]

MTM03


Can share what struggles your son has with his teachers in pri school? I suppose is not on academic since you said he is able in this area. Is it behaviour? can give examples?

[jlim]

Hi, my ds who is autistic is in a mainstream secondary sch. He’s academically able but lack in social skills. The school is not one of MOE’s list of secondary school. Due to his above-average IQ, I was advised to enrol him in a normal school to challenge his learning skills. I liaise with the school to support him in other ways like his anxiety and not communicating outside home environment.

Visit the schools when they have open-house and get a feel of the school environment, and find out if the schools can support ASD kids.

[kymum]

Hi, my ds who is autistic is in a mainstream secondary sch. He’s academically able but lack in social skills. The school is not one of MOE’s list of secondary school. Due to his above-average IQ, I was advised to enrol him in a normal school to challenge his learning skills. I liaise with the school to support him in other ways like his anxiety and not communicating outside home environment.

Visit the schools when they have open-house and get a feel of the school environment, and find out if the schools can support ASD kids.

Hi jlim,
Can u PM me the secondary school that you’ve send your boy? I am looking for a mainstream school with the ‘heart’ on helping my SPD boy.
Thanks!

[MTMT03]

MTM03


Can share what struggles your son has with his teachers in pri school? I suppose is not on academic since you said he is able in this area. Is it behaviour? can give examples?

DoubleE, Son is loud, with SPD and lack of social skills though kind in nature. Any time when he deemed too noisy or hot, he may switch off and get into own world. Often, reported as being rude to teachers. However, when I observed child in school, he is actually repeating loudly what his classmates are saying softly or he may find what teacher has said is funny and keep repeating. I have told him not to repeat what others say and helps him. But, need constant reminder as for few weeks that he stopped, he may get triggered to do so again.

Then, he may use "bad" or "foul" words. We do not speak those words at home and they were picked up from school. Observed, children who say it knows that it is wrong and dare not do so in front of teachers. Some was so horrible, used word like "CCB". Son do not know and believe the meaning that the schoolmates say and used them. E.g crazy in hokkien was told to him as OMG and he used it when teacher scolded him. Getting into trouble in school and we only found out about this misunderstanding months down the road when one day he used it again when sibling do something.

Need to find one that knows it is ASD and not bad behaviour that son is having even though son has better control than many autistic children. He needs to be given transition time and be taught of various situations. I do not want to send him into a school and later just keep calling us to say he is disruptive and get him home. I understand it is not easy to have such child in school but school should do duty to educate child and let him know his mistakes. Many times, when child is sent home, he does not know what has he done wrong, no one bothers to explain to him and we do not get the details mostly the opinion that was formed about him when incidents occurred.

Child who is weak in a subject, school give tuition. Child having problem integrating to school, what does school do? Too weak academically, school suggest send for external tuition. Problem with behaviour, send to pathlight? What is the definition of a school then? Isn’t it called education? Sorting the children like a production line? If a child can be coaxed easily, how bad behaviour can the child be if effort is made to help?

I believe there must be schools with passionate teachers, willing to spend time understanding and helping the students having difficulties in terms of behaviour and academic. Importantly, not labelling the child.

[MTMT03]

Hi, my ds who is autistic is in a mainstream secondary sch. He’s academically able but lack in social skills. The school is not one of MOE’s list of secondary school. Due to his above-average IQ, I was advised to enrol him in a normal school to challenge his learning skills. I liaise with the school to support him in other ways like his anxiety and not communicating outside home environment.

Visit the schools when they have open-house and get a feel of the school environment, and find out if the schools can support ASD kids.

Hi jlim,

Could you pm me the name of the school? If not too far from home, would like to go to the school and speak to the principal personally if they could help my child.

Thank you!
MTMT03

[jmel29]

hi Mummys


can you share with me which primary school you all send your kids

[Lavina]

Hi jmel29,

Before I enrolled by child, I visited the school nearby and met the principal. He was very supportive and told me they had another ASD child. During P1, whenever he saw me, he’d enquire about my child. But he left the school the following year. And the school culture changed after that. So it may not be helpful to know where others send their child to. Every primary school have support for special needs children.

Personally, I chose schools (primary and secondary) which are
1) near my home - so that I can get there quickly when needed.
2) not top academic school - I wanted my child to be better than average academically. It is to boost his self esteem (how he sees himself and how classmates see him) as well as hopefully make the teachers more tolerant (like after she complained about behavior, she can say something positive about his results).

HTH

[phtthp]

sharing ...


to enter Pathlight Secondary school :
firstly, the child has to be diagnosed with autism, before pupil can apply for Pathlight Secondary.

for PSLE T-score
as long as the child pass PSLE and is eligible, qualify for Express, NA (Normal Academic) or NT (Normal Technical) course, Pathlight will accept the student's application.

But do note, admission is subjected to availability of vacancy.

if parent have decided to enrol your child into Pathlight after PSLE, parent can submit the application form to school, even before the results are released, and then update the school when the T-score is released in November again.