Aspergers syndrome

The ESF education system does have an inclusive education policy where children with additional needs are catered for (not necessarily as well as they may be in a large English speaking country - but they are in classes that I have taught as a supply teacher). The Bradbury campus which is in the mid levels area (primary school) has a unit where the childen are able to come during some of their class time for small group (3-4) attention if needed and they stay in their own class for a significant portion of the time - or all of the time and the specialist teachers are available for any advice or any crisis situations. I have had experience with several children both there and at two other of their primary schools with chidren with autism and Aspergers. The ESF schools have reasonable waiting lists so I would contact them early. The other place to try is the Matilda International Hospital. They have a child development unit (0 -5 yrs) I think. They used to bring some of their children up to my daughters preschool a couple of days a week with an extra teacher from their unit. Great kids. In fact thinking about it I think they might be your best bet for a starting point on services available here. If you are being brought over by a company you may want to investigate early what the addiditional costs of education here will be as you will most likely not find anything in the govt (free) system to benefit your son. I also know that some of the parents at my children's ESF school pay for a class room assitants that come to class to assist for various reasons. It is about 13K a month according to one Mum (that may be what she is prepared to pay as it is a private arrangement and perhaps you would find cheaper). Since school fees at ESF are around 4.5K a month this is a significant additional amount. Check carefully any health insurance that the company is offering too if you need to see specialist doctors or therapists - private medical care is expensive here. Class sizes at ESF are 30 and nearly always full. This means that teachers are stretched already and whilst very good teachers in my experience and not a single one has ever complained or made negative comments about a child with difficult behaviour patterns or additional needs of any kind. There is a website called classmatesasia.com which has a listing of all the international schools here in HK. Dependng what your home country is you can see if there are other international schools that would cater sufficiently. Many however have selective intake and are not interested in anything but the brightest, richest, easiest to manage kids.

ESF also has The Jockey Club Sarah Roe school, which takes 60 children with moderate to severe learning disabilities. It may be worth contacting them, they may be able to give you more info about facilites in HK. They have their own web site, but can't remember the exact address.

Hi Grommet,

You should check out The Children's Institute. It is a school set up exclusively for children on the austism spectrum with great results. The method of instruction is ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis). Those children who would benefit from mainstreaming will from this September be in The Harbour School but with a shadow teacher from The Children's Institute supporting.

The website is www.tcihk.org

Hi Grommet, if you would like to message me offlist, I am part of an excellent AS parent support group. We have a montly meeting of parents only and we have speakers come - last week it was a local educational psycologist. I can put you in touch with the leader of the group, and also other parents with kids the same age.


Anyone else who wants info about this group is of course welcome to message me as well.