Moving to Europe with a 5 year old with Autism

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Hi,
We have a 5 year old son who has Autism. He attends mainstream school and has TA support half the time. We live in England. Does anyone have any experience of moving a child with Autism to a school where they do not speak the language. How did they cope?
Thanks.

Hey...I do!
I just moved to France from the US this past summer. I have a five year old daughter with Autism and an 8 year old son with Asperger's. My son has done pretty well other than the typical social issues he is plagued with. He attended a French Immersion school for two years in the US so he is pretty fluent in French. My Autie just learned to speak when she was a bit older than three and she does not speak French, other that a few words she has picked up. She is doing pretty well due to the fact that we are in a small town and her teacher is really good with her. They also prepared the other kids for her and they are really good with her too. She can, so far, say hello "bonjour" (sometimes she just says "hello" with an accent LOL) and she can count to ten in French. My sons school is right next door to my daughters. They are doing equally as well with him. He had some problems with the kids that escalated right before Christmas but the teachers talked to the boys and they are now being nice and asking him to play with them....we hope this continues. They do have school for Autism here but they take time to get in and my kids are doing well so I dont know if they will need to be moved or not. It may be difficult for my daughter to transition into the big school next year and my son is behind academically so they may move him for this reason. My biggest complaints are that they have been very slow to start services for my kids (therapy). The schools pushed very hard for aides and we managed to get one for each of them before Christmas so that is a big help. We are still waiting for therapy!
What country are you moving to?

Hello ! i am french but spent 3 years in holland previously, my son went to the local school, and spent 2 years in integration class before moving to a normal classroom. He learnt the language pretty quickly, but spoke, as my partner said , "illegal dutch", but as i told him, he also speaks illegal french and totally illegal english, so i guess it's just related to his way of processing languages ....(echolalia and mixing up bits and pieces to make sentences).We're now back to france and he is behind academically so i started homeschooling him, since there is no way french schools will let a 9 y old follow a CE1 program . (they say it's to prevent children making fun of him, while they were torturing him already but whatever) .
where are you in europe? and where is your son on the spectrum? it makes a huge difference in terms of help ...

Hi,
Thanks for replying so quickly. It really depends on where my husband gets a job (he is re-training to be a Physiotherapist), but somewhere in or near the Alps. I speak French to a fairly good standard, so a French speaking country would be best. I have heard about Immersion schools, I don't think they have them in the UK, but I will look into it.

Hi Ediself,
Spectrum wise, he was diagnosed with Autism not ASD, ADOS score was 16? I think. He is fairly high functioning, but accademically he is behind in half of the curriculum especially reading, writing and problem solving. I think a big problem is concentrating and staying on task. He is very able physically and he does have a few close friends in school and his teacher says the children are mostly very accepting of the way he is. We are in the UK at the moment but plan to move to the Alps. (What is CE1?
Thanks for your reply.

sorry it's french, it's the second grade of primary school, the first being when they start learning to write etc...
french alps or Italian? edit: sorry, i saw you speak french , so probably french alps..

We live in the Rhone Alps region.
I will tell you that we thought we had all our paperwork in order and still they want more. My husband is French and I am American. I speak very little French. We were receiving money for my daughter from the French government for her Autism when we were still in the US. When we moved here it stopped and we have been made to redo all the paperwork. We were also close to getting the money for my son before we moved and we had to start that all over again as well. I guess the best advice I can give is make sure you have a recent diagnosis from a qualified doctor and be sure that it is in French (have a doc who can write in French or see a French doctor)...this will help you get services faster. They understand that the diagnosis does not change but they insist that you have a recent report from a pediatrician. Also contact the Maison Des Personnes Handicape (MDPH) in the area that you move to as soon as you get a residence. Hopefully things will go faster for you but keep in mind that they tend to be slow.

Thanks for letting me know. At the moment we get DLA in the UK for him and I had read that it would continue in the EU, but I will look into it and make sure. I will also speak to his Paediatrician. Do you think that a translation by a doctor that isn't a Paediatrician would be accepted? My cousin is a Rheumatologist (i think that's spelt right?), she is Swiss and would translate all the docs for me?

My husband thinks that would work. We cant be positive but considering the translation was done by a doctor they should accept it. I wouldnt tell them that the translator is related to you though