Reading these posts made me sad and disappointed for many of the uneducated persons who are posting them. I assume that most of you are mothers who do not have jobs. Many high functioning children on the spectrum, like my daughter who has Asperger's, performs quite well in her private school. In fact, she was offered admission to all the schools she applied to out of our home local elementary school. She is currently in 6th grade at one of top privates.

I find that Asperger's kids, if you have read about them, are the children who are quiet and are rule-following, much like my daughter. Read up about the tendencies of Asperger's.

As for disruptive students and pushing and such, related to what many of you are typing in your previous posts, it sounds more like many of your children seem to have some ADHD issues, and/or maybe they could have raised to not listen to persons of authority (such as a teacher). Don't be so quick to judge that students who argue/push/fight, etc. must be autistic. Some of those students just have not been raised right...

I am currently applying two out of my 3 children to private schools for the upcoming fall. All 3 of our children have high-functioning ASD. Our daughter is in the county's Gifted Talented Magnet Elementary School Cluster, and the classes and projects are great; however, there are still large class sizes, and we are not happy with the middle school magnet in upcounty where she is slated to go.

I only wanted to reply due to what some of the previous posts said - it should not matter whether of not a child has Autism in your child's child. Technically, it is a medical diagnosis, and it is protected by HIPAA. You and your child (family) do not need to know about it unless necessary. I doubt that any autistic child, who is severe enough to be hitting people, would be mainstreamed enough to be in a private school with your child, OP, unless it is a private school for children with special needs.

It sounds like several people on this board could use do with becoming more familiar with Autism Spectrum Disorders in general. My husband and I are both professionals, and our children are 11, 9, and 5 (all with ASD). We wouldn't and couldn't have it and/or imagine it any other way). Autism affects 1 in every 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls today. It is truly today's epidemic.

It's not a question of value. It's a question of functioning. Kids with higher IQ tend to be higher functioning and have better outcomes as they grow older.

(Before I get flamed, I said "tend." It's not a guarantee. I'm sure someone on here knows a kid with an ASD who has a low IQ and who is a sweet, functional human and a kid with an ASD and a high IQ who is a little monster. Despite your anecdote, however, the tendency of the GROUP is for kids with higher IQs to do better. )

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would not care at all because my nephew is HFA and has an off the charts IQ.

And if his IQ was lower, would he have less value?

Seriously...

Anonymous wrote:Would not care at all because my nephew is HFA and has an off the charts IQ.

And if his IQ was lower, would he have less value?

Totally new to this post - without reading comments. In terms of school and class and academics - knowing this wouldn't make any difference to me. It is not something I'd share with others either.

If this was someone my child shared class with or became friends with - I might try to address it in a way that really didn't divulge anything - perhaps in abstract - or in instances if there was a relevant story/situation. To relay the ideas understanding and compassion and general kindness.

In fact, we did have a child join a grade along the way, I don't think the child was autistic but the child had other issues to contend with and was disruptive to class. My child knew this (and doesn't like disruptions in general) but my child thought the other child was nice and had seemed to recognize that the other child couldn't fully control those actions. The parents said there were challenges in the transition and that they were working with the school. We didn't do anything, say anything to anyone - just treated the other child as any other, welcomed that child and family into our class. And when my child said they were friends, we treated the child as we would any other friend. The child is very nice, is dealing with various issues, but I am glad that family and child are in our class.

There are plenty of others that are disruptive or mean and their families would never admit to it and seem to not care. And this is all without having any sort of actual hurdle to face...I think that is much worse!

Anonymous wrote:Soooo, do you or do you not tell other parents about your DC diagnosis? And why?

I do not tell other parents because my DC is still too young to be able to advocate for himself.

It depends on the situation. We told a few, especially my sons good friend. Mom had no issue and is great.

Anonymous wrote:Would not care at all because my nephew is HFA and has an off the charts IQ.

Wanted to add that there are some typical kids who are spoiled brats and are more disruptive than some special needs kids!

Would not care at all because my nephew is HFA and has an off the charts IQ.

Soooo, do you or do you not tell other parents about your DC diagnosis? And why?

I do not tell other parents because my DC is still too young to be able to advocate for himself.

Anonymous wrote:My NT ds puts up with a lot of disruption and lack of attention in his public from three SN kids. Don't know what their DX is. Yeah, I'm resentful. Going to a privage that is less tolerant of this sort of thing.

I'm sorry for that, but surely you realize that there are also plenty of SN kids out there suffering due to treatment by NT kids.

Returning to the topic of this thread, my guess is that an autistic kid usually has more to worry about from the NT kids in the classroom than the other way around.

***private***

My NT ds puts up with a lot of disruption and lack of attention in his public from three SN kids. Don't know what their DX is. Yeah, I'm resentful. Going to a privage that is less tolerant of this sort of thing.

Anonymous wrote:This thread just makes me sad. It started off great, and then sunk as low as I feared.

It was always destined to do that, you can't trust parents of NT kids not to be mean.

Meanwhile, my DS with an ASD is doing beautifully in a mainstream private, not bothering anyone. You probably don't know he's there.

This thread just makes me sad. It started off great, and then sunk as low as I feared.