My son is nonverbal and he uses a speech device to communicate. Yesterday he asked for eggs so we had scrambled eggs for breakfast. A few hours later hands me the egg carton wanting more eggs, so we settled for hard boiled eggs instead… This morning he goes to his device and said something new…Breakfast Ball. It’s 4 am in the morning, I’m sitting here half asleep thinking breakfast ball what in the world is he talking about?…. 🤔 breakfast ball?? Got it! Breakfast ball = Hard boiled eggs! His face lit right up when he saw the bowl and I knew what he wanted 🥰

Grandchild (4) is nonverbal. Echolalia and repeating scripts of what they have heard is what they mostly do. Mama and Grandchild are currently staying with us in the downstairs.

Every time I leave their space I always say "See you later alligator. After while crocodile.

Yesterday I went downstairs. Grandchild had just awakened and was laying in bed.. I was going into the little kitchenette to get something out of the freezer. On my way back, as I always do, I said "see you later alligator", and this little voice peeps up "after while crocodile".

Melted my heart.♥️🥰

Hello! My son’s birthday is coming up, turning 6 years old, he says he wants his nails painted, which to me isn’t a big deal, All gender children may like colorful nails and I’m not going to deny him that.

However for weeks They keep saying “I just want to be a girl” “Ian is your daughter” “Ian is like a girl” (changed his name to Ian for post)

I want to let them be themselves but we are navigating such binary times in the states. We keep getting comments from the school bus drivers that “he keeps saying he’s a girl.” They asked how I respond to that, I say “you were born a boy but can be anything you want” I’m not sure how they felt about that response. He scripts and uses gestalt language processing.

Im not trying to get carried away or impose my beliefs on him in anyway, I just want to support him! He dresses more like a boy but sometimes gender neutral. Hes so pretty that he gets mistakened for being a girl quite often, I don’t correct people because I don’t want to make them feel bad.

Anyway, right now I’m just going with his whims and fancies, while trying to be mindful of the times. As a non-binary sometimes I feel like a girl sometimes I feel like a boy and sometimes I feel gender neutral or just human. It’s pretty harmless to be this way and I support my child no matter what but I don’t want to go too far if that makes sense. Just want to give them the room to be themselves.

Any other parents deal with similar thoughts/phrases from your children at this age? Did they continue or was it just a stage?

My mother takes my sister's kids over the weekend (they are 13 and 2). She never visits or watches my autistic son. I don't really need a babysitter but it hurts to see my child being treated differently. I have expressed this to her and she said that my child doesn't listen and she does not know how to handle it. I just wish instead of spending less time with him she would make the effort of educating herself. It makes me not want me or my son around her or my other family. Am I wrong for feeling this way?

My son (6) was just diagnosed with level one autism last week. He is very high functioning and is a Gestalt language processor. His current speech therapist does child lead therapy with him. I shared the report from our child’s psychologist of his diagnosis and such. She is now telling me that if we begin with ABA therapy, she will not be able to see him as it directly contradicts the child led approach they use in their clinic.

She said in her email that it can be traumatic as told by autistic adults. And shared these links with me (attached link)

We JUST got his diagnosis. I’m still trying to digest the diagnosis in and of itself. But this is what the child psychologist recommended for my son (intensive ABA therapy)….. so i guess im feeling confused why im being told two different things by two professionals. I know essentially nothing about ABA therapy and don’t have any other mom friends with autistic children to discuss this with so I’ve come here. Trying to use discernment but honestly so lost here.

I’m in the US, a former teacher, and had the privilege of teaching kids of all backgrounds, abilities, and differences. But I know most people don’t get those experiences, and many are judgmental and mean to people that are different.

I wish people were better, but wishing it won’t change anything. How do you as a parent accept that your child will be picked on and bullied throughout their lifetime? I want so much to protect him but I know he will encounter lots of experiences that I wont be able to control. I’m also extremely disappointed that people are attempting to bring back derogatory words for people that are different than them, I thought things would get better. ❤️‍🩹

In the last week my son has: hit my wife, breaking her glasses; hit me a few times, including just now when I tried to calm him down; hit a random child while walking in the part; hit a bus monitor; hit several people at his high school, including his EPA.

We don't know why he's escalated so much recently. For the past few years he's been harder to handle, spitting up his food and spilling any liquids, hand sanitizers, etc. I don't know if it's my imagination but he really targets me (his dad) when we're alone. My wife just took a break and went out with our daughter. Straight away he started reaching for anything to spill. By now, I know when this starts that he will keep escalating, eventually leading to hitting out. I took everything off him and put him out in the yard, hoping that would calm him down. He kept spitting on the deck and saying he needed to go to the bathroom. I let him back in. He ran for more things to spill, a bottle of marmite was all he could find (I had tidied away everything else). I had to wash him off and told him to do a timeout in his bedroom. I was upset, which I try to control but I'm at my end of my tether by now. He ran upstairs to get at more stuff. I went up after him and ended up getting thumped in the chest. The crazy thing is how used I am to this.

I feel like such a failure. I thought I could handle this but I don't know any more. I do love him but I hate every minute of having to deal with him. My wife and I don't really have any physical relationship any more. It's all about him and containing these violent mood swings. I don't know what's going to happen. My job is actually pretty stressful but it is a break from the constant dealing with him. I work from home so I literally close my laptop and turn around and deal with him.

He is on Guanfacine (Intuniv) 2 mg daily. We tried a higher dose but it made him worse for a while. The school is reluctant to take him back and I'm wary of letting him outside at this point, given how violent he is becoming. We are talking to a social worker and they have set up a plan with the police if he becomes too violent with us and/or others. He has been diagnosed with profound autism, ADHD and global delay. This feels like something new though, like something else has come over him. I have a brother who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 12 years ago. His life was destroyed and only in the last year or two has he got things back together. Could this be what's wrong with my son.

Thank you for reading to the end of this. I know there's a lot of us broken parents on this subreddit. It helps to know people are listening and going through something similar. I'm terrified what's going to happen in the near future with him as this can only continue for so long.

My son is 10 going on 11 and is high functioning with autism. I am 36 and while I’m def not neurotypical I struggle with some old school parenting and the need for kids to try things, have experiences, and have the opportunity to meet people etc…

My son loves video games and anime, Lego and his stuffed animals, but anytime I try to find an activity linked to those interested he doesn’t want to engage.

I really want my son to pick an extracurricular would love one to be physically focused and one mental, but am met with consistent NOs. (Boxing, soccer, clubs, anything)

At this point I was just gonna force him to pick from a list but I also don’t want him to have a bad experience because his entry point was me forcing him lol.

Am I overthinking this? What’s been y’all’s experiences on widening your kids interests or at the very least getting them outside?

Thanks!

Hey, I know this might sound strange, but I just wanted to ask if any other parents do this.

My son is 4, autistic, non-verbal, and full-on during the day—meltdowns, stimming, constant movement, unpredictable moods. I love him more than anything, but it’s exhausting. I feel like I never really get a break, even when he’s technically asleep.

But lately, I’ve found myself just… sitting in his room after he’s gone to bed. Watching him sleep. Sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes half an hour, sometimes longer. I don’t even realize how much time has passed until my partner comes looking for me.

I know it sounds weird, but it’s the only time I feel really connected to him. When he’s asleep, he’s so still. His face is soft. He twitches a little, sometimes smiles in his sleep, and I imagine what he’s dreaming about. I start to picture what he might say if he could talk. What kind of person he is underneath all the chaos.

It’s peaceful. I don’t feel anxious. I don’t feel like I have to fix anything or guess what he needs or decode his sounds or keep him from hurting himself or destroying something. He’s just there. Breathing.

My partner walked in the other night and asked why I was still there, and I didn’t know what to say. I think I said I was just checking on him. But the truth is I’d just been sitting there watching him for almost 40 minutes without realizing.

I don’t talk to anyone about this because I’m worried they’ll think it’s creepy or unhealthy or something. I don’t know. It’s just the only time I feel close to him in a way that makes sense.

It’s the only time he doesn’t look at me like a stranger.

That’s it. That’s the message.

It’s just so surreal seeing the iris in my kids eyes.

God I love it.

I know this is very low stakes in the grand scheme of things, but does anyone else get a little sad clothes shopping for your kid? My daughter is almost 8 and I have to keep in mind things that most other folks don’t have to worry about: will this be easy to take off to change her pull-up or swim diaper? Will this fabric bother her? Will this withstand her meltdowns when she bites her knees and upper arms? Will she refuse to wear it for no apparent reason? Occasionally I want to buy something that’s just cute, without worrying about whether it’s practical for us. At the very least, I wish I could have her pick out what she wants, but she hasn’t been able to participate yet. So I’m just walking around the clothes section in Target feeling a little bummed.

I'm at my wits end, I'm out of steam, and I'm desperate for any help or advice that may be the breakthrough I'm praying for.

My son is 2 years, 8 months, and he is 100% mute.

Not only is he mute and doesn't communicate at all through voice, sound or gestures, he also cannot understand anything. Not a single word, not a gesture, not a sound or a suggestion.

He usually pulls/pushes me in the direction of what he wants, so I have a pretty good idea and can figure it out about 97% of the time, but he can't understand a single word or gesture I make. On top of that, I cannot explain when the answer for something is 'no', or what he wants isn't immediate and has to be waited for.

I can't explain to him the 'why' for anything and this has created daily meltdowns because he just thinks I don't understand, or that I'm ignoring him. I can't explain to him anything about everyday life.

It's constant. He doesn't understand why he can't have someone else's food. He doesn't understand why we can't go outside when it's raining. He doesn't understand why I have to sweep the floor, why other kids don't just disappear and leave him alone, why he can't have all the apples or all the toys or all the anything. He doesn't get why I stopped pushing the stroller to pay for our stuff in a store or why we can't go to the park at night or why he can't play in the toilet or kick the walls or scribble all over my very important government documents.

It's constant, everyday, and I can't explain it to him because he just doesn't understand. It's as though he doesn't understand English, at best.

I've tried, I tried my best, but I don't live in the USA and the wait times for public therapies/service are sometimes years long.

I need help, I need ideas, I need advice. I'm on my very last thread.

Thank you for your time.

My son is level 1 and going to middle school in the fall. He is part of the general population of students, so will be on a normal bus and all that. But of course he isn't like most of the other kids. His maturity on a lot of things is several years behind. So no way is he getting a regular smartphone. As I think about what I should get him, I started to think, what do I really want him to be able to do with it?

Schools, and society in general assume kids at the middle school level can mange their own communications with other kids it seems. And kids these days mostly interact electronically it seems. (We have a 14 year old daughter). And my son only really interacts with other kids in a semi decent way when playing video games.

So I know I need to be able to track his location to make sure he is where he is supposed to be. But outside of that, things get fuzzy.

I want to enable him to make friends and interact with them online, but I am going to have to heavily monitor it sadly. Ideally he wouldn't be texting other kids, he could use his school email, but would that be enough? Or will that be too much of a barrier for the other kids to bother with when most of them will have phones and the ability to text each other?

And do I really want him to be able to call and text me from the device? I mean I kinda do. Yet I don't know that we could keep him from abusing that, and not just using it for real needs. It's not like there are payphone anywhere anymore though...

So for those of you who have your autistic kids in middle school, what did you "want" your kid to be able to do on the device you got them? And what did you wish they couldn't do that they could?

Edit: I should mention my son is extremely good with electronics. He gets around all sorts of blocks, and not even maliciously. He will tell you how he did it if you ask. So I will have to do research on the right device to prevent that. Which is why I am mostly interesting in what y'all wanted your kid to be able to do with the device, and what you wished they couldn't do.

Wasn't really sure what to put this under.

So I kinda thought this would be a neat way for my nonverbal kiddo to choose what he wants, get exposed to new snacks (put just 1 new snack in, all the rest would be familiar snacks) without any demands, and learn to search out how to get the snack he wants by pressing the button.

But its just so expensive and I can only buy it online, and on top of everything else, the $$$ keep adding up for us.

Did anyone else like these?

Our young son was accepted into the flagship public school in our city. Everyone raves about it. We are excited, but at the same time, really worried because the ratio is 20:1 with maybe a para/helper in the class too. It’s a large urban district but everyone fights to get into this school. Teachers “have a special ed certificate.” It’s a fully inclusive and integrated model where he would not be the highest support child in the class and he would be in class with neuro typical kids. He has an IEP. If we give up the spot, there is absolutely not guarantee we will get in at this school again.

We also have access to a very well to-do suburban district’s public schools. But it’s 45 minutes away and unaffordable for us to live there, even if we wanted to move. They have an integrated preschool which uses a language model, ratio is 4:1, and each class room is 50% IEP and mixed age. We toured it and it felt very special, but there is no denying that it will be very taxing us for us to make it work.

He is speech delayed pretty significantly, which impacts his confidence, but otherwise he is happy and very very smart. His support needs are all expressive language and social interaction. But .. it’s becoming obvious to the other kids.

… I’m not sure what I am asking for other than reactions, feedback, things to think about it. This is our first child, we haven’t done this before so we don’t have any sibling experience to reference. How important is the ratio and mixed age classroom? Anyone have any advice?

Thank you!!

My girl is 3 and she was fully pee potty trained, she was never big about using the actual bathroom potty but we had the little one in the room and she used it every time she had to pee she never wanted to poop on it so I would try to get her on it before she could go on the floor, but it started to get worse where she would only want to poop on the floor and then she would pick it up and smash it into the wall or the floor. She would still use the potty for peeing though. It got difficult because she would hold her poop in and wait till I would leave the room to go to the bathroom myself or turn away for a second and she would poop on the floor so she could put it on the floor on the wall and then one day out of nowhere for a few weeks at a time, she basically just stopped peeing on the potty and would only pee on the floor. We got rid of carpet in my bedroom and her bedroom because of this and I was dealing with just cleaning it up and trying to get her to the bowl on time which very rarely worked and now I have her back in backwards pajamas And pull-ups again and I’m just sad. I don’t know what to do. I try to bring the potty back in the room yesterday and let her use it but as soon as she had a chance, she just went to the bathroom on the floor has anyone been through this and could steer me in the right direction of what to do?

As an autistic person, it’s aways infuriated me when someone video tapes telling their kids they’re going to Disneyland and then records their emotional breakdown. Or giving children a puppy and watching them cry and freak out.

To me, this feels not only exploitative but emotionally unhealthy.

Both of my kids are getting older (double digits), but when they were younger, people kept trying to “surprise” them with gifts or jumping out with a sense of fun from behind things and I had to constantly remind people not to do these things. My kids have learned (after years of being coached by myself and my spouse), how to thank people for gifts they don’t like, but you’re not going to get them to do performative fawning or excitement. And I honestly don’t believe that a person should expect that kind of reaction, especially not from an autistic child.

I prepare my kids for exciting things like birthday parties and trips to Disneyland. I get them involved because they are better at transitioning between tasks and events when they know what to expect and feel ownership.

I absolutely hate it when people spring surprises on them and then get shitty about their overwhelmed response. I can explain it until I turn blue but so many other adults seem to think they know best and then get upset when their expectations aren’t met.

I know from personal experience and plenty of skill building just how hard it can be for me to manage my emotions and expectations around a change, especially changes that I have no control over. Small things like packaging or ingredient changes can be enough to ruin my taste for food items, and larger changes, like long time stores closing or the loss of an aging pet or family member, can be nearly impossible to fully get over.

Our family processes everything deeply and that is why the only “surprises” that really land well are between two knowns.

For example, I might ask “would you like (item kid 1 likes) or (other item kid 1 likes)”? And at this point, the kids deeply trust my partner and I to know what they like and respect their interests, so even if it’s not exactly what is expected, they generally know they will receive clothes that are sensory friendly and shoes that are wide enough to fit their feet. They have even become more flexible about trying new food once they realized they had ironclad control over what they eat.

So please. I know that many parents and adults think that kids love surprises, but if we tell you that our kids don’t, regardless of who that kid is, please listen to us. Our kids love “spoilers” because it helps us feel comfortable and in control. Our kids love multiple little chats about what to expect from a big trip or event two weeks in the future.

Surprises may seem like magic to a lot of kids out there, but some kids love a different kind of magic, and that’s ok too.

My son, low support needs for now, is in third grade. His birthday is at the end of July, so he is one of the youngest in his class (he might actually be the youngest now). When he did his kindergarten readiness assessment, I expressed that I was anxious about his maturity level and was thinking of waiting another year. Both the principal AND the kindergarten teacher encouraged me to start him “on time,” saying that he was ready and he would be bored if he started a year later. I figured if the kinder teacher wanted him it was a pretty safe bet.

Now in third grade, he is ahead of grade level in math (it’s his autistic “superpower”). He is a great reader. He absolutely HATES to write and needs help with dysgraphia (not diagnosed with this one but it’s obvious). He also has ADHD that is severe enough to require daily medication (he could not go to school without it). He is the tallest kid in his class but the least mature IMO. Other kids have started to notice his quirks and different behavior, and he has trouble making friends.

I stay up at night worrying about his future and just kicking myself for not holding him for another year. Most people where I live hold their kids an extra year with a summer birthday, so even if he were a typical kid I feel like I put him at a disadvantage compared to everyone else. He really could have used another year to mature given his ASD and social skills issues. I’ve read about how the academic stuff catches up to them too by middle school.

Someone talk me off the ledge. I’m losing sleep thinking I screwed up big time. I’m even wondering if there’s a way to hold him back at some point by home schooling for a year when it’s time for middle school, and THEN starting middle school so he’s no longer one of the youngest. Anyone else been in the same boat and everything turned out ok academically and socially?

To start off with, my son is 3 & a half. I feel like I’m at my wits end. It feels like him & I are both constantly in a state of fight or flight. He does things I’m unsure are his autism or signs of something else… He is diagnosed, but we’ve been on a waitlist for therapies for months. He starts May 5th, but am wanting some opinions before then. Examples:

• When his step siblings come over to visit he demands they sit on the floor. Not on the couch, not laying on the floor, specifically SITTING on the floor. & if they don’t he screams & cries & demands until somebody finally gives in. This could go on forever until someone finally sits on the floor. Sometimes it’s to play with him & sometimes it’s not. At times when they sit on the floor he will just run back to his room. Even if we tell him “They don’t want to sit on the floor right now.” Or “They’ll sit there in a little bit.” It sets him off even more & he screams & has his meltdown.

• His favorite show is Bluey & he demands it’s on in his room at all times. He also always says “This one” when we put it on so we’re thinking he has a specific episode he wants. But then when go through the episodes he never tells us which one he wants. He just keeps saying “This one.” & then has a meltdown because we’ve just spent half a hour asking him which one & telling him to point at which episode he wants but he never tells us. So we always have to tell him “Okay, we’re just going to put on this episode & you can watch it or we can just turn the TV off.” Also incites a meltdown.

• NOBODY is allowed to sing, dance, or play music except him. We have a newborn & we were playing around with him having him dance to a song this morning & my son freaked out yelling “No dance! No dance!” But we were having fun so I told him “If you don’t want to see dancing you can go to your room. But other people are allowed to dance or sing if they want to. If you don’t like it, you can go to another place in the house.” But he refuses, just screams & cries & yells at us.

• He was really into the movie Cars so I bought him a T-shirt with Lightning McQueen on it & he freaked out. Told me he didn’t like it, he never wanted to wear it, & would scream if I even asked him if he wanted to put it on. But he is like this with every kind of merchandise from a show or movie he likes. Like I said he LOVES Bluey, but if I ever try to buy him a Bluey toy or clothes with Bluey on it he screams no, I don’t want it, I don’t like it. Which is fine, but I don’t understand it AT ALL. It seems his special interest is Bluey so I try to feed into that. But anything with a character he likes on it he will not tolerate.

• He does not tolerate ANYTHING new. No new books, no new toys, no new shoes. Nothing. Obviously some things we have to force like shoes & clothes when he grows out of the sizes he already has. But we do not buy him new things now because we know he’s just going to scream until we take it away or get rid of it.

At this point our toddler runs the house. If he says no, then it’s no, or else we get yelled at & he has a meltdown. I don’t understand this at all. If anybody has experience or knowledge with this please give me information. I’ve scoured the internet for answers & can’t find any. I just want balance in the house. Every day is a struggle at this point. I am stressed to the max every single day, & it seems like our toddler is, too. I don’t want to live like this. It just seems like we need a lot of help right now.

Hi everyone! I’m a mom of two, and I wanted to gently share something I created for my son that ended up working really well — just in case it might be helpful for other families too.

My son was really struggling with memorizing multiplication facts. Flashcards and drills weren’t helping — they just made him feel frustrated and defeated. So I tried something different:

🎵 I made short rhyming songs for each number
🎮 Added fun musical styles to each song(like Viking rock, Celtic dance, Chinese Kung-Fu, video game beats, etc.)
📽️ Paired it all with videos and light gamified worksheets

The rhyming songs helped more than I expected — my son started singing the facts out loud without even realizing he was memorizing them. And the wildest part? His 6-year-old sister picked up some of the facts too, just by hearing the songs in the background and singing along.

I can’t speak from experience as a parent of a child with autism, but I’ve seen how much music and visuals have helped my own kids — and I thought this might be useful for families exploring similar tools.

Actually, my mother-in-law recently told me about a conversation with her friend whose granddaughter is autistic. The little girl loves music, and her grandma said, “I just wish there were a way to teach her math or reading through music.” That really stuck with me — and made me wonder if this kind of approach might be helpful for other kids who learn in similar ways.

If you’re curious, here’s the site where I put everything together:
👉 www.BeatIQAcademy.com

Thanks for letting me share — and if you have any questions, I’m happy to chat!
– ST

The diagnosis was the easy part. Then they gave me a few papers and verbal instructions on what to do next.

I've looked through the papers and idk what half of it means. I tried to submit paperwork to one of the therapy places via email but they said I filled it out wrong and I have no idea how to do it correctly, since only the SPACING was wrong ??? One email had a link that expired in 48 hours and I missed it.

It's been 2 weeks since his diagnosis and I feel like I'm wasting so much time. The one person said "take him to school and bring all the paper work you'd bring to enroll him" ??? Which is what?? Do I just take him to a high school? Or smdoes it have to be a kindergarten or something 😭 He's only 3 and not in school why does he have to go to the school??

Also, they said therapy would be ABA, and the website they gave me for other resources was autism speaks. Aren't both of these things controversial here??

All this confusion has me just not wanting to get any sort of therapy. My son is happy and content and has never had a tantrum or hit us or self harmed in any way. What would they be teaching him that I couldn't help him with at home?

I’m done with creating false expectations about my daughter. She turned 5, and to not overwhelm her we decide to do something REALLY small. My brothers and parents came to visit from out of state to celebrate her birthday (5 guests total). As soon as she saw them, she started crying and yelling.

It took hours to calm her down. Everyone is well aware of the situation, and they always try to avoid things that upset her, but having to avoid seeing family just so she can be "okay" is too much. So now what? Am I supposed to isolate myself from the world? I guess that is my life now. I’m done.

Hi everyone! Autism isn’t a barrier or just a label—it’s a way of experiencing the world that adds color to its canvas. For World Autism Awareness Month, we honor the diverse minds and voices in this community. Understanding, acceptance, and meaningful inclusion start with listening to real experiences. Believe me, I have often felt uneasy just by speaking a single word, knowing the weight of the stigma it carries and I don’t share this lightly. However, I have realized that my voice or perspective is not something to hide—they are strengths to embrace. This year, I am taking a step forward in sharing my own journey. My article, Breaking the Silence: 33 Years of Autism, Advocacy, and Acceptance, is now available on Medium and Substack. It’s the beginning of something much bigger—a full-length book that will dive even deeper into my life story, the struggles I have faced, and the lessons I have learned.I hope my words resonate with others who have walked a similar path, start conversations, and inspire greater awareness. Autism is not just a diagnosis; it’s a way of life that can be misunderstood. Let’s continue breaking the silence together. Thank you all in advance for reading, sharing, and supporting this cause.

https://medium.com/@bdtighe/breaking-the-silence-33-years-of-autism-advocacy-and-acceptance-85134df6ad77

https://autismspectrumnews.org/breaking-my-33-year-silence-living-with-autism-finding-acceptance/

I have always found myself struggling to find linear information when it comes to my son. He has both autism and ADHD. So, I've decided to start compiling information on my personal blog for parents scrambling to find the right information (UK based). I thought I'd share it here!

I've only just started putting information together, so if there's something you want to see, feel free to comment and I'll add it to the list to write about!

https://kirstyslife.co.uk/gentle-parenting-autism-adhd-uk/

https://kirstyslife.co.uk/ehcp-guide-autism-adhd-parents/

https://kirstyslife.co.uk/sensory-friendly-home-budget-uk/

Hi everyone, I have been a lurker for a while, since my son received his official diagnosis around 6 months ago. We started the "agir tôt" program when he was 2, we received his diagnosis when he turned 4. We have just registered him in school last week, I was transparent with them, discussed his diagnosis and provided contacts for his daycare and he's working with a behavioral therapist 2 hours a weeks as well. After reviewing his diagnosis, the asked us to bring him to school to attend the kindergarten class for 1h30 to see how he will do. I was a little bit skeptical, his biggest challenge is transitions. Having him is class with 18 others kids and a teacher that he never met before for 1h30 to evaluate him seemed ridiculous. We complied, took him to school, he insisted that I stay in class with him so I did and it went relatively well, no meltdowns and he interacted with some of the kids around the end of the session. After that we spoke to the school speech therapist and he gave us his initial feedback which was that he thinks that LO will adjust if given time and little bit of support in the classroom and that he will provide his official feedback after he discusses with his colleagues. The school speech therapist contacted us after a couple of days saying that he thinks is it's better that we apply for a specialized class ( this will be in a different school). The behavioral therapist and daycare provider. Ith think that LO can do great in general class. We are torn, I don't if I should push to have him in general class and conti he supporting him outside of class, the school did say that they are short on personnel, so they cannot guarantee that LO can have 1:1 when transitioning to school, this is why they wanted him to go to a specialized class. I was okay with this but then it dawned on me that. They never gave him a chance, I'm 90% sure if he goes to general class after a couple of weeks he will get used to the routine and adjust, if he can have 1:1 support just the first few weeks, it would be sufficient. I have no idea what the specialized classes are like, I feel like it's better for him to be around NT kids. Also his behavioral therapist was against it and told me that getting him out of the specialized class to general could be hard, the system in not great and this discouraged me and my partner.

For people is Quebec who had their kids attend specialized class, Garcia it like ? Did it help your kid be better ? Were you kids able to attends general class afterwards ? Any insight would help.

LO is verbal, managed to express himself in French and English( but still has language challenges) , the hardest thing for him are transitions.

Thank you and sorry for the long post.