The oldest and education

April 15 2008

The oldest finally got the letter of admittance to a special school which fits his educational needs.

He's got asperger syndrome and ADD and we feel this is really a new start.

When he was young he was considered shy and clumsy.
He walked in a strange way, but apart from telling us he needed fysio, no one thought a bit more about it.

When he went to school he didn't socialise much and seemed to be in his own phantasy world.
At times teachers made a remark, but immediately told us it was not allarming.

When we went for check-ups we were told not to worry so much.

It's almost the classical story.

At college he was told to work more and more organised.
He was called lazy.
Far too often.

Even when we went to see a childneurologist (now a professor) we were told not to worry.
He scanned him, had a psychologist have a look and told us all was fine.
He wouldn't be very social, but the world florished with scientists, and he sure had all the intelligence to become one.
Maybe one in the computer area, as he had a large interest in laptop computers.

Well, he became a computerfreak, but school didn't went well, and he was never able to finish a year, because he simply wasn't able to live up to the expectations.

Then he dropped out of school, and became even more of a computerfreak.

But where to skip all the normal schoolrequirements and get a specialised education?

It took more than a year to get him diagnosed and years to find someone who knew the ins and outs of the whole world of disability income and education.

He's now moved to a trainingshouse, and can start at a special school within two weeks.


Some people don't understand why it took so long.
Well, when you told professionals 23 years ago that you thought your child had asperger syndrome, you were told you were nuts yourself.
Not in so many words, but they all said I was wrong.
The consequence was that he got all the support he needed from home. But a mom can interfere with school and others areas of life only so much.
So he didn't get all the support he needed untill the knowledge and awareness about asperger syndrome and ADD was more widespread.





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