So far so good: successful transition to school for kids on the autism spectrum

The Batsman has completed his first full week of mainstream primary school. This next pathway follows on from a two and a half year home based ABA program. We are thrilled to be here since we were never sure upon the Batsman’s diagnosis, whether mainstream school would be within his reach. The intensive ABA program, with its structured, highly individualised and systematic approach has made the most extraordinary difference to our boy. He has truly learnt how to learn.

The Batsman has, as is often his way, taken the first week of school in his stride and managed way better than his very anxious mum. He very regularly exceeds whatever expectations we might have. It’s a time of transition for many and I thought I would share some important elements of what has so far been a successful step into a new world. It’s still early days and of course there might be things that go wrong in the days ahead but for now here is what has worked for us:

Starting the process early
Choosing the school early enables details to be taken care of way before the actual transition time. Building relationships with key school personnel, getting to know the school and taking care of funding applications early has really helped with being able to focus on the transition period because lots of boxes were ticked ahead of time.

Transition program
Participating in every aspect of the transition program provided by the school has helped the Batsman feel like school is a familiar place and took care of demystifying things like the toilets and the playground. Our school ran 3 formal transition sessions for all the preps. We were also able to a participate in a 10 session, one morning a week program that they provided for 20 preps throughout term 4 last year. School became part of the routine for all of us.

Social story
I wrote a social story that covered all the key aspects of starting school. I was lucky that my friend ‘T’ shared her template that I was able to personalize and build on. We turned the social story into a PDF document that was then able to be read on the IPad. The Batsman loves reading the story and looking at the photographs, both with us and independently. We plan to keep adding to the social story as the school year unfolds so that it becomes a kind of living journal. I think it will definitely help the Batsman to process things along the way.

Rehearsal and spending time in the school grounds
We live very close by to our primary school and we have spent much time through January playing in the playground or riding our bikes around the school oval. The school has really become a comfortable and familiar place, not a new and scary one. We also did some rehearsals with lunchboxes, uniforms and school bags.

Keeping it low key through January
We really worked hard to keep the time prior to school starting very low key and calm at our house. At times this was far easier said than done. We did lots of family fun things like swimming and day trips. We talked about the Batsman starting school only when he raised it in the conversation and we dodged all those well-meaning folk who love to build up the “so are you excited about school?” chatter. The Batsman was quite genuinely relaxed when school began so I think I must have done a reasonable job at stashing away my terror.

Support
Our ABA provider is supporting the Batsman and us through the transition and on an ongoing consultancy basis too. This has helped already with building the bridge between home and school and ensuring there is a good handover of information that will help the Batsman and his teacher as they get to know each other.
So there you go. So far so good. Fingers and toes crossed for more successful school days ahead.

Have you got any transition tips to share? I would love to hear them.

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