Preparing Your ASD Child for Transition to Middle-School
Parents who have children that will attend middle-school for the first time later this year need to initiate preparations pronto! Another school year has ended, summer is here, and for some students, this was their last year of elementary school. This is not necessarily good news for children with ASD [High-Functioning Autism]. Why? First, THE most difficult transition for most students (ASD or not) is that of going on to middle-school. This is largely due to the fact that, for the first time in the student’s life, he/she will have several teachers AND a much larger school population to contend with. Gone are the days where the child enjoyed having only one familiar teacher and only one relatively small classroom. Second, children with ASD have difficulty with transitions in general – especially one this dramatic. In general, a child’s intrinsic motivation toward school (i.e., the desire to do schoolwork for its own sake rather than for an external reward) has b