SIMPLYSTAR I need your opinion too

Hi, My son-Juan-  8 yearsold. I found out he is a DS when 3 months old ,  had him PDA (heart) surgery at 5 months old.    . He went to school from 3 yrs - 7 yrs old at a public school.now is home schooling .He can read with a little help now. Then at school,  he  often push his friends while playing. He also cannot keep up learning materials especially counting. Right now, beside home schooling 4 days a week, I put him in a Badminton club-but only once in a week. For socialising, I have a 12 years old daughter who played with him once in a while and a 6 yrs old nephew.Do you thinK it;s enough for social need? In where I live, there are hard to find   special school for DS with a good learning program. I happened to know one of the teacher from special school here. She didnt recommended my son to that school because she said that my son could imitate bad behaviour from other severe downsyndrome.Considering my son's inteligent,She suggest me to put in public school. But I canot find any school suitable for him right now, thats why he's doing home schooling now.

[SimplyStar]

you don't say where you live but  mainstreaming might work, with him going to some classes offered and maybe some special help classes,  Your son does need special schooling and social contact, ,  I would contact  the people that have charge of education where you live and ask for help, he is entitled to an education and usually parents have to push for it hard and insist that your child get the schooling he needs. I take it that the special needs school is separate from your public schooling, that is not good, to keep them apart from all children,  let me know more about where you live and I will see what I can find out for you. there are organizations world wide  that support  education for special needs children.  If he is high functioning,  he should be able to ignore the bad behaviors,  a good special ed teacher should be able to help you, altho if he is higher than the majority of his peers in that school, he will not learn what you can expect from him.  We use mainstreaming here in our schools, and it works vvery well.  He must be taught  that pushing is not allowed,  At 8  he should be aware of right versus wrong,  my daughter was 13 when my son was born, she doted on him and  would take a time each day to play/work with him.  She ended up going into the field of working with people with disabilities.  Make this important and pleasent for her to do. I just don't think that home schooling is enough for him,  he needs a well rounded access to the world he is growing up into.

[fung]

Hi
I just sent a letter  to you 30 minutes ago ( took me 1 hour to write) but it hadn't showed up on the forum, I wonder why?But, .I'll try to rewrite again. I live in Indonesia- north-Jakarta to be precised. School for special need children is quite a few here . The school with good learning programs mostly runs by private organisation  thus  the tuition is too high -  unaffordable for us-middle class income. What is affordable is public school. But there are only a few that are willing to take downsyndrome as their student.  Because of that, many DS children from  middle/low class family - are put in any school that allowed DS to join regardless the quality of the school just to fulfill the socialisation need. The  fact is, in most of the regions here, people get confuse if we use the term "downsyndrome" . They  call a mongolian face of DS is "IDIOT"  :(  . Can you imagine what our children will experience in that surrounding? That's why I homeschooling my son. I have teacher teach him to read in bahasa 4 times a week  and I teach him  to  speak english. He can read simple story books now but is a little hard on counting. Though I must admit, he is sometimes looked lonely  and ask to play outside with friends. He also love to play with our dogs. He is loveable and very cheerful. I even think he is the most handsome boy in the world :)  I don't know what step should I take right now. By the way, what is ' maintreaming" means? Anyway, thanks for your attention.

[SimplyStar]

I just sent an email to WHO, World health Organization,  to see if there is some help for your son through them.  Mainstreaming is when the child attends some classes along with the regular students  and some with the children of his/her own level of learning.  The term Mongolian Idiot  has been replaced completely here in the states for over 30 years.   It sounds to me like you are a very devoted Mother and want your son to learn all he can,  maybe since the schooling is insufficient you might spend some time on helping him learn the basic living skills and help him learn to be independant, these things are important also.  Cooking, laundry, shopping, use of money, transportation,  teach him the danger words, like warning, caution, danger,   I will keep in contact with you to help as much as I can.  Marty

[fung]

Hi, I really appreciate what you're doing with WHO. I'm looking forward to it. Here in Indonesia, government never really paid attention to special need children. There are so many special need children here from the lowest income family,  just lying on the bed since they were born because their parents have no money to take them go through therapy.  Juan-my son- can do most of daily activities himself like eating, taking a bath,etc, but still under my supervision. Thanks for your time. Desy

[SimplyStar]

Sorry I have been so long in getting back to you, but have been talking to some people about your son.  Here are some of the ideas we have for you, understanding the difficulty you have in your country with education.  The public school should be the best place for your son, we have an idea, could you volunteer to be at that school and act as a tutor in the class room for your son, maybe also taking another 1 or 2 children at the same time. He would get the attention he needs from regulated class activites, and also interact with other children for social periods. We use volunteers in our class rooms to help slow readers and those needing extra help, it works out very well. Since your daughter is 4 years older, could she perhaps help at home for short periods with reading skills. You could reward her with special priviledges.  In the class room you would be able to control behavior and keep the children on task. I would like to suggest you approach the public school with this idea and see what you can work out with them.  You evidently are an educated person and so by adding your instructions and help to the room teachers it should be a big advantage to all.   Good Luck  Marty

[fung]

Some parents with autistic child here are doing the same thing at public school as you said. May be I should try that too , thanks for your concern. Desy