we want friends!

I'm very new and wanted to make contact. I have an 18 year old son with Aspergers and we've home "educated" from age 12 - I put the commas round because we went into home ed because there was no alternative and i was being threatened with legal action by a special school where he had completely broken down and couldn't cope with. I only wish we'd gone into it by our choice becuiase I still think its been the best for him at that time.

Now we're looking at doing English GCSE and maybe maths if I can find a tutor / college trained in dealing with dyscalculia. I'd so much love to hear from other parents or young people who have ideas / experience - live around the South West and could meet up with us? We've only moved here from London this summer and we're feeling a bit isolated (though London was no wild social life either!) Cathy R

Welcome to the forum. Out of interest, was the special school Asperger specific or not?

I'm not familiar with colleges in the south west of England. Your son probably had a better opportunity to take GCSEs in London as there are more tutors and specialist educational institutions than in the rest of the country. I would make an intelligent guess that in much of south west England you are restricted to whatever state colleges offer. Most that offer English and maths GCSEs are happy to take 18 year olds although it might be on evening courses.

Thye school was a specialist autism school - medium learning difficulties and above. The trouble i n London was that my son's experience in both main stream and special schools has left him with extemely low self esteem and high anxiety about education al together. I've just ordered a home education course in English that looks good for him - and Salisbury has a special tutor agency for dyslexia! Just found this out. Thanks for replying!

Welcome. It's good to have a parent of a young adult with AS who was partially home educated. My son entered the world of home education first by being expelled from a secondary school then after leaving another secondary school due to unhappiness and stress. I wish that I had started home educating much earlier when he was of primary school age.

I don't think either of us are actually unusual in our sons being so let down by secondary. I too wish we'd gone into HOme Ed through choice - actually we thought about it when he was 5 but didn't have a clue how to do it - and 13 years ago it was a rare thing to do. How old is your son and how is he doing? Cathy R

I was vaguely aware that HE was possible when my son started primary school but I knew nobody who did it or happened to know of any HE families. There was no information published about HE before the internet existed and I doubt that any local groups existed.

My son is now 20 and is working on setting up an electronic engineering business.