Having found all of  his sensory needs and autistic foibles met at special school, it was a shock for my son to go to mainstream primary school. Naturally he was going to find it difficult. For any child at that age (4 and 6 months) first starting primary school is a huge transition, but for him this was multiplied many fold. It seemed he was prepared to tolerate mainstream if it was also combined with special school, but as soon as it was mainstream, and mainstream only,  for him everything changed. Since he had very little language at that time the only way he could react was through actions, hence his behaviour every morning for at least the first 3 months of attending. One of the things he would do when no one was looking was to leave the classroom and go and explore the rest of the building; and he was fast. They only had to take their eyes off him for a few seconds and he was gone. The head teacher had a theory that he was trying to learn the layout of the building, which in turn she thought would calm his fears about being there. It was common for him to be met in the halls by various members of staff and taken back to his classroom. He was fast becoming well known among the school fraternity.

For his first year of schooling he was assigned a learning assistant who was excellent. She had two boys of her own around the same age and she became more than just a member of staff to him. Along with a detailed report everyday at the classroom door he came home with a daily diary, which we also had to write in about what he did at home. This was invaluable as it helped me start to learn about how his mind was working and what he responded to best. Music was, and still is, a big part of his life; he loved all the 80s music I would play in the car. He also loved being in the car, no matter how long the journey he never seemed to get bored and he completely went into a world of his own. This was something I marveled at, but my ex was not so enthralled. In fact she was having less and less involvement in his life. Almost every evening I would return home from work to find him asleep on the couch and his mother waiting eagerly for me to finish putting him to bed...