ASD and intellectual disabilities

Okay so I know that a lot (most?) people with ASD have an average or above average IQ but I was wondering if anyone here has a child who has a low IQ? I find it really hard to tell how much Mikko understands as he doesn't respond to questions or follow simple requests. AT what age are kids cognitively (is that the right word?) assessed? And how do they assess them if they don't follow instructions? I am assuming that this will have a big impact on whether or not Mikko goes into a mainstream classroom.

Ian's intelligence has never been assessed, we're pretty sure he's reasonably intelligent as he's shown signs of that; however you often can't tell if he's understood what you've said and sometimes I'm sure he's pretending to be dumb to avoid things he doesn't want to do.
We'd wondered about his hearing too, but not only has it been tested, we've done the hometest too and the word "icecream" can be heard at any distance and any volume.

The following is a bit from Christians most recent paed appt.

"Christian should have a more formal psychometric assessment at some stage to identify his learning potential and barriers to learning, pragmatically at 5 yrs 7 months he is too young to consider this".

so Dearna and Rachelle are your guys in mainstream classes?

I would assume that most schools don't have special units right? If your school had a special unit that was not specifically for autism but for high needs kids of many different disabilities, would you want your child in it?

Ian's in mainstream; special needs school was suggested on 2 occasions (once by our principal, once by GSE). We don't believe that special needs would suit his needs; he really needs to have interaction with normal kids so he can learn how to play with them hopefully. Even in a normal school with a special needs unit I don't think he'd get enough time playing with the other kids to make a difference.

sewsable wrote:Ian's in mainstream; special needs school was suggested on 2 occasions (once by our principal, once by GSE). We don't believe that special needs would suit his needs; he really needs to have interaction with normal kids so he can learn how to play with them hopefully. Even in a normal school with a special needs unit I don't think he'd get enough time playing with the other kids to make a difference.

that's how I feel, well at the moment anyway Our local school has a unit within it though and I have heard they tend to overuse it. That's one of the reasons I am looking at other schools. Also the school size.

Christian is in mainstream. He turned 5 in December but only started school in June. We were living in Auckland but were really unhappy with the zoned school available to us so we moved down to Hamilton where we had a lot more freedom to choose which zone we moved to (housing is MUCH more affordable here!). I think the decision to mainstream has to be carefully considered with each child. One of our considerations was that we wanted Christian and his younger brother to be at the same school. There was a school here with a special unit within it but we decided against it for safety reasons (the school was unfenced) and Christian is very impulsive with no comprehension of 'stranger danger'. The best advice I can give when it comes to choosing a school is to make up a comprehensive list of questions, make an appointment with the principal and the SENCO if the school has one and go through them. If your child has any particular issues you are concerned with you need to ask what they will do 'if'. "If my son takes his clothes off in the middle of the playground how will you deal with it?" (Christian LOVES water but hates getting his clothes even a tiny bit wet. Make sure you ask if they have experience with kids on the spectrum and if there are teachers within the school who have experience with kids on the spectrum. Sorry for going a bit off topic. One really good thing about having a special unit within the school is that even if your child is in mainstream you know there will be experienced (hopefully) help at hand if they are needed.

sewsable wrote:Ian's in mainstream; special needs school was suggested on 2 occasions (once by our principal, once by GSE). We don't believe that special needs would suit his needs; he really needs to have interaction with normal kids so he can learn how to play with them hopefully. Even in a normal school with a special needs unit I don't think he'd get enough time playing with the other kids to make a difference.

This is exactly what I think - the "problem" with ASD children is a social one - they can't interact with other kids - so sticking them in a class by themselves is not going to help - they need interaction with other kids, and they need to see such interaction so they can learn how to do it themselves (lots are visual learners!).

DD1 is in a mainstream school - but they have had an ASD child go through a couple of years ahead, so the school has experience. It is a tiny school - barely 60 kids, so they don't have a separate special needs class.

Oh, and I believe DD1 has "average" intelligence (or just a bit below average) - she is definitely a smart cookie so to speak, and is very good at problem solving - and our word that she can hear at a distance is "cookies"

Dearna wrote:The following is a bit from Christians most recent paed appt.

"Christian should have a more formal psychometric assessment at some stage to identify his learning potential and barriers to learning, pragmatically at 5 yrs 7 months he is too young to consider this".

I think we will be doing this in the next year or so... they recommended this just in case DD1 isn't learning at school (after a period of being there), and maybe she needs more evaluation - or something like that!

Dearna wrote:Christian is in mainstream. He turned 5 in December but only started school in June. We were living in Auckland but were really unhappy with the zoned school available to us so we moved down to Hamilton where we had a lot more freedom to choose which zone we moved to (housing is MUCH more affordable here!). I think the decision to mainstream has to be carefully considered with each child. One of our considerations was that we wanted Christian and his younger brother to be at the same school. There was a school here with a special unit within it but we decided against it for safety reasons (the school was unfenced) and Christian is very impulsive with no comprehension of 'stranger danger'. The best advice I can give when it comes to choosing a school is to make up a comprehensive list of questions, make an appointment with the principal and the SENCO if the school has one and go through them. If your child has any particular issues you are concerned with you need to ask what they will do 'if'. "If my son takes his clothes off in the middle of the playground how will you deal with it?" (Christian LOVES water but hates getting his clothes even a tiny bit wet. Make sure you ask if they have experience with kids on the spectrum and if there are teachers within the school who have experience with kids on the spectrum. Sorry for going a bit off topic. One really good thing about having a special unit within the school is that even if your child is in mainstream you know there will be experienced (hopefully) help at hand if they are needed.

i'd quite like to move out of akl for the housing reason too! I'd love a bigger house. We only have 3 bed, 1 bath and 1 living and I'd like 4,2 and 2. And then i'd love land -sighhhhhhh