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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][
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Excellent advice.  My DS (still no diagnosis yet, IEP is under developmental delay) could probably have coped without his IEP or in a private had we gotten in at 3-4 when his social differences were less apparent.  [b]But, he's doing SO much better with the IEP supports that helped him transition to the demands of kindergarten and learn the basic skills he's now building on.  Plus, I honestly believe the public schools are more demanding and rigorous than most privates in early elementary, and that this is really good for kids with learning differences if they are properly supported, because they get a lot of practice that they need and focus on the basics.  [/b]Whereas at a tony private, I can imagine that the attitude is more "oh, no need to push reading and writing; our bright children will pick it up out of the air because their parents are smart and read to them a lot."  [/quote]

That's awesome, PP.

We're in the other camp though, preferring privates -- SN or mainstream - that have a heavy SEL component, at least early on, rather than rigorous academics.   My sense is the publics are beginning to focus on SEL, but it's still a bit spotty and always subject to getting less attention since it's not a "topic" on the standardized tests.  Others agree?  [/quote]

Not really. I think privates may be a nicer environment but our public did SEL as a curriculum at least as well. Privates are picking kids for their good social skills so these programs are pretty loose, in my experience (not bad, just not all that helpful if your child doesn’t pick this stuff up implicitly). Whereas public (which I have mixed feeling about for other reasons) has an incentive to teach social and regulation skills explicitly, because a lot of their kids need them.[/quote]

[b]The idea that a mainstream school's "focus on SEL" is going to be the kind of social skills support that a kid with ASD needs is just wrong.  Mainstream "SEL" is just stuff like "count to 10 when you feel mad!"  Smaller class sizes are likely a much more legitimate reason to look at a mainstream private that might be inclusive.  Also the point about my comment about our public being rigorous is not so much that I think K needs to be academic, but that by focusing on teaching basic skills such as writing with a lot of intensity is great for kids who need more support in that area.  If a school assumes they don't need to teach writing and reading with focus (because the kids are privileged and are just going to "pick it up") then that might result in a 4th grader who can't write.  [/b][/quote]

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