My son started school kindy at 3.5, too early in my opinion but we were told we
would despite him being born in June he would not be able to be held back. I
would like the committee to consider many 3.5 year olds are not yet diagnosed
but parents often know they aren’t ready for school and the approach should be
more flexible with school starting age and allow parents to be the decider of
if their child is ready. Through my child’s journey the one thing I’ve learned
is we all develop at a different pace and my child will learn when they are
ready and not on an arbitrary timeline. Schools are bound by data and
curriculum outcomes and many box ticking exercises. I feel the human element
is almost completely removed. We need to stop seeing children as data and start
supporting the individual to celebrate their strengths and differences.
The most important thing for our autistic children and I would say all children
is safety of relationship. If a child is anxious at school they cannot be in
the zone to learn. Autism is often co—morbid with anxiety. Schools are very
busy loud places. Our children must participate in many daily transitions
between subjects and rooms and teachers. I think we could make our schools a
calmer place by properly resourcing them. Every school should have a sensory
area for dysregulated students to use. They should not have to earn their time
in this area but be free to go there when they need. The teachers are so under
the pump and their class sizes do not allow for the individual attention all
their students need. When my son was just diagnosed autistic in year 1 he had
started running away from school at the start of the first term. We had no idea
why. He kept saying school wasn’t safe, but we thought it was fine. We couldn’t
understand that his nervous system was telling him he wasn’t safe. The school
would call us as my 5 year old would run outside school boundsaries and through
a public park and bushland towards are home. Fortunately I lived close by but
it was impossible for me to leave the house during the day as I knew we could
get a phone call to come. They told us if I didn’t come straight away they
would need to call the police which would have been a terrifying experience for
a 5 year old. He had been restrained by his teacher on the 2nd day of term and
this was extremely distressing to him. The school staff could only follow from
a distance and I was absolutely terrified of what could happen to him. This
flight response was particularly activated when the teacher shouted in class or
when they forced him to do writing. He was later diagnosed with dyslexia and
dysgraphia. These learning disorders were never identified or supported at
school. I think the fact he was so highly distressed with writing tasks that he
would elope should have been enough information for them to realise what was
going on.
My sons principal one day sent home from school because he was distressed over
a writing task and he had knocked over a table in a break out area which broke.
The table was new to the school. The principal was furious and insisted I
remove him. My son was very upset about it all and sent an apology once he was
calm. This particular principal refused to allow him back to school that day
even though he wanted to return. He was punished for something that is a
symptom of his disability. He has no control over a meltdown but this principal
thought he was being naughty and manipulative and did not understand them as a
manifestation of his disability. He told me my son was suspended but I later
learned that if he was suspended we would have received paperwork and it would
have needed to be approved by a school psych as it was a manifestation of his
disability. Despite us bringing his psychologists and OTs to educate and help
with my sons classroom accomodations and the eventual involvement of SSEN-D we
needed up in year 4 homeschooling as it was impacting his mental health
extremely badly. He really wanted to stay with his friends. He said the best
bit of school was lunchtime when they would run around together. He could no
longer cope with being forced to write and the school would not use the funds
allocated him. They said he couldn’t attend swimming lessons unless we brought
him seperately. He wanted to be on the bus with his classmates. He was often
segregated from them which increased his distress.
My son has a PDA profile of autism which is pathological demand avoidance.
Research in the UK indicates that 70% of children with this profile do not
attend school. I imagine we would have similar stats in WA.
I would love for my son to be able to attend mainstream school. I believe it is
his right to do so. We tried so hard to work with the school and other
professionals but when it gets to the point of your child feeling so badly
about themselves it affects their mental health and their safety it isn’t a
choice anymore.
I think most of the school staff were keen to make a difference and help but
did not know how. They receive minimal training in university on autism. What
they do receive is a grounding in behaviourism. It would be great to see our
schools, universities and department of education take advice from actual
autistics. To have those with lived experience advise our SSEN departments.I
was told SSEN-D is not there to help the autistic child but to help their
teacher cater for the child. I would like to see more resources given to
schools to help our children. They have no voice at school. They have no
advocate but their parents who are not present during school hours. For our
schools to be safe for autistic children we need more transparency and for our
autistic kids to have their own voices heard.
To have our schools be safe places for those who are different. I believe the
whole system needs a shakeup and a better understanding of what inclusion and
equality actually looks like. The PBS system schools use is not working,
particularly for autistic and adhd kids. It shames then for their decreased
executive function and emotional regulation. These are symptoms of a disability
not a conscious choice our kids are making. I would love to see our schools
look to people like Dr Ross Greene and Dr Mona Delahooke for their behaviour
management strategies. It would be great to trial Collaborative Proactive
solutions systems in our schools and see the difference this can make for our
most challenging children.
Due to my son being unable to attend public school it has meant I am unable to
work. He does not receive funding for any kind of carer. I’m fortunate my
husband can work and that we can get by. But it obviously is an added stress
and has affected our families socioeconomic status. Women are particularly
affected by this as we are usually the ones who take time off to raise and care
for our children. This significantly affects our super contributions and our
future earning prospects. I would dearly love to be able to have my son attend
his local school and not have to worry about him running away or becoming so
distressed it affects his mental health. I would like to see the WA government
recognise that this is not a choice for us. Homeschooling was not something we
ever planned to do. It was a last resort to help our son who has been failed by
the department of education and is being denied his right to attend public
school by the environment being so traumatic to him.
I would hope that WA government could resource the school system to support
these disabled students. The only option open to my son is to go to a special
needs school which he may not even get into due to his behaviour and limited
places. He will not cope in that environment anyway because they use ABA and
PBS which is shown to traumatise autistics.
I would love to see a school that implements CPS and works with our children’s
strengths. Right now in Perth there is no viable alternative for my son. Other
countries have things like forest schools which I think would be amazing for
our disengaged students. We can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a
different result. Can WA please look to Finland regarding educational matters.
Starting children later at school and allowing them do projects of interest to
them seems to be having a positive outcome in the international school
rankings.
Finally I would ask that the WA government engage with the PDA and autistic
parent groups in a meaningful way. We know we aren’t alone and that there are
thousands of kids like my son in our state. They have been failed by our
department of Education. We are shouldering the responsibility of educating our
children because there is no suitable alternative and inadequate support from
our schools. Please listen to our experiences and make our mainstream schools a
safe place for autistics.