Hi Learningmom,
My DS8 has AS and gets accelerated math at school.
Yes, writing is often a problem for people with AS. We have worked very hard to get DS at grade level and keep him there. Some people use OT for this but we got better results by letting our behavioral psychologist design a program for us; as with many AS behaviors there can be rigidity about issues like pencil grip and what topics to write about.
There's a lot you can do to increase tolerance of new, non-preferred, or unexpected events; the book Parenting Your Asperger Child is good on this topic. You'd be welcome to come to OASIS-- there is a good message board there, including some parents of gifted AS kids.
http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/I'd advise bringing your private psychologist to the school negotiations and having them advocate on your DS's behalf. A person not in the family who's got the right degree can say things you can't say, and be heard. We have also had occasion to hire an educational advocate to work behind the scenes for us; this has been useful. We basically never give school people things to read, and certainly not off the internet; they probably won't read it anyhow and they would consider anything printed off the web as not authoritative.
You should know that it's illegal for them to discriminate; if they'd accelerate a non-disabled child who knows what your DS knows, they should accelerate your DS. Our school did the Iowa Acceleration Scale (inappropriately, as it is meant for whole-grade acceleration) before allowing DS to accelerate in math. It's been very beneficial.
Best,
DeeDee
