Special Ed?

Post Reply New Topic

I was abit confused about something. When a child or teen has aspergers are they put into special classes with other kids who have multiple problems with being mentally challenged/physically disabled? Or are they put into regular classes and just may have extra help in something they have trouble with? The reason I'm wondering is because there is a local soccer team in my area for kids who have disabilities the kids are 6-12 yrs old and some have down syndrome and some have aspergers and probly some other kids with different disabilities too. And this team had extra help with how to play soccer and stuff. Even tho the kids were quite young I was still wondering why they would put everyone together cus down syndrome is completly different from aspergers i think. Not that it matters but I mean for the kids with aspergers i was wondering if they felt abit belittled to be into the same category with kids with low functioning disabilities. Don't get me wrong I dont have anything against low functioning disabilities i just wonder when will people draw the line instead of just either saying your normal so u go with the normal kids and just cus u have aspergers u are considered ret*d and have to go into the group with the kids that are in a vegetable state..(i dont mean all of them are like that just trying to get my point across) And I was wondering if the same was true for school? Do they put all the so called "normal" kids together and the ones who have "disabilities" together? I dont know as i was homeschooled most of my life. Cus I do know that probly the kids with aspergers have a hard time understanding what u have to do in soccer through vocal instructions and need to be shown how visually and that may be why they were all put together..Cus they probly have the capabilities to play soccer with regular kids their age just need to be shown visually & carefully by someone. Idk i just think it could be abit unfair for the aspergers child cus once they get how to play the soccer game maybe they dont need all the help all the time as if they are severly autistic or something.
Sorry if i am confusing anyone.

It depends on the kid. All these things are decided on a case-by-case basis in most situations. Some autistic people have motor control problems, for example, and some people with Asperger's might be more severely autistic than someone with HFA.

It all really depends on the need of the student. If they need more than the regular classroom can provide then they are able to go into classes where there is more support. It's all about the Least Restrictive Environment for the student.

Perhaps it was a Special Olympics team, the season is about to start in a month. There is a chance that while they may have Asperger's they also have another disorder going on. I volunteer with Special Olympics and often it doesn't pop out that an athelete has a disability or any impairment going. The Special Olympics is for intellectual disabilities and below average functioning compared to peers. The atheletes with Aspergers have a lower social functioning and the Special Olympic team allows them to learn the sport at a pace they can understand with a lot of support.

While I was in a special prOgram for a few years, I've never been with the hardcore special Ed with kids with Downs and LFA and have been mostly in mainstream education the entire time.

When my parents finally found out what was wrong with me I got put into special ed in 4th grade till junior high then I was in a special program untill 9th grade then was put back into normal classes. I remember the times I rode the short bus to school it was nice to have a bus pick you up in front of your house!

I see...thanks for the info..i have no idea what the public school system is like cus like i said i was homeschooled

My son just doesn't get swimming - he hates putting his face in the water and has trouble the free style stroke and pretty much hasn't learnt anything in the past 6 months (it doesn't help that he has no interest in learning how to swim). Anyway, we are considering putting him in a special needs class for swimming so that may include kids with DS but so be it, if he isn't coping in mainstream swimming why pursue it.

Now that's interesting.
In my country, when parents learn their kid has autism they usually send them to TREATMENT THERAPY and pray to GOD that the kid will be CURED from this DISEASE
that is, after they complain for a WHILE about their CRUEL FATES and how they are cursed with a HANDICAPPED child

I remember in third grade I went to a special class for a while every day. (I was in regular class for most of the day) There were about 6 kids in the class and we'd do arts and crafts type stuff. I asked my mom what it was for and she doesn't remember. I really wish I knew what it was all about. I remember talking to the school counselor around that time and she asked me to count backwards, checking general coordination (asked me to skip and stacking blocks) and asking me about things. (don't remember exactly what kind of questions)

Kids with ASDs may be mainstreamed without accommodations, with accommodations, or with an aide; they may spend time in special classes in addition to mainstream classes, or they may be taught in a self-contained classroom for kids with disabilities. Depending on the size of the school, a self-contained classroom may be for kids with all disabilities, for kids with the same general academic ability, for kids with the same general accommodation needs, or for kids with ASDs generally or high-functioning ASDs specifically. Kids with ASDs may be home-schooled, or they may attend a special school for children with disabilities, for children with ASDs, or for children with atypical educational needs including gifted and twice-exceptional students.

So, yeah, it's quite common for disabled kids and non-disabled kids to be integrated in the same classroom--beneficial on both sides, in fact, though it requires the teacher to be more flexible. Like you said, OP, sometimes one child needs more help than another, and it's important that he gets the help he needs, while his more independent friend is allowed to do things on his own. It is a problem, but it's not an insurmountable one, and I think it is absolutely worth the effort, because of the general benefits of diversity in an educational setting--the experience of getting to know people who are not like yourself, to communicate across neurological and cultural boundaries.

Regarding that soccer team, I think grouping Aspies with DS kids is just fine. The social skills in the group will be roughly the same, with any advantage probably going to the DS kids. Both groups will have motor-skills difficulties, the AS kids due to dyspraxia and the DS kids due to poor muscle tone in general. They will share the experience of being disabled and "different" in general. And it's a good thing for both groups to get to know other kids with disabilities different from their own, so that they'll be able to communicate better with people unlike themselves--especially people with whom they'll share important issues as they grow up, such as inclusion of the disabled in the general population at work and school.

I think the only real "insult" suffered by anyone in this situation would be the parents of kids with Asperger's who have convinced themselves that their kids are eccentric geniuses who are somehow "not disabled", who look down on people with low academic ability and developmental delay like you find in DS. These parents might well think that their kids should not be on a sports team with Down's kids; but they are wrong. Yes, these kids have different abilities, but as I've said, their abilities in sports should be roughly equivalent, and that's really what matters when kids are playing sports together. You want an evenly matched group, so that everybody gets challenged without being totally overmatched. Sure, there'll be particularly capable kids in both the ASD and DS groups, but that's normal in any group. So long as they're kept from lording it over the less-agile kids, I don't see that as a problem.

I was in a normal school and normal classes but had a support worker. With what you're describing the kids who have "learning disabilities" are probably in a group with more adults for support, not because they're all the same, but because they all might need extra help.

Up until a couple years ago I was in Special Ed upon request from my mother. The Special Ed teachers and I both told her it wasn't necessary, because I didn't struggle academically.

She finally agreed to take me out of it.

In elementary school I was with mainstream classes most of the time, and in certain special-ed pull-outs on certain days. Sometimes I was alone at these pullouts - just me and some teacher or assistant or whoever they were. Other times it was with a group of other kids - usually a pretty small group - mixed types of mental disabilities - anything from learning disabilities, to downs, etc. There was only ever one other HFA person there, and he was in the same regular class as me until 5th grade.

In middle school I had a required "study skills" class, where I was the only person with autism - the others were mainly people who had a lot of difficulty learning a variety of things - many of them had very slow reading/poor reading skills, poor math skills, etc., which clashed with my abilities to do schoolwork - it ended up with everyone in the class working together on some thing, and me off to the side doing whatever work for whichever class I felt like. I hated it because I felt that it was a waste of time - and I had one fewer elective class than everyone else because of it.

Also, in middle school and high school, the students were divided into "houses" or some term that had the same meaning. So basically, each one of these large groups of students had all their classes with the same teachers (for core classes) and all their lockers and core classes in the same wing (and usually level) of the school. The "house" (different terms were often used each year to describe them - I don't know why) I was in was the one that had pretty much all of the special-ed people in it, people with learning disabilities, etc. I got put in a lot of classes that were slower paced or easier, which was not helpful at all - the classes were usually too slow paced - I really should have been in honors and AP classes, but I was kept out because of my HFA, until the last two years I was in high school. Same thing happened in middle school with the "houses" and the whole being-put-in-easier-classes thing.

I always attended a mainstream school. The secondary school I attended, included a lot of children with physical and learning disabilities.

My brother went to a special school.

Having talked to a few parents of young children with AS, they have the problem of their child not being able to cope in mainstream (there's usually 30 kids per class, special school there's a lot less) but special school is no good because their child has above average intelligence and needs little or no support.