Best schools for elementary autism or asperger services (Houston, Pasadena: renting, home)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am an American living overseas with a 7 year old Asperger with attention dysfunction son. We are looking to transfer to Houston due to his increasing difficulties coping in his mainstream international school environment and due to the lack of services here. He is gifted and very socially motivated, but is hyper competitive and very rigid, currently cannot cope with the bus, recess, PE, certain classes, plus has sensory dysfunctions that are just now starting to be addressed. I understand Monarch and Westview are two great private schools for special needs kids, do any public schools in the vicinity of these schools provide very good autism spectrum programs, such that if the private school is not the best fit, the public school should be, and vice versa? Many thanks.
Do a search right on this Houston forum about autism, there are many other threads asking about school districts. From what I can recall it appears that in terms of public schools Spring Branch (Memorial City) appears to have the better system for these kids in the spectrum. Aparently Katy ISD is no good - some recent news showed up saying kids get unusual punishment. I participated in a HISD forum recently and of the board members stated that in the past HISD has lacked better services, but are now targetting these services and improving.
Do a search on this forum so you can pull up the older threads (they are not too old).
I am an American living overseas with a 7 year old Asperger with attention dysfunction son. We are looking to transfer to Houston due to his increasing difficulties coping in his mainstream international school environment and due to the lack of services here. He is gifted and very socially motivated, but is hyper competitive and very rigid, currently cannot cope with the bus, recess, PE, certain classes, plus has sensory dysfunctions that are just now starting to be addressed. I understand Monarch and Westview are two great private schools for special needs kids, do any public schools in the vicinity of these schools provide very good autism spectrum programs, such that if the private school is not the best fit, the public school should be, and vice versa? Many thanks.
Things will very much depend on the individual school and the individual district. Is he in 1st grade? Is he mainstreamed where you are now? Monarch is extremely expensive, but good. It may, however, not be as good if he is academically high functioning. Westview tends to be good, but not to accept behaviorally challenged kids. We looked into these for my 7 year old grandson and while we liked them, we decided against them for many reasons, not least of which was the location of his dad's job in Pasadena (commute to the areas of these schools was just too long)
Believe it or not HISD has some good programs of its own. I don't know much about Spring Branch, but it has a reasonable reputation. So does Katy, but... there have been problems there with a particular school in Cinco Ranch.
My 7 year old grandson is currently mainstreamed in first grade in Pearland. He is doing tremendously well and he has classic autism, not aspergers. He is keeping up with the regular curriculum although we kept him out a year, so he is one year behind where he would have been if we had put him in kindergarten at 5. Not every school even here in Pearland would be a good fit for him. We were fortunate in finding a wonderful team of people who have dealt with his sister (she is in 4th grade and was just dxed with aspergers last year). She has no IEP and just informal accommodations although we will be going into the 504 process to make sure things are set for middle school.
Oh, also - why Houston or why Texas? The states with the best services are not in the south.
Thank you for the reply. My husband's company has a big office there so this is a job transfer. My son is in first grade, and his behavior would prevent him from being able to go to Westview - he is very outgoing, impulsive, and has strong reactions when something is not working for him - my understanding is that Westview is best for the kids who tend more toward suffering in silence. His situation is the classic deterioration in being able to cope with dynamic environments. He went to a great very small international school in pre-k and kindergarten, and immediately we had to start removing him gradually from situations he could not cope with - first the bus, then recess, then after school activities, then morning assembly, then we started having to pull him from academic classes. Even with a 1:1 and a lot of accomodations. Now I am home schooling him. He greatly needs all the services they have at Monarch for at least a couple years; I don't want to leave anything to chance since we have already spent a couple years trying to make a mainstream environment work and have lost precious time.
He will likely rejoin public education in 4th grade.
Thank you for the reply. My husband's company has a big office there so this is a job transfer. My son is in first grade, and his behavior would prevent him from being able to go to Westview - he is very outgoing, impulsive, and has strong reactions when something is not working for him - my understanding is that Westview is best for the kids who tend more toward suffering in silence. His situation is the classic deterioration in being able to cope with dynamic environments. He went to a great very small international school in pre-k and kindergarten, and immediately we had to start removing him gradually from situations he could not cope with - first the bus, then recess, then after school activities, then morning assembly, then we started having to pull him from academic classes. Even with a 1:1 and a lot of accomodations. Now I am home schooling him. He greatly needs all the services they have at Monarch for at least a couple years; I don't want to leave anything to chance since we have already spent a couple years trying to make a mainstream environment work and have lost precious time.
He will likely rejoin public education in 4th grade.
Have you tried RDI (relationship developmental intervention)? While it is better to have a consultant to help with this, it does work toward getting our kids to be able to accept more dynamic situations and to be more flexible. It is actually based here in Houston.
Two yahoo groups. The first is mine and it's not very active. If you want to join to see the files and links, just tell me that you came from c/d and want to learn about RDI when you ask about joining and I will approve you.
This one is a bit more active and has consultants in it as well. Kathy (the group owner) is a consultant. She is pretty anti-ABA though, just so you are aware.
The problem with the public schools here in Houston is that there are none that have smaller classes unless the child needs a self-contained classroom which my grandson does not. He is doing well with pullouts in his public school so far, but 24 children in the classroom can be a challenge for him given the sensory overload. I hope you find something that works. Certainly Monarch provides a much quieter environment than any public school I know of.
Thanks again for the replies. I was planning to start RDI this spring (had to pick between RDI and intensive sensory therapy this fall; chose to do the sensory therapy first), but will need to postpone with the upcoming move. I have the 10 hour parent training DVD, and it looks amazing. With Monarch's relationship-based approach, I suspect we would be doing something similar in coordination with the school - so it may not be appropriate for us to do RDI separately. I am anti-ABA as well - we have done modified ABA approaches for specific challenges in the past and while it did work well for the particular challenge, he is unable to apply the learnings to his many other challenges.
Do your grandchildren live with you? Sounds like you are quite involved with them. It appears we have two special needs children as well - our 4 year old daughter started preschool this year and as I suspected she would, she is having difficulties as well. We'll have her assessed this spring & start navigating the public school system with her.
Thanks again for the replies. I was planning to start RDI this spring (had to pick between RDI and intensive sensory therapy this fall; chose to do the sensory therapy first), but will need to postpone with the upcoming move. I have the 10 hour parent training DVD, and it looks amazing. With Monarch's relationship-based approach, I suspect we would be doing something similar in coordination with the school - so it may not be appropriate for us to do RDI separately. I am anti-ABA as well - we have done modified ABA approaches for specific challenges in the past and while it did work well for the particular challenge, he is unable to apply the learnings to his many other challenges.
Do your grandchildren live with you? Sounds like you are quite involved with them. It appears we have two special needs children as well - our 4 year old daughter started preschool this year and as I suspected she would, she is having difficulties as well. We'll have her assessed this spring & start navigating the public school system with her.
They don't live with us, but we live withing walking distance and moved to the south with my son and dil because we knew that the challenges would be difficult. I taught both high school and preschool.
My grandson has made tremendous progress with his ABA therapists, but they were not the standard discrete trial therapists. He needed that when he was 2 or so because he never imitated anything at all and had to be taught explicitly how to clap, etc. His motor planning was very poor and he needed OT, PT and ABA for his challenges. We do RDI more now but we cannot use a consultant as my dil finds it extremely difficult to video activities with him. We basically do it alone. His sister is actually his best therapist, but she is a bit aba herself and bosses him around too much.
My grandson is getting better and better at generalizing his learning, but that is because the particular ABA therapists he is with now (only once a month) work on that and work with the kids in the natural environment in a small group.
Btw, a lot of RDI has changed since that dvd was made. There are whole new components to the parent training. I do love the therapy, but I am not pleased with his proprietary business model. Nothing is shared outside the *circle* and you have to have a consultant if you want to see what to do unless you can watch the videos some parents are sharing on youtube. It annoys me because I think a lot of people who don't have the money for a consultant could benefit from RDI. I think after hearing him speak that it is his wife who is behind the business model rather than Dr. Gutstein. Just my take on things, though.
You are welcome to email me through the group and I will give you a real email when you do.
I am on several autism groups and we have a book about our experiences (it is published in Australia though and only on the kindle in the US.
The Autism Experience By Valerie Foley
Amazon.com: The Autism Experience: International Perspectives on Autism Parenting eBook: Valerie Foley: Kindle Store (http://www.amazon.com/Autism-Experience-International-Perspectives-ebook/dp/B005LWHDAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316695932&sr=8-1&tag=pbv-20 - broken link)
Very second hand here... But I have a good friend who pulled her son out of Katy ISD in 1st grade and enrolled him in the Parish School (spring branch area) it's been 4 years and they are still happy there. He has behavior issues and on the spectrum. Some of his therapies are even done at the school during school hours.
Again, this is just second hand (a friend) but worth a look into.
One of the reasons KISD isn't the best place for special Ed, has nothing to do with the isolated case at one KISD school. It's just that it is a fast growing "new" district, and more money/resources to building new schools. SBISD for example has a great reputation, in part because they are a small district and long ago built out. I would consider it for public vs suburban public
Fort Bend ISD. I live here. I have a son with special needs. I could not be happier. Worth every penny for the taxes!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
