What wrong with my Son Part? II

My youngest son had obvious developmental delays from being 10 weeks premature. Doctors and teachers thought he had many other things wrong with him, such as ADHD and OCD. He was finally seen by a specialist at University of Nebraska’s Munroe-Meyer’s Institute. That is when he got a correct diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome at the age of 11.

I had my son in speech therapy at age 2, because he didn’t talk yet. He went to a special education pre-school in a town 15 miles away at age 3. He started kindergarten at his home school at age 5. At age 7 we were told there was a better school for him about 40 miles away. It wasn’t. In fact it was a horrible school that treated every child as though the only reason they were behind was because they didn’t want to learn and had behavior problems. It was more like a juvenile detention center for ‘elementary’ children, than a place of learning.

Children with learning disabilities can learn, they just learn differently or need extra help. It was not the right place for my son and certainly not the environment that was going to help him in any way. I pulled him out and caused uproar; evidently no parent had done that before then. Oh and I may have told the administration what I thought.

I found another private school for my son and he thrived for about 1 ½ years there. However the last six months there were internal upheaval with the administration and teachers. That caused the school to came into financial problems and closed. The director that had left six months earlier started her own tutoring business for kids who learned differently. Special individualized reading and writing programs that focused on how each child learned. The concept worked, but it was only an hour or two a day, so my son went back to his primary school the rest of the day.

The principle and teachers were very nice and welcomed Brandon back very warmly. By now he was in the middle of 5th grade and back in regular classes. Still very far behind the rest of his peers, he at least was getting some social exposure. This is the same time when Brandon received the diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. The school and I finally had an answer and some resources to work with.

Asperger Syndrome explained the lack in social skills and the extremely high anxiety. It also somewhat explained his unique IQ. Math and anything ‘non-verbal’ came very easy for Brandon. He could do 8 part math in his head and he could build incredible creations with just about anything. However, reading and writing were Hugh struggles. Reading was extremely difficult even with the private tutoring. Writing took him 10 times longer than the rest of kids his age so he avoided it at all cost.

Finding ways to motivate him, while keeping his anxiety under control, was very challenging for everyone involved. We all worked together his last year and a half at the elementary school and I felt he made progress. I also felt that people truly cared about him there and learned about Asperger Syndrome in order to help him learn.

Then it was time to go to the junior high school, on the other side of the football field in our small town. That’s where everything changed and I’m afraid not for the better. It was a horrible 3 years going backwards again………………….

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