OK, I am writing this because my 10 year old autistic daughter relates to Cory Montieth's character Finn on Glee. She says Finn seems a lot like her, so I am taking that idea and running with it.
I've made a few rewrites to all the chapters. The first is in 3rd person to set up the story and the rest are from Finn's POV. I'm using things my daughter has actually said at home about herself. One thing about Aspberger's I have found out, they can seem on top of the world, but have very low self-esteem.
I do not own Glee or any of its characters, but I do love my daughter,
Mrs. McGuire sat in the back of the classroom, observing Brittany Pierce. It was time to start working on her transition conference for when she left high school. As she took detailed notes of what Brittany did and said, "My cat reads my diary."? She still took note of other students in the class. It was a remedial class so she was in it quite a bit doing observations for conferences. Being the one of the special ed compliance monitors in the building, she got to visit lots of the rooms and just observe.
In this case she was in remedial English and the students were working on comprehension. She noticed that Finn Hudson, the school quarterback, was in the class too, and looking pretty confused. When he would ask questions, it would take him a minute or two to formulate the question with the right words. She could see the frustration on his face. As she kept taking observations on Brittany, she started taking notes on Finn and what he was doing in class.
When the bell rang she went up and had the teacher sign off saying that she had observed Brittany Pierce and then went to her office and placed the observation in Brittany's file. With curiosity she looked up Finn Hudson's cum folder and did a little bit of digging. She noticed that academically he was always low, and common comments made were, "Such a sweet boy, but seems to have trouble making friends. Only has really one friend and is lost if he isn't around. Seems to be eager to learn, but doesn't grasp concepts. Finn is very considerate of others and is very trustworthy." As Mrs. McGuire kept looking at his folder, she saw that he had been sent to interventions, but nothing really seemed to happen with it. "What a shame," Mrs. McGuire said to no one in particular.
The next day there was an Intervention meeting for the week. Mrs. McGuire, as well as Mr. Figgins, Mrs. Pillsbury, Mr. Schue, and several other special education teacher sat down to talk about next weeks plans and students. Mrs. McGuire started, "Brittany Pierce's observation is complete and signed off on. I will be entering it into the system and we can set up her transition conference with her parents to take place by the end of the month. Any questions? Good. Alright, I have some new business. While I was in remedial English observing Miss Pierce, I noticed the Finn Hudson was in the class. I noted that he was having quite a bit of trouble with the class, even though it seemed very clear that he was trying. Out of curiosity, I looked up his cum folder to see if he had any testing done, and I only saw where he had gone through intervention in elementary school, but the ball seemed to have been dropped and I can't find anything else on this boy. I would like to put forward to either start intervention, or use what is being done and see if he should go into testing."
"Mrs. McGuire, Finn Hudson is now in high school. Does testing really seem like a logical thing to do this late in his life?" Mr. Figgins questioned. Testing high school students was expensive and he had a budget to maintain.
"Yes Mr. Figgins. If I bring the reports to the Multi-disciplinary team and they determine he should then yes! This boy has gone through his life probably thinking he is dumb, where he may just have a learning disability. He needs to be looked at, because it can make a change in his life. If he understands what he strengths and weaknesses are and how to work with them, his life after school will be that much better for him. Do any of you here work with Finn Hudson?" Mrs. McGuire asked looking around at the team. Mr. Schue lifted his hand and so did Mrs. Pillsbury. "Finn is in my Spanish class on he's a member of the Glee Club." Mrs. Pillsbury added, "When Finn has problems, he comes to me for advice."
"Well, Mr. Schuester, I am going to send paperwork home with Mr. Hudson asking for permission from his mom to start this process. I think that he has an issue that he has worked his whole life compensating for. If he is the quarterback and in Glee, he obviously has intelligence and leadership qualities. I want to be able to give him more skills so that he can continue and develop them more."
"Just give me the paperwork by the end of the day and I will be happy to give it to Finn to take home."
Later that day, Mr. Schue was handing Finn the big envelope with, "Mrs. Carole Hudson" printed clearly on the outside, and a "Return Immediately" stamped on the front. "What's this Mr. Schue? Am I in trouble?" Finn asked nervously as he took the envelope. "No, no Finn. You know Mrs. McGuire the compliance monitor?" "Yes." "Well, she wants your mom to fill out some paperwork on you. She thinks that somewhere in your education, teachers have dropped the ball on you and she wants to make sure that you live up to your potential and I agree with her 100%." Mr. Schue grinned and the kind hearted boy.
In a week, paperwork was being sent out to the different teachers that currently had, or had had Finn Hudson in class. All of his classes, since they were already remedial had interventions in place and the data showed that Finn was still struggling. So the mulit-disciplinary team sent out their paperwork. Mrs. McGuire had urged them to do both the regular and the autistic paperwork. She just had a hunch about Finn; she saw a lot of her young daughter's personality in Finn.
When the paperwork came back, it was all almost the same, with the wording slightly different, but still saying the same thing, "Finn Hudson works extremely hard in class, but concepts are a huge struggle for him. Even though he is popular, he only has one or two friends that he seems to rely on. He doesn't interact outside of a small group of students. He has trouble expressing his emotions in a constructive manner (if upset he kicks or tossed furniture or will physically fight). Anything with a beat or repetitive pattern seems to be easy for him to understand, hence football, glee and playing the drums. He is very loyal to his friends and follows the rules. He is very trustworthy."
Looking at the data and paperwork, Mrs. McGuire was seriously leaning to a diagnosis, but needed a final decision from the psychologist and he hadn't interviewed Finn yet. It made her very said that this very affable young man did not get the help he needed through his education career. This is why she had gone into high school special education. Students like Finn and Brittany, those that have struggled all their school lives and needed someone to champion them. That is what she wanted for her daughter, so she would do it for others' daughters and sons.
Finn and Rachel were walking down the hall when Finn mentioned, "I have an appointment today with the School Psychologist. He wants to ask me some questions."
"Why Finn? Is something wrong?" Rachel asked as her brow furrowed
"Nah, I don't think so. I think it has to do with the paperwork my mom was sent and that she filled out and sent it back. Mrs. Pillsbury and Mrs. McGuire will be there too, just to observe."
"Do you want me to go with you?" Rachel asked. "Nah, I'll be fine. It's not like it is a test or anything. Thanks Rach," and with a kiss Finn headed off to Mrs. McGuire's office. When he knocked on the door, Finn was asked to come in. Finn had never been in Mrs. McGuire's office before. It was homey. There were plants on the window sills, a comfy love seat with pillows and a quilt and several overstuffed chairs with quilts on them too. In the far corner there was Mrs. McGuire's desk with her laptop and tons of papers sitting on it, and on the walls above various pictures of a smiling little girl. There was corner that help little kids books and toys. Finn saw a Buzz Lightyear sitting in the basket, and he immediately picked it up and started playing with it.
Mr. Miller entered the office looking at Finn and the Buzz Lightyear and smiled. Mrs. McGuire was at her desk and then Mrs. Pillsbury came hurrying in. "Finn, thanks for coming. Mr. Miller is just going to ask you some questions and you need to answer them as honestly as you can. Nothing you say will be held against you. All we need to do is find out more about you and how you see yourself. I am here because two teachers must be present during testing, and Mrs. Pillsbury is here to support for you. Do you like the Buzz Lightyear Finn?" Mrs. McGuire asked. She reminded Finn of a younger version of his mom. I bet she is an awesome mom too.
Mr. Miller started asking Finn questions, "Who is your best friend? Rachel Berry How many close friends do you have? 6 maybe. Is it hard for you to make friends or meet new people? Yeah it can be. I get either tongue ties or have word vomit and scare people off. What is easy for you to do? Sing, play drums, be a quarterback. I like things that I can count or has beat to it, does that make sense? What is hard for you? Seriously, everything. School is so hard. I just don't get everything, and I frustrate teachers because I can't just seem to get it. I think I am the male version of Brittany. It's hard for me to express myself unless I am singing. I always seem to use the wrong words, or what I want to say comes out wrong. I don't remember things very well. I still have trouble with my math facts. I always feel dumb around everyone else. I get angry easy and I have a bad habit of breaking furniture when I do. I'm sorry I did it afterwards, but when I'm angry I just don't care. I'm clumsy. Even though I am good in sports, outside of the football field or basketball court, I fall over all kinds of things, hit my head, and seem to crush things in my hands. Coach Bieste calls me Lurch, and others call me Frankenteen, and I am starting to believe I am a big dumb monster."
Mr. Miller took more notes and asked some more questions. When he was finished, he noted that Finn had played with the Buzz Lightyear toy during the entire interview. Mrs. McGuire also noted it and that when he stopped playing with it, he seemed more agitated. Finn shook Mr. Miller's hand and left Buzz on the couch as he left to office to go to Glee Club.
The three teachers looked at each other. No one wanting to say anything at first. "If he isn't on the Autism Spectrum, then I don't know of anyone that would be," Mrs. McGuire said, giving her opinion. The other two nodded their agreement. "How long before you come up with his diagnosis Mr. Miller?" Mrs. McGuire asked, looked at her colleague for an answer.
"You should have it by the next M-team meeting next week. Looking at the answers he gave, the observations that have been taken and such, this should be rather easy. It isn't the most clean cut diagnosis, but I think we will have one by then."
A week later, Finn and his mom were sitting in Mrs. McGuire's office, but Rachel had joined them too, at Finn's request. Finn noticed that Buzz was sitting where he had left him and started playing with him. Rachel shoots Finn a look of "Why?" but Finn just shrugged and kept playing with the toy. Mrs. McGuire came into the office and asked them to follow her to her conference room because there were going to be quiet a few people there. As they walked into the adjoining room, Finn noticed that her table wasn't like the conference table in the main office; this was a kitchen table with more quilts and plants, and a huge plate of cookies and some milk and water sitting in pitchers. Finn's mouth started watering, but both his mom and Rachel elbowed him to stop. When he looked up, Finn saw Principal Figgins, Mrs. Pillsbury, Mrs. McGuire, Mr. Miller and his other teachers sitting around the table.
Mrs. McGuire started, "We are here for the initial conference for the special education placement of Finn D. Hudson, an 11th grader at William McKinley High School." As she was doing the initial go through and telling his mom her rights, Mrs. McGuire passed the cookies around and also the milk and water. Finn really liked Mrs. McGuire. He kind of tuned everyone else while he was munching on his cookies. Rachel was taking a nibble here and there, but was listening intently to his conference. Finn's attention was drawn in when he heard Mr. Miller say, "Aspberger's Syndrome as it is an Autism Spectrum Disorder."