school insisting my autistic DS wear shorts

USM

I'm going to risk getting flamed by the liberal majority here but...

He is a child. Children are difficult and most of them hate P.E. Exercise some discipline and tell him he has to wear shorts and back the school up.

Tiddlywinks

USM wrote: »

I'm going to risk getting flamed by the liberal majority here but...

He is a child. Children are difficult and most of them hate P.E. Exercise some discipline and tell him he has to wear shorts and back the school up.

Actually, I agree with this to a certain extent... I understand the constraints of the child's condition but I think the OP should work on getting her son used to shorts (at home first perhaps) rather than simply accepting that he will never wear them.

I'd have thought that he would have worn them as a littlun - did something happen to make him hate them?

Sometimes it becomes habit to place everything down to the "condition" and is easier to do that than to try to work through stuff that would untimately help a child fit in with his peers. Surely it's worth a go?

brokenlily

USM wrote: »

I'm going to risk getting flamed by the liberal majority here but...

He is a child. Children are difficult and most of them hate P.E. Exercise some discipline and tell him he has to wear shorts and back the school up.

Not quite that easy with an autistic child - they don't respond like other children do. Normal discipline doesn't always work.

But....that doesn't mean it's not worth a try at home, and to try and work with the school, come to some sort of compromise. If it really isn't possible/is too distressing for him, then perhaps CAMHS/GP can help by providing a letter for the school.

My step brother is autistic and he goes to a wonderful school, but one of the reasons that he is doing so well is that they and his family have on occasion helped him to go beyond his comfort zones and boundaries, and sometimes that's what is needed. Unless of course it is causing such serious distress to the child as to be impossible.

chloo

USM wrote: »

I'm going to risk getting flamed by the liberal majority here but...

He is a child. Children are difficult and most of them hate P.E. Exercise some discipline and tell him he has to wear shorts and back the school up.

incase you didnt read this child has a mental disability. people with autism like to have a routine and when the routine is upset or changed they find it very hard to cope. this isnt a case of a child trying to get out of pe.

op could you get your son some 3/4 length trousers? i know primark sell them. or somewhere like sport and ski depending on how old your son is.

my little man has autism and he hates having his body on show on home he wears a all in one to lounge around in about a year ago he started to enter pubity and he now refused to go swimming with school or with his mum or with me as he is upset to show is body as he thinks he is fat- an idea of which he got from school.

good luck

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

DDs' primary school insisted on trackies because the children were getting cold in shorts.

So H&S is nonsense.


withdraw him from PE and make sure they know that any attempt to punish him will be met with a complaint to the Board of Governors for failing to recognise the impact of his disability AND is a health and safety matter due to the cold.

IanManc

concerned43 wrote: »

as some of it is his embarressment over hairy legs - should I get him to shave?

Whatever you do, DO NOT DO THIS.

You'll make him feel like a freak. And if he has body issues, it would massively reinforce them.

Autism is a disability. The school has an inclusion policy, so ask to see it - and not just for a flick through, but a copy to take away and study.

The school has to make reasonable adjustments so that people with disabilities are included. Having an inflexible policy on PE shorts isn't an exception to the general requirement to consider making reasonable adjustments, so an answer of "it is school policy" is not a sufficient answer.

Read the school's own policy so you can use it as ammunition and quote it, and write a letter of complaint to the Chairman of Governors.

skipsmum

OP, my DS is 11 and is allowed to wear trackpants during PE for medical reasons - he has physical disabilties. I would ask the school what they would do if your DS was physically disabled.

DorsetGirl_2

It could well be a sensory issue.

I would make an appointment with the Head and start quoting the Disability Discrimination Act.

merlot123

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/EducationAndTraining/DG_4001076

The school are being unreasonable imo.

Annisele

concerned43 wrote: »

as some of it is his embarressment over hairy legs - should I get him to shave?

No, please don't do that.

Apart from (as IanManc said) the risk that it'll make him feel like a freak, there's also the stubble issue.

Male leg hair is usually thicker than female leg hair, so I think the stubble would look much more obvious. If the other kids tease him over hair, they'll definitely tease over stubble - and they'd probably tease over any other attempt to get rid of hair as well. Kids just tease