School Update: AS, Academics, and Advocacy

I can't believe that the Boychick's first semester in high school is almost over!
When did December sneak up on us?

Since we are almost to the halfway point of the Boychick's freshman year at EMHS, I think it's a good time to post a school update. (I meant to do so at the quarter, but we were in the middle of the High Holy Days).

This semester has been one of adjustments, testing, social triumphs and tragedies, and learning.
It has been a good semester!

That the Boychick is an Aspie has definitely had an impact, more so now that he is in school.
Although I did a lot of teaching of strategies to compensate academically during our homeschooling days, some of the sensory and social issues were more easily dealt with at home, and some did not rear their pointy little heads.

Now that he is in school, the Boychick has had to deal with being overwhelmed by sensory stimuli and emotional drama--his own and that of others. In some cases he has shut down, and in others, he has become hyperkinetic and contributed to the overall problem in the classroom. He has a skilled special education teacher to whom he can go when he needs help coping. Just today, for example, he left his Humanities homework on his desk in his room. He had worked on it with a friend last night, as was proud that he had completed it without Mom's help or reminding. But then he forgot to put it into his backpack.
So he called, sounding wrung-out and near tears to tell me to bring it with me when I came over to the school. I teach on Tuesday afternoon there.
He told me exactly what to bring and where to find it on his desk.
Bless his pointy little Aspie head! His visual memory is very exact!


When I arrived at school for my weekly volunteer duty (I teach a writing workshop for 6 special education students), the Boychick was in the Resource room. I was surprised to see him, since he is not in the group I teach. I said: "You are the luckiest boy in the world! You forgot your homework for the first time on a Tuesday."
He seemed better then, and took it immediately to his Humanities teacher.
Later, Ms. R., the special education teacher told me that the Humanities teacher did not believe that he had done it. This upset the Boychick, and he shut down and had to go sit in the Resource room to clear his head.

The case of his math class was more difficult. There, he was placed in a class composed of boys with a new albeit very enthusiastic teacher. In the first weeks of school, this group developed a synergy that made them one of those proverbial classes from hell. The problem for the Boychick is that he is very distractible and has great difficulty focusing on his work in a relatively quiet classroom; the drama of this class meant he was not learning.
But the Boychick is perseverative, and easily influenced by others. So he would pick up the pencil tapping or whatever and then continue it long after the others had gotten tired of it.
We have been working with the Boychick on understanding this about himself and developing strategies to cope and prevent the perseverations.

Finally, the day one of the other boys spilled iced tea all over the Boychick's homework, the Boychick had enough.
He got up. He wrung his papers out in the sink.
He put them on the corner of the teacher's desk.
And he left the room.
Permanently.
He told the Educational Assistant that he was not going back there.
Period.
The math teacher invited him for a conference, and the Boychick stuck to his decision.
But he also explained to her why he could not learn in that environment.
They switched his schedule and moved him to another group for math.
Problem solved.
The Engineering Geek and I, Ms. R., the EA, the social worker and the dean of freshman, were all overjoyed at his self-advocacy! This is a giant step towards self-understanding and independence.

There have been other social challenges: dealing with bullies, other freshman boys, upper-classmen. And girls. Oy! But he is finding his way and even met a girl at the Homecoming dance.

Academically, there have been challenges as well.
We told the Boychick that we were not concerned about grade percentages this year, as long as he is passing his courses. He needs to maintain at least a 70% in each class to pass. Otherwise . . . Dum, da dum dah! . . . it's credit recovery a.k.a summer school.
There is also homework every night, major projects and high expectations for performance.

This has been difficult for the Boychick.
This fall, he was re-evaluated for Special Education, and the testing shows why he has difficulty. Once again, no valid IQ score could be calculated.
He had the classic Asperger pattern: very high verbal comprehension (does not require language pragmatics), very high perceptual organization (requires good visual-spatial skills); very low working memory (requires auditory input), very low processing speed.
In the academic testing, he shows large discrepancies between his potential and performance in math calculation (it's the working memory and processing speed), as well as in writing organization and mechanics. He has auditory processing deficits, and considerable visual strengths.

I do expect that we can improve working memory, but only marginally, if we have passed the known critical period of development. We will need to work with him on organizational skills, as well as on compensatory strategies for his deficits.
He also needs to be challenged in his areas of considerable strength.
Like reading: I am so glad that he is a reader!
The IEP will have social and transition (to adulthood) goals as well.

Sigh. I had really thought that we might not need the IEP given the great progress the Boychick made while homeschooling. But because of his social deficits and mind-blindness, as well as his considerable difficulties with auditory processing, he needs interventions to even out his skills and succeed academically in the school setting. He also needs accommodations such as extra time on written assignments, small-group testing, written instructions, and the use of a calculator for speed work in math.

Overall, though, I appreciate that the Boychick's considerable intelligence makes it much easier to compensate for and circumvent his considerable learning disabilities.
The same is true for the social-communication disability which is at the heart of AS.
Cognitive methods can be used to teach social skills and language pragmatics because the Boychick is smart enough to use them.

The Boychick can have a good and productive life.
His considerable intellectual skills may even make it a spectacularly successful life.
But he (and we) will have to work much harder to make it so.

Fortunately, I think we up to the challenge.