Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I-am-me]

Anyone here have an autistic child in class? I have one. He is an excellent reader, has great pronunciation and can find info or understand most of what he reads. Problem is you cannot hold a conversation with him. Do koreans have any special schools for these kids? His parents keep him at the hagwon because he enjoys my class. Sometimes its just one-on-one. I wish some of my other kids could have a little of his gift. English might be the only class he is good in. Any advice?

[Pak Yu Man]

Korean parents are oblivious about this stuff. They want to send their kid to a regular school so their son/daughter can feel regular. Instead they are teased and beat up.

[Zoot]

I'm not entirely sure about the diagnosis for autism but I'm 99% sure I have one. The kid can't hold a conversation, as you say. His reading is good and his sentence structure is sound.

However, he rarely responds to anything I tell him. He doesn't answer simple questions even though I have no doubt he understands me. He sits through EVERY SINGLE CLASS and does pretty much nothing (I have him in a writing class). He's written about how he takes some extra thing for 'Brilliant Children' at home but he never does his homework. Sometimes he'll stick around the hogwan and do his homework with the supervisor.

When I talked to my supervisor about him, she said he has "some mental problems." Well, duh.

Pretty much, he just sits there every class because I don't know how to handle him. Today I got frustrated because he NEVER DOES ANYTHING. I'm worried I'm gonna get into trouble out of this because he won't even copy down things that are on the board into the spaces in his workbook. But I haven't heard any complaints yet...

I assume he's in my class because his parents can't or don't want to look after him during the winter vaction (he just started in January).

[I-am-me]

Yes...it does sound like he is autistic. I cannot get my student to leave after class!!! He will sit and write or read. Its too bad they dont get extra help somewhere. Dont' worry about getting in trouble and dont expect too much from him. I dont think anybody else does!