Hi M

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like things are pretty hard for you and your son right now.
It is difficult to know what is the best thing to do, isn't it, but often our gut feeliing is right.
My son at that young age also used to bottle his anxiety up when at school and then be so angry when I picked him up (on the days he did attend). My son does not have ASD but many of the symptoms overlap with anxiety. It is heart breaking, isn't it.
(Things do get better by the way...a lot has to do with managing the anxiety and trying hard not to make school the main focus in life!).

FOrcing our kids to go is not the answer as it just makes it worse for them and us. I believe, however, had the school been more supportive and flexible when my son was the same age as your son, things might have been better.

What I can suggest is that you get in touch with the people who run another website for School Refusal: www.schoolrefusal.co.uk
They have a Facebook group and one of the mums has a son with ASD whose issues started back in early primary school. This group started after our website here and is now more active. This mum spent time staying at the school with her son. I did the same for my son, and helped out in th classroom basically and then after an hour was able to leave. It was not the answer but it got my son there without the heartache and it helped him maintain those early friendships.
As one of them running it knows more about ASD at that young age, you might find they have some good suggestions.
You can also email them via the site.
Come back any time as there are always parents on our forum who understand and are going through very similar things. There might be others on here who can help, but it might just take a bit longer to have someone post. Hang in there..you are doing all you can and there will be some help out there.
Schools are difficult places for kids like ours. Keeping your son's self esteem how it is now is very important.
See how you go over on the other site and/or facebook.
Take care
Linda

Sorry to hear of your struggles with your son. I am a SEN professional and a parent of 3 children with SEN. My daughter was a school refuser. Please visit my website - https://amchomesen.wixsite.com/mysen

I offer free email support and advice!

Take care
Anne-Marie

Hi Anne-Marie

Thanks for letting others know about your website and the help you give. The link at the bottom didn't go to your website, so if anyone wants to get in touch they need to cut and past the website address you gave.
It is hard finding help, so any is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Linda

Hi Linda,

Thank you for your message & letting me know about the link. My website can be found on Google by searching AMC SEN.

Through my own personal & professional experience I have been shocked by how widespread a problem school refusal is. It has been apparent that there is just not enough help & support out there. I found that what little support there is, people just aren't aware it's there. The other issue is that it's not a complete support & I found professionals could only help with a few aspects but not the all the issues I faced combined so there was never progress. I only found progress once I took the lead & did it for myself. My daughter is now attending an independent school every day!

Sites like this a brilliant to bring everyone together & not to feel alone!

Kind regards
Anne-Marie