Children with Autism at the fabulous 4

[Anonymous]

My DC has Asperger's syndrome. What schools would be the best fit for him out of:
St. Alban's, Sidwell, and Maret?
He is very academically gifted as well at artistically gifted. He also excels in sports such as tennis and soccer He is very high functioning and his only problems are with social interactions. He shadowed at all of the schools plus GDS. He liked Sidwell the best. He needs a school with small class sizes a structured program and outlets for music, arts, sports, incorporated into the program. He also needs an academically challenging curriculum for math and a strong writing program. Which of these schools would be the best match for him.

Any first hand experience with children with Autism in the fabulous 4? All four schools said that they have had several children with Asperger's do very well in their schools and went on to top Universities.

[Anonymous]

bump!

[Anonymous]

First you simply need to see which of these schools accept him. Then post a query to parents of children with ASDs or other disabilities and their experiences at the specific schools that have accepted your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First you simply need to see which of these schools accept him. Then post a query to parents of children with ASDs or other disabilities and their experiences at the specific schools that have accepted your child.

He was accepted to St. Alban's, and Maret. He was wailisted at Sidwell. They said they hope to have an opeing for him by this summer. I am still waiting for GDS to make their decision. They all said that they feel that thier schools would be a good fit for him. GDS is still trying to determine that. I just wanted to hear from parents who have had Autistic children in those schools. He is on the vey high end of the spectrum it would take someone who is very familiar with this disorder to even detect it.

[Anonymous]

12:52 here. I'm a psychologist who has some experience in this area. Socially, you may want to consider the differences between a single-sex environment and a co-ed environment and try to determine whether that makes a difference in his comfort level. I hope some parents of children with ASDs at these schools can weigh in with their experiences. Good luck with your choice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First you simply need to see which of these schools accept him. Then post a query to parents of children with ASDs or other disabilities and their experiences at the specific schools that have accepted your child.

He was accepted to St. Alban's, and Maret. He was wailisted at Sidwell. They said they hope to have an opeing for him by this summer. I am still waiting for GDS to make their decision. They all said that they feel that thier schools would be a good fit for him. GDS is still trying to determine that. I just wanted to hear from parents who have had Autistic children in those schools. He is on the vey high end of the spectrum it would take someone who is very familiar with this disorder to even detect it.

OP here. Sorry about the typo's I guess this will end up in the gammar police thread. LOL!!

[Anonymous]

OP: This is not an answer to your question but I thought you might have advice for us. I've suspected for a while that our child is an extremely high functioning Asperger's kid. Which doctor diagnosed your son? It would have to be someone who really can see the subtle differences. Just fyi, we've seen specialists who have told us that nothing is wrong but I continue to suspect that this is very subtle but that it is there. Please let me know who you think we should see next.

[Anonymous]

PP, Thanks for the questions - I'd be interested to hear the answer to your question also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: This is not an answer to your question but I thought you might have advice for us. I've suspected for a while that our child is an extremely high functioning Asperger's kid. Which doctor diagnosed your son? It would have to be someone who really can see the subtle differences. Just fyi, we've seen specialists who have told us that nothing is wrong but I continue to suspect that this is very subtle but that it is there. Please let me know who you think we should see next.

I took him to a psychologist out of a concern that he had some type of social anxiety such as selective mutism that was not really picked up until he was about 8 years old. He was always extremely gifted. He started reading at the age of 18 months. He was calculating math problems at the age of 2. I just thought he was a little geniuss. Other things that were quite different about him as a young child was he was extremely sensitive to light, sounds and certain materiel. His Dr's never thought much of that just that he was overly sensitive so I just ignored it. The concern from me did not really come until he was in the fourth grade and I noticed that he did not seem to interact with the children at school. The kids liked him, invited him to parties and play dates, etc but he seemed to be not interested in them at all. He would just go to school and do his work and play with kids when they invited him to. He never initiated the playing or communication. The teachers never were concerned because he was a straight A student who score high above the average on the state wide exams but I knew that something was quite not right. I guess you could say a mothers intuition.

I took him to a psychologist who first diagnosed him with selective mustism. He did not like going there so I found a great child psychologist who does play therapy with him and he loves going there. He was the one who diagnosed him with Asperger's . He said to look at it as a blessing. If it wasn't for Asperger's we would not have great music (Mozart, Beethoven, etc), microsoftword, internet, software (Bill Gates and other computer geeks), great art (Van Gough, Monet), great leaders (Thomas Jefferson), scientists (Einstein, Newton) and all of the other great things that we enjoy today. He said that I should not worry about the Asperberg's preventing him from succeeding in life but to look at it his path to success and greatness. He is a great kid, gifted artist, good student, talented but may seem a bit strange in behavior to others but that is about the extent of his disability
.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: This is not an answer to your question but I thought you might have advice for us. I've suspected for a while that our child is an extremely high functioning Asperger's kid. Which doctor diagnosed your son? It would have to be someone who really can see the subtle differences. Just fyi, we've seen specialists who have told us that nothing is wrong but I continue to suspect that this is very subtle but that it is there. Please let me know who you think we should see next.

I took him to a psychologist out of a concern that he had some type of social anxiety such as selective mutism that was not really picked up until he was about 8 years old. He was always extremely gifted. He started reading at the age of 18 months. He was calculating math problems at the age of 2. I just thought he was a little geniuss. Other things that were quite different about him as a young child was he was extremely sensitive to light, sounds and certain materiel. His Dr's never thought much of that just that he was overly sensitive so I just ignored it. The concern from me did not really come until he was in the fourth grade and I noticed that he did not seem to interact with the children at school. The kids liked him, invited him to parties and play dates, etc but he seemed to be not interested in them at all. He would just go to school and do his work and play with kids when they invited him to. He never initiated the playing or communication. The teachers never were concerned because he was a straight A student who score high above the average on the state wide exams but I knew that something was quite not right. I guess you could say a mothers intuition.

I took him to a psychologist who first diagnosed him with selective mustism. He did not like going there so I found a great child psychologist who does play therapy with him and he loves going there. He was the one who diagnosed him with Asperger's . He said to look at it as a blessing. If it wasn't for Asperger's we would not have great music (Mozart, Beethoven, etc), microsoftword, internet, software (Bill Gates and other computer geeks), great art (Van Gough, Monet), great leaders (Thomas Jefferson), scientists (Einstein, Newton) and all of the other great things that we enjoy today. He said that I should not worry about the Asperberg's preventing him from succeeding in life but to look at it his path to success and greatness. He is a great kid, gifted artist, good student, talented but may seem a bit strange in behavior to others but that is about the extent of his disability
.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

ok I'll bite -- we know that Thomas Jefferson had Asperger's? Bill Gates has confirmed that he has this?

To answer your question, I'd go with Sidwell if possible.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ok I'll bite -- we know that Thomas Jefferson had Asperger's? Bill Gates has confirmed that he has this?

To answer your question, I'd go with Sidwell if possible.

No, we don't. We have retrospective diagnoses of behavioral traits based on very imperfect records of behavior. While I think there is a significant likelihood that a number of historical "eccentrics" would now be diagnosed as having Asperger's or being on the autism spectrum, we cannot prove this one way or the other.

[Anonymous]

Why do we need all of these labels. If someone is gifted or eccentric let them just be and express themselves freely. We do not have to put them in a seperate label such at Austic or Asbergers , etc just because they don't fit in the box of what we so call "normal".
Your child should be fine in any of those schools. I see many kids at all of those schools that may fit that so called label.

[Anonymous]

What difference does a diagnoses of Aspergers make? If you intervene where necessary, social skills groups if they have social issues, therapy if they are having other problems? There is no specific set of interventions for Asperger's so the absolute diagnosis doesn't get you anything.
Just wondering why the diagnosis is soooo important?