2006-07-15 08:55:06 · 5 answers · asked by AutieMom 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Special Education
I am saddened by the person posted above who had such a bad experience with the public schools. Please be assured that not all public schools are like that.
My district handles autistics at different levels regularly, with good success (from 1:1 self-conatined TEACCH program, clear through to inclusion with social skills instruction support).
You MUST be an advocate for your child. Be ready to go to due process... schools that know you will not hesitate to enter the due process procedures will make the district more willing to provide the effort up front, and save themselves the due process cost (if they aren't like my district).
A LOT of the success of the program is staff training. Insist on TEACCH or similar program training for your child's lead special education teacher. If they resist, start making those due process noises. Here's a site that will really help you prepare... the right vocabulary, laws, etc.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/
As a special education teacher focusing on Elementary Resource Room, I occasionally provide services for high-functioning autistics who are on full or partial inclusion.
My husband, a Drama teacher at the high school, has had two autistics participate in his Drama program with a great deal of success. Of course, even though he is a regular ed teacher, he has personal experience in his background, as we have a son with special needs (although not autistic-spectrum).
I have gotten good feedback on how I deal with my autsitic students... I hope your child has excellent staff at his service.
2006-07-15 14:05:57 · answer #1 · answered by spedusource 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My daughter has a severe brain injury and attended asmall private school that also had students with autism. Their teaching methods were based on the Rudolph Steiner system of teaching and learning.
The school sadly closed down due to a lack of government assistance, however the residentail facility that was attached to the school still exists and could tell you more about the very effective teaching plans the school had used which saw some pretty amazing results for children, adolescents and young adults with autism.
2006-07-15 16:37:55 · answer #2 · answered by wollemi_pine_writer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our schools have put up a fight. We had to file for a due process hearing. That got them to back down. Since then they are more cooperative. They still don't take a proactive approach. We have to lead them and really be an advocate. There have been some exceptions, but these have been due to specific teachers who went above and beyond. We recently started to learn about RDI Relationship development Intervention. It looks very promising.
2006-07-19 01:11:15 · answer #3 · answered by unicorn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had to fight and file state compliants just to get our school to do evals to see if my child could qualify for special ed help. Their eval showed 'symptoms' of autism but since schools can't diagnose this, school just ignored this. I didn't know my child could have this, and I don't have enough money for my own evals to check this.
Anyway, school fought with me every step of the way, forcing the issue of her autism symptoms as 'behavior problems'. They ignored the true problems as well as her learning problems that were found with their own testing as well. We started homeschool.
I wish you luck with any kind of special ed help in public schools. That probably won't even help.
For personal experiences and help for you, go to www.schwablearning.org and sign up for free on their parent message board. Then learn the horrible truth of education in America...
2006-07-15 17:09:25 · answer #4 · answered by jdeekdee 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://www.daylon.com/autism/
there's a paper I wrote on the topic.
2006-07-17 00:05:08 · answer #5 · answered by nolyad69 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋