Do you have an autistic child and do they attend public school?

Thank you for the information & I will do just that. I hope things get better & better for your family.

Our son attended a developmental preschool through our public schools and I can not say enough good things about this program. It was wonderful! The aids were well trained. Our trouble started in Kindergarten. Our son is high functioning and was placed in a full inclusion classroom. His only pull outs were for Speech and OT. The problem was that the teacher was not trained, the aid was not trained and they refused to work with us, telling us they were the teachers and we were just the parents and did not understand the educational process. By second grade our son was 2 years behind in reading because they were not teaching to his learning style and as long as he did not disrupt the rest of the class they were happy to left him veg-out on the floor and zone out instead of learning how to give him an appropriate sensory break. After three years of bugging them and an outside evaluation in the area of reading, they finally sent someone to training last summer. This year his program has been much better. However, he is still behind in reading and writing (language arts). I encourage you to go into your child's kindergarten year with your eyes wide open and be ready to fight for your child's education. We found out the hard way that even if a school system has a wonderful early intervention program it does not guarantee a good elementary program. I hope this is not the case in your area but it is better to be prepared than to be surprised. I wish you the best!

You're very welcome, and thanks for the BR. I know that not all programs are the best. We have a long way to go in education, especially in special education. I think part of the problem is funding. The other part is as you say some teachers do not specialize in it, yet will be given a classroom with ASD. Here in Minnesota you can't work in a classroom that you're not qualified to work in. Meaning, I could not work in a full ASD room if I didn't have the certification. It doesn't mean that an ASD student couldn't be sent to me for reading (I'm also working on getting my reading endorsement). Having worked in other states, I can agree that programs need to be change in some states and improve for the sake of our children. Namaste-Anora

Anora_Eldorath, Thank you for your response. It sounds like you had the opportunity to work in a wonderful program. I wish all programs were so good and all teacher's so well trained. Unfortunately this is not the case. My son's program has improved greatly over the past year but we went through a lot to get the improvements that have been made. We had to continually ask them to send a teacher to training for 3 years before they sent someone. I really applaud you efforts to learn more about working with children on the spectrum and wish you all the best in your future endeavors! Matnlilsmommy

It is refreshing to see that you are willing to listen to the parents of your students. Being the parent of an autistic child I have found that this is a quality that is not common among teachers. Until this current school year we met with much resistance from our school system. Despite our experience and the fact that we have actually lived with our son 24 hours a day his entire life they seemed to think they knew more about him than we did. I applaud your open mind and encourage you to hold onto it as long as you can. I also enourage you to visit the site http://www.handsinautism.org, it has some information there that you can read. I also enoucrage you to look around in your area for workshops and other offerings to educate and train yourself because from personal experience the school system won't do it unless you happen to have a child in your classroom who has parents are actually aware of their rights and understand that the school system is actually required to train it's staff. You seem to really have your students best interests at heart, please hold on to that as long as you can. Your students will benefit from your willingness to work with their parents and learn to teach to their learning style. Thank you very much for your thought provoking response! Best wishes to you for a bright future for you and your future students!

Thank you for the link, I have saved it. I have a great family that has promised to make me quit teaching when I no longer have the attitude I do now. Teachers are there to help, and only the parents truely know their child. I hope to have a partnership with my students' familys because only then will the students succeed. I am glad that you have found a school that will work with you. Have a great day!!

Yes, he does have some problems with organization. His social anxieties don't help. At the beginning of this school year, we sent his school supplies with him in his back pack. All of the kids were supposed to turn in their school supplies because the school supplies are shared amongst the students throughout the year. He did not turn them in for a long time because he did not want to talk to the teacher to tell her that he had them. Finally he told me that he was scared so I went to the school and gave them to the teacher.

Many children on the autism spectrum have issues with organization. If your son is diagnosed with an ASD I would definitely ask they they include instruction about organizational systems in his IEP. Best wishes to you and your family!