The Learning Path

I had the most disgusting experience here with my autistic daughter. I was told that the school does not accept autistic child and would need to do a week’s assessment first at a fee. My daughter would be assessed in that time by an occupational therapist and a speech therapist. If she does not seem like she’ll cope, I would be told which skills to focus on over the next year to get her ready for the school. She is currently coping relatively well and is very happy at a mainstream pre-school, however we understand that mainstream school in the long term isn’t really an option as she is not yet speaking fluently at age 5 and requires more personal attention. Yet my daughter sits and completes her crafts tasks and knows her numbers, shapes, colours and alphabet. Well what was supposed to be a week assessment came to an abrupt end after 5 hours. I was called in, given my money back and told that my daughter was rejected by the school as she refused to answer to her name or make any eye contact and was disruptive. The owner pulled a face and asked ‘does she always act like this?’ as is this was the first special needs child she’d ever met. She informed me that there was no point in even allowing my daughter to see the speech and occupational therapist as it would just be a waste of time. Honestly, we obviously dodged a bullet here. My daughter’s speech therapist constantly raves about how well my child does and how much potential she has. Her teachers adore her and are happy to keep her where she is and have never once called her disruptive. You’d think an educator would consider the concept of altered behaviour in a new environment and would want to give a child some time before treating them like trash to throw out. Disgusting