I have a 9 year old Gifted Asperger son who has struggled since he was little with school. This year, after a revolting 1st term including ongoing discrete bullying and teacher bullying, we thought moving to a new school could help. But nope - we ended up in an even worse situation - more physical bullying, teacher using inappropriate physical force on my son when he was distressed and a community telling us we weren't wanted.
SO we applied for The Correspondence School on psycho-social grounds and got it approved.
My son has been working on Correspondence School for 2 terms now and is a very happy person. He is challenged, and can work at his speed (which is extremely fast) and at his level (very high). The teacher at The Correspondence School has come to understand my son's needs in a very short time and is excited to be working with my son. My son gets lots of social interactions through all his activies - swimming, karate, sailing, piano, violin, a buddy (paid for by the MOH), and lots of play dates with special friends who have great tolerance and understanding towards my son.
I just wanted to let people know that there is an alternative and if you need more information about applying on psycho-social grounds just email me.
I also would like to post a warning about Ridgeview School, it is a school which is not accepting of any child who is different, or has any kind of special needs.
Hi,
I have a 10 yr old son with Aspergers, dyspraxia and gifted. He was very unhappy at school (bored , socially isolated) and angry at home. Started home schooling this term and he's a different child - happy , relaxed , confident, gives me spontaneous hugs! (more in 4 weeks than in last 5 years).
Made a new friend through Explorers and meeting other homeschooled families but he prefers to be with adults anyway.
I'd highly recommend it!
We have been homeschooling for 3 terms, though our son does not have aspergers he has some traits that other children and adults find confusing and uncomfortable. When we pulled him from school at the end of the first term after just over 3 years of public education with two different schools his ability scores had plummeted to where previously he was assessed at the 99.7th percentile for perceptual skills, he was bordering mediocre. He has been reassessed this week to see how the first year has gone and yippee we are just about back to normal, (his normal) it has taken a while and been a hard road as he believed he was useless at everything but everyday we do better and better. He also is asynchronistic as a lot of these children are at with his reading skills assessed this week as ranging from 12.8 to >16 yrs age match (he's 8.5), but with those phonetic things he scored as a 6.9 year old, after all those times of trying to explain to others that he doesn't get phonetics, this I believe justifies our position. We know we are lucky to be able to homeschool him, but man this has made it worth it!!
My son is allocated 5 hours a week buddy time through the Ministry of Health - this is for encourgaing positive social interactions with another person. We chose a 15 year old boy who comes and just plays with my son weekly - the 15 year old is super and gets down on the floor and really interacts and plays with my son. It is not a baby sitting role and has no responsibilty other than ensuring positive social interactions. My son really looks forward to his buddy visiting.
Hey Terrie, that sounds great! Is this something anyone can apply for or are their special requirements? My Son is six years and needs an older male role model to do some of the tipical male activities! cheers Amy
