Teachers! Grrrrr!

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My thoughts exactly. Although... Is this a private school, Verinda? Do you live in the U.S. or elsewhere? I suppose it could just be this school is much better-funded than ours. Still, it sounds like there could be more going on here. (p.s. I can relate to your brother-in-law's experience. But related services are not the problem. They are a small step in the right direction.)

I live in a remote part of Ireland, it's just a small school, not private. I am honestly amazed at how this school is able to employ a new part time teacher just to help just three boys. I know most other schools are in dire straights and losing special needs assistants.

I think I am ok with this new teacher and whatever he plans to do, and hopefully my son will like him. I just don't want to go to an OT unless it's absolutely necessary, which hopefully it isn't.

I have AS and I am very good at certain things that would suggest my coordination is great but I have some other serious coordination issues. Usually schools have too many students for the amount of time they have with specialists. To the best of my understanding, parents can refuse a service but the only time the gov't pays for services this fast is when children are still children so I'd recommend giving it a try IMHO.

Even if the family has had poor experiences with schools one can't really blame a school for not recognizing something that wasn't in the DSM until the mid-90s and hadn't been written about in English until then either. The understanding of AS has increased dramatically in the last 15 years so given the opportunity to get OT in school, I'd jump at it rather than focusing on how the system was 20 years ago.

Our psychologist was convinced my daughter had upper body muscle problems on the basis she doesn't sit still at school when on the floor mat. She thought my daughter couldn't sit still because she wasn't able to support herself on the mat.

I passed this little gem to my pediatrician who raised an eyebrow and said we should consider changing psychologists as this was a simple manifestation of ADHD (not muscle wastage).

Just a warning that psychologists and teachers are not the best judge of your children's physical health.

There actually could be a connection with coordination and reading exct....depending on the reasons for poor coordination, like body posture endurance....becoming tired at desk tasks can negatively effect the childs concentration that has a negative effect on any desk activities!
Even social interaction and self esteem....a child who struggles with some activities might feel that they can't partake in some activities, withdrawing himself from it and thus retreiving from some social interaction that might lead to poorer self esteem.....During OT sessions the OT also works on planning skills, improving self esteem and facilitating language and socialization.

Remember, the teacher is not a specialist, so she might have mentioned poor coordination, but it could be something else that a good OT might be able to identify trough propper assessment....this is just the teacher saying: I see something that might bennifit by intervention.

If you look at it from the other side: As a parent I would have been upset with the teacher if my son could have bennifitted from OT and the teacher DIDN'T advice me or brought it to my attention!

Regards

Actually he does become tired at his desk. His teacher has been complaining to me that I let him stay up too late, but that's not the case at all.

I wondered if he became tired because of his AS and just finding school too much, especially when he has so much energy. Could it just be the effort of having to sit still for so long or is it more likely to be a co-ordination problem?

Sometimes if he doesn't get his work finished the teachers make him miss break to finish his work and tell me he's lazy (which he isn't). It's terrible for my son when he misses out on that vital break time and it makes me wonder how clued in they are to his problems. I also notice that he is well able to do his homework without yawning and flopping over his book and his reading and writing has improved a lot. So maybe it's just being at school that makes him tired.

His special needs teacher doesn't seem too clued in either. Part of her lesson on a monday morning was that my son had to tell her two things that happened over the weekend. Well my son hated doing this. So eventually she said if he wouldn't tell her vocally he would have to write a diary. He had to write six sentences on a Sunday evening. He hated doing this even more. I couldn't get him to do it. But if he went in on a Monday morning without the diary being written she used to make him miss break to write it. So the diary was making everyone miserable. In the end I had to have a big argument with her and the diary was stopped. But it left me feeling really frustrated. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Anyway I am now happy to accept the help of this new teacher, I hope he will bring some new ideas and inspiration to our small school.

Verinda.....did any one ever checked if he might have low muscle tone? This is often a cause for poor body posture and becoming tired......
It even becomes more complicated....if you have time you can maybe read up a bit on sensory integration, how all the bits and pieces fit together and , like with my son, he has poor modulation, so he struggles to regulate all the sensory feedback, that causes him to become very tired at school, for example while doing desk work, 'cutting out' the auditory stimuli, feeling to hot/cold, somebody touching him, ect.

Often people with AS does have SI dysfunction ass well.....and yes, maybe he will be fine with no intervention, like my hubby is very clever and did very well for himself , but it would have helped his self esteem if he had better coordination to also enjoy dancing as a teenager!

I'm getting more worried about my older son. He's 14 and very round shouldered (although that could be hereditary because I'm a bit round shouldered and so is my husband) and in mid AS diagnosis and his co-ordination isn't very good. He is extremely accademic though and has always loved reading and writing so his other problems go unnoticed by the teachers. The teachers in his school do not believe he has AS.

He's the one who should probably go to OT. But he has a pathalogical fear of anything remotely medical which makes things difficult.

My younger son has good body posture.

I will read up about sensory intergration, thank you for your help it's appreciated.