Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional update on Asperger's middle school choice dilemma

Hi Everyone:

At Grinity�s request, I am posting this update on the public DITD forum:

You may recall that last year around this time I was agonizing over the middle school choice for our DYS (now 12 and in 6th grade) who has Asperger�s. We were torn between a high-performing mega-middle school for the gifted and talented (which I called G&T) that addressed only DYS12's giftedness, and a much smaller, more local school (which I called Cozy) that happened to have a special inclusion program for kids with Asperger�s but didn�t seem focused on helping gifted kids. Both schools are public.

It turns out the Cozy school has been a great fit. DYS12's Asperger's issues were really holding him back in school and this year has been wonderful in getting him ready for more advanced learning and academic work.

I thought I would go through what has helped, in the hopes that it might help other people with Asperger's kids figure out what accommodations they might want to ask for in their IEPs or what to look for in the school.

WRITING

DYS12's writing was always extremely lack-luster. He did not get "write for your reader" AT ALL, and his writing tending to be as brief as possible, or, if on a subject he loved, rambling, without context, and barely intelligible. He also almost always struggled with picking a topic. Assignments were always either too specific or not specific enough, and he didn�t seem to feel comfortable with generating an idea and running with it. He never placed a priority on spelling or punctuation (HE knew where to pause).

Now, he gets a computer for in-class work, which helps address the slowness due to dysgraphia.

He gets a rubric for each and every writing assignment (even a standard rubric for his reading journal entries), showing him what the teacher is looking for and how many points each item is worth. It has been eye-opening to him that teachers care about basic (and to him, unimportant) things like getting your name on the paper and writing down the assignment number. The rubrics have also clearly shown him that the teachers want him to show he has mastered the material taught, and that he gets more points for more in-depth writing.

For writing, he has also benefited from very thoughtful and detailed teacher comments for each draft of an assignment. This was not part of the IEP, but seems to be par for the course for the school, which has low classloads and lot of prep time for the teachers. Each of his academic classes is team-taught, with one Asperger�s teacher and one normal teacher in a class of 25 kids, including five with Aspergers.

In addition, the teachers seem bright and motivated. I think the hiring committee must have school snobs on it, because almost all of the teachers seem to have liberal arts degrees from well-regarded East Coast private colleges. Touring the school, I had no idea how much teachers responded to writing, but I guess you could try to figure this out by asking about teacher workload, prep time, how many teachers have bachelor�s degrees in education vs bachelor�s degrees in another subject.

Interestingly, the teachers tell me that they have found that almost all their kids with Asperger�s struggle with writing, mostly for the above issues, so the Asperger�s teacher in ELA will often do a pull-out session, in another classroom, with the five kids in his Asperger�s subgroup, where they tackle these sorts of problems. If you would like something similar for your child, you could ask for an IEP with one-on-one work editing to take into account a reader�s perspective, having rubrics, and brainstorming topic ideas.

ORGANIZATION
-BACKPACKS/LOCKERS

All the 6th graders got help learning how to be organized at the beginning of the year. They started with a lot of organization scaffolding for all of the kids and have been slowly pulling back. For example, they have backpack check/organizing built into the schedule and DYS12�s teacher has gone through his backpack with him and talked about what to take home, leave at school and how to keep it organized.

-NOTEBOOKS

The math class is being used to teach kids how to keep notes and assignments for later study. Once a unit is completed, each student has to transfer all assignments, tests, and notes from the unit in a notebook, that stays in class, in a specific order. One of the teachers goes through the notebook with the student, to make sure they are organizing it the right way and really have everything. As kids get better at this, they are checked less often. DYS12 is still checked each unit. Now that mid-terms are coming up, the kids have the opportunity to check out their notebooks for study.

-NOTETAKING

The social studies class is being used for teaching note-taking methods and skills. Due to dysgraphia, DYS12 is very slow at this and is still getting fill-in-the-blanks outline notes from his teachers, where he can follow along and jot in vocab words or names of concepts without having to write or type in everything.

HOMEWORK

Kids have an assignment notebook and are expected to use it. Kids take phone numbers of two other kids in class to call about assignments. All homework is posted on-line, including any worksheets or forms to be used. Teachers send an e-mail home EVERY SINGLE TIME DYS12 forgets to turn in an assignment. Homework can be turned in late within a one-week window, for an ever-diminishing number of points. DYS12 has realized that sometimes it�s better to just turn something in on time. Homework completion and turn in have improved dramatically.

PROJECTS

Kids are assigned more complex multi-stage projects and given deadlines for accomplishing each step. Thus far, they have not yet had the kids try to set their own timelines for projects.

BEHAVIOR

In the Asperger�s breakout class, kids learn techniques for overcoming troubling behavior, like using meta-cognition to think about how they deal with transitions, or moving away from obvious stims, like rocking or hand-flapping, to other more subtle ways of keeping calm. They learn to pay attention to non-verbal cues, take turns talking, being open-minded problem-solvers, etc.

Kids then get rewarded for trying out these techniques in the regular classrooms. In each regular class, all of the kids are given tickets for good behavior that they can use to redeem for a free homework pass or goodies from the school store. Good behavior for a non-Aspie might be participating a lot in class, turning in excellent work, or helping another child in class. For an Aspie kid, it might be providing eye contact, not having a melt-down at a transition, or not talking over people. The tickets are redeemable for homework passes, pizza, or items, some of which have been specifically selected for the very particular interests of the kids in the Asperger�s program. For example, if one kid really, really loves traffic signs, they will have some traffic-sign-related stuff for him to redeem with his tickets.

DIFFERENTIATION

For math, he is taking an honors track class that will lead to taking NYS Regents algebra in 8th grade. Since math is not his strong suit, this slight acceleration (four years of math in three years, plus a presumed level of competence in arithmetic) is bearable to him.

None of the other classes are tracked, but the teachers seem to attempt to give him access to the knowledge he craves and do a great job giving creative, fun assignments that challenge. The open-ended nature of many assignments mean they can be worked on at the child�s level, and the teachers� very detailed written comments and feedback have pushed DYS12 to work at a higher level.

For example, for a research paper on mummies, kids had to read books for their research. DYS12�s teacher encouraged him to review a large group of books and select some of the more dense books for reading. The teacher�s comments on the original outline indicated he wanted DYS12 to provide more detail and make more connections.

In addition, because of the special Asperger�s program and a letter from our Davidson consultant, the teachers are already clued in that DYS12 has more going on inside than might be indicated by the type of slapdash, poor work he turned in in past years, and they expect more out of him. Also, it has helped that the teaching staff at his new school all seem very intelligent and thoughtful.

GOLDILOCKS/IMPOSTER SYNDROME

Since some areas of learning come so easily to DYS12, he tends to freak out when he doesn�t immediately understand something in math, where he is somewhat gifted, but not PG. When I say freak out, I mean tears, pouting, outbursts, you name it. In most years, math has been either too easy or too hard, with an impossibly thin band of �just right.� In addition, when he freaks out and his brain freezes, he decides that he must not really be that smart after all, since he doesn�t already know X and he didn�t learn Y instantly. Multiple times this year, he has reported that he probably shouldn�t be in this math class, even though his placement is definitely justified by his standardized test scores and scores on the state tests.

The school has tackled this sort of issue in the Asperger�s break outs, where they try to help the kids remember solutions to challenging situations they can apply to new experiences, remembered past successes, etc. In addition, the math teachers provide lots of out of class time for tutoring. It�s been beneficial for him to see that a lot of the high-achieving kids in his math class are also going to the math teacher for help during the tutoring time. This is still a big issue for him, but if I get any more info on how they deal with this at school, I will pass it on.

CONCLUSION

I�m sorry to have written such a novel on this subject and hope this will be helpful to someone out there!


bk1

Wow! Except for using food as reward, it seems like this approach would be wonderful for so many kids. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

Thanks so much for posting this. A lot of what you wrote could, with very slight modifications, be taken directly into an IEP or 504 plan meeting as suggested accommodations and modifications, or used by homeschooling families to help develop a social and organizational skills component for the curriculum. I think it is really important to be sure that whoever is educating an AS kid is actually addressing the need to develop these skills and not just taking over the tasks so the child doesn't have to deal with them, tempting as that is.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give us all the details.
DS10, AS, is transitioning back into school for 5th grade, after homeschooling for a year, to work on a lot of these issues. His IEP will include a pullout for writing, help with organization issues and social skils and independent study for math. We have come a long way on the Goldilocks issue by working through new and challenging topics on a regular basis. The psychologist from the autism center has been doing a brief guided meditation with him, that he can use descretely anywhere, whenever he feels anxiety or frustration. He has actually now used it enough that he really feels it works for him.
I can't wait to share some of your ideas with his team, especially the one about the rubric for exactly what the teacher expects! THANK YOU!!

I'm going to print this out for our school team! Thanks!

Yes, as other said-- THANK YOU for all of the wonderful details and explanation. Your post contains a lot of really wonderful ideas and tips for NT gifties with problems in organization or transitions, too.

Congratulations on the terrific school placement for your son! It sounds like he is really thriving, and it's easy to see why.

DS does still claim to hate school, but I think he is much happier than he was in elementary school.


It helps that the school, which advertises itself as a math and science school with weekly field trips, is a nerd magnet, with lots of kids, AS and neurotypical, who love the same things he does. The school works on building relationships. For example, at the beginning of the school year, the entire 6th grade went on a YMCA campout where teh kids did ropes courses and team building activities. That was actually the point I knew I had made the right choice. I knew the teachers knew DS's issues and were going to make sure he was alright.

That sounds like a fabulous school. Congratulations! It must be such a relief to find a place that fits so well.

BK1, this is awesome. Thanks for sharing!

DeeDee

Zowie!
Two things come to mind-- I'm glad he's having a good year, and that was an amazingly well-structured post.