Has an autistic child ever recovered thanks to a public school "autism class"?

Question

I have never heard of this happening, and I doubt that it has. But I'm being fair and at least asking. :)

I've talked to several mothers, and read stories from many others, whose autistic children have "recovered" after receiving homebased ABA therapy. Their kids aren't 100% better obviously, but they're almost indistinguishable from their peers.

So do any of you know of a child that has improved significantly after being in an autism class in a p.s.? I would think it's near impossible, with the almost complete lack of individualized attention, you know?

My 4 yo son is autistic. I've been giving him therapy myself at home, and he has shown improvement. I think he would just "spin his wheels" in a p.s. autism class. I am trying to line up professional ABA therapy though, because I feel like I've done all I can do alone, you know? But I'm being pressured to put him in an autism class in p.s. But do the children in those classes EVER have a chance of improvement?

My son is classified as "moderate" but still would be completely unable to be mainstreamed. He only says a few words per year, he can't sit still in a seat, etc. And yet he still seems to function above the kids I've seen in autistic classes.

I know that there's no 100% recovery, but I have heard of many kids who are almost indistinguishable from their peers after receiving ABA. Kids that have gone from being nonverbal to being mainstreamed after a few years, without even having to tell their teacher the diagnosis. They still have some social trouble occasionally, but for the most part they do very well. I really think my son could be one of those kids...he's shown so much progress with just working with me!

And yes, I am looking into chelation too. He already tested positive for mercury.

I'm receiving so much pressure to put him in a p.s. class, but I really feel that he'd stagnate there, and not get the 1-on-1 time. :(

It is possible for a child to "recover"...it's never 100% recovery, but I've heard of many nonverbal children who have improved so much that they're indistinguishable from their peers (within a few years' time). They will still have some problems, probably with things like double entendres (just an example), but in general they aren't noticeably autistic anymore and "move past" the diagnosis.

Answer 1

I seriously doubt the public school system could do anything right. I don't know what ABA therapy is but have you checked into Oral Chelation?

Answer 2

I think that classrooms for autistic children can be effective. The more intervention a child can get the more progress they can make. I have worked in an autistic classroom with 1 teacher and 3 well trained teacher assistants, and I feel we helped the students increase their abilities and meet many goals.
No child is going to "recover" from autism, however. They may learn ways to overcome some aspects of their disability, but constantly looking for a "cure" does not help anyone. The sooner a parent can accept the fact that their child is autistic and will be for the rest of their life, the sooner the parent can help their child reach their full potential.
I have worked in several ABA programs, and I was a lead therapist for a little girl from the time she was 3 to 6 years old. ABA programs are great because of the 1 on 1 attention, structure, and high intensity of intervention. I definitely recommend starting an ABA program in your home. The kids I worked with made good progress through these programs. Local government agencies can help with payment for therapists. In Illinois, I was paid by the Department of Human Services and a private company that specialized in respite care.
I would definitely suggest public schooling and an intense ABA program for an autistic 4 year old.

Answer 3

I don't have a child with autism, but I taught a child with autism, and my school has an autistic class, so I have a little bit of experience with this. The mother of the student let me read a book to the class about autism so they were able to understand things better (the student wasn't in the class when I read the book). My class absolutely adored the autistic student. They never made fun of him, understood that he was different, kept him in check (he's smart enough to take advantage of people if you let him), and helped him when he needed help. By the end of the year, he had made genuine friends who truly enjoyed his company. Kids CAN be mean, but you'd be surprised at just how much more compassionate they can be if given the chance. It also helps to keep the child in the same school, as they take comfort in the familiarity of the building, the teachers, the other staff, and the students. Mildly autistic children can have a lot of success in public schools if everyone involved is patient and understanding, with positive expectations for growth. :)

Answer 4

That is a difficult question to answer, since the services provided by the public school system differs greatly depending on where you live. My son is in a public school that does not provide ABA, but does provide ST, OT, PT and a 1-1 aide. He is in a mainstream classroom as much as possible. When he gets too disruptive or too overwhelmed in the class, they take him back to the special ed room to give him time to wind down. At his IEP, request a 1-1 aide and request that he be mainstreamed whenever possible. Try to contact a local group that helps advocate for children.

My son has improved with the work the school is doing, but nothing compared to the improvements seen with biomedical interventions. The school is amazed at the progress he has made. If you are considering chelation, please join the following Yahoo! group. There are many dangerous protocols out there that can harm your child, and many "snake oil" salesmen trying to wipe out your pocketbook. There are many parents on there that have children who have lost their diagnosis after treatment. This is not a 100% guarantee, but all have seen improvement to some degree, including my son. Search for the negatives as well as the positives for any treatment you are considering.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/

I wish you and your son the best. My prayers are with you both.

Answer 5

Hi Meredith, I have read all of your answers and suggestions and not one has mentioned the fact that it depends where the child lives. See, I live in So. Calif. and my Autistic son was diagnosed at the age of 3. His vocabulary was 20 words and he had all the full symptoms of high functioning. As of today, most people that meet him for the first time would not guess that he has a disorder. From the moment we found out about his Autisim, we immediately enrolled him with Harbor Regional, a non-profit organization, paid by the government that will make sure he is equipt with all structured schooling, basic skills at home, RSP, and even babysitting help all at no expense for the rest of his life. He is assigned with one counselor. He started school, at a public school but in a special needs class. All the students were Autistic, varied in severity, and the teachers, therapist, whatever you want to call them....were a blessing in disguise. By the time he was 6, he was then placed in a typical kindergarten class with no inclusions and passed with no limitations. He is now 10 and has scored in the 7th grade math level. He is also playing in golf tournaments placing the best score...in the Long Beach Junior Golf Association. We are very proud of him and I owe it all to Harbor Regional (paid by Arnold Schwartzneger) and his public schools, special needs class with therapy. He still attends therapy, RSP and Speach and Language, with no inclusions. I hope this helps you understand and not to get the wrong idea about public schools in SOME areas. Hope you find the proper therapy you need for your beautiful son. :D

Answer 6

I am in the same boat as you! My son is four, in the "moderate" range, and his public school preschool program is TERRIBLE. There is almost no attention paid to him, it's semi-mainstreamed with several typical children and several ESL students, and he just wanders around the room pulling toys off the shelves while the other kids do classwork.

We are trying to transfer him to a charter school for autism that focuses on sensory needs and has a Floortime approach. Without getting those needs met, he won't sit still for even 5 minutes of "table time" (ABA). So far, I am the one doing all his therapy myself, and it's getting pretty exhausting.

I would recommend a specialty class or school ONLY if they are very knowledgable about Autism. For example, my son's school is giving him "regular" speech therapy, which DOESN'T WORK for autism. She basically talks at him while he stims and repeats his lines from Blue's Clues. Pointless. I'm doing everything in my power right now to transfer him and to do more ABA and floortime/RDI at home.

(feel free to email me if you want to chat)
Cheers,
Juniper

PS - Be sure to try the DAN! protocol if you're hoping for recovery. Enzymes and yeast treatment did wonders for my son!

Answer 7

My son has been in a public school, ABA based autism classroom for the past four years. He has moderate autism. When he entered the class, he had a limited vocabulary, poor social skills, lots of representational language and a major transitional problems that led to behavioral issues. We have seen an amazing change in him. Yes, there are public school classes out there (but they would be special ed and not inclusion settings...ABA is tough to use in a class of 30) that can support your child's needs and help him become all he can. Every child in his class and his program have made incredible progress...I have seen completely non verbal, disassociated children begin to communicate and interact in ways that amaze even the most experienced teachers. Does this happen everywhere...unfortunately no. We happen to live in an area (DC/MD) where we have many options for kids on the spectrum. Two of the leading institutes in the country ...Kennedy Kriegar and Sheppard Pratt...are based here. In some areas, the public schools have contracted with private, special ed schools to provide services and this program has been incrediablly successful.

I do not use the word recover...there is no recovery as autism is a life long disability that can not be cured or healed. Some kids can, with time and support, reach a point where the symptomology is almost unnoticable. But that is not a cure, but a complex educational process of learning how to interact. react and behave. And the hard truth is, statistically is happens in less than 10% of the kids and most of these children would be considered high functioning to begin with. However, that should never stop a parent from trying anything they can believe may help...just be sure to get all the information first so you can make a truely educated choice. This is especially true with alternative treatments...they have worked for a very few families, but again the statistical data shows it to be roughly 10% and these kids tended to have digestive or allergy issues. Treating autism is no different than trying a new treatment for diabetes..parents have the right to know all possible side effects and reasonable outcomes to help make the decisions.

Homeschooling a special needs child can be very difficult. There are many who do it, love it but will still admit it is tough. One of the biggest reasons I advise caution is that by not enrolling in the public schools, your child looses out on any and all ancillary services such as PT, OT, speech, support from behavior specialists, etc. These therapies are exspensive to do on your own and many insurance companies will only cover limited amounts of services. When it comes to non-traditional treatments such as dietary, mega vitamin, hyperbaric chambers and even sensory integration therapy in some cases, they will not cover any of it. When you homeschool, often times the parent becomes the major provider of all of these services as well as trying to teach the regular curriculum topics of math, reading, science, etc. Right now, as your child is pre-school aged, you are not required to meet any of these requirements. However, once they reach school age you will have to follow the guidelines your state has in place for homeschooling and, if applicable, prove that progress is being made. It can be a tough (and frustrating)thing even for parents who are not trying to provide other services. As an advocate (and a parent with an autistic child in school and another child with severe learning disabilities being homeschooled) I tend to recommend that parents with special needs children use homeschooling as a last choice.

Answer 8

I believe it is possible to get good services in a public school. I moved to be in a district that had an ABA based program and my child has done extremely well there. I highly recommend the book "Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism". It will teach you how to run an ABA program in your home and to recognize good ABA therapy. There is so much "bad" ABA out there it makes me sick. People who claim to know what they are doing and are clueless. Also, the reason my child is doing so well is that I use these principles with her and do my own therapy every minute when she is outside of scheduled therapy... so instead of 25-40 hours of therapy she gets many more hours. By generalizing her skills to other environments and practicing what she has learned in therapy, her learning curve has accelerated dramatically.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 9

I have worked with children with autism for over 6 years. I have been in the school system and I honestly have to say that private therapy is by far a better choice. Private ABA companies are more organized, have better staff and are better trained. I would fight for a one on one and as much time in a general education setting. In my opinion if your child is mild or higher functioning, fight for them to be in a regular education classroom with an aide. I have only ever seen one child transition from an autism special day class to full inclusion.

There is a great web site that has SO much information. It is an organization for parents who have children with autism. It is based in CA, but again the information on this site is amazing. www.tacanow.org.

I would also pursue none traditional therapies such as HBOT & Tomatis. Sometimes insurance companies will cover the cost.

Good luck!

Answer 10

Everything depends on the class he is in, the student, adult ratio and the methodologies used. Believe it or not, there are teachers who do use ABA, at least in my district.
The biggest problem with keeping him out of school is that he is not going to know how to act in a classroom, which is what Pre-K is really about. There are so many skills that he needs to learn that he cannot be taught at home. These include sitting in circle time, interacting with other people, eating lunch at school, using playground equipment, learning how to be in active environments, getting accustomed to behaving for adults other than yourself in a school situation, playing with other children etc. You cannot duplicate this at home.

If your goal is to mainstream this child, then you need to have him in school so he can learn basic school skills. I would hate to see him land in 5th grade having never been in the classroom.

There are some alternatives to public education, but your child needs to be in school for one year before he can access this alternative. All children with an IEP are entitled to the McKay Scholarship which will provide most of the tuition needed at a private school. Look into this and get your son in school so he can qualify. Ask someone at your school district to explain more about McKay.

I have a friend with a moderately autistic child and she has her child in public school.
She realizes that he will gain some valuable skills while he is there. And, since I have access to all schools in my district, I have observed him in class. He does get individual attention in class, but not all of the time. He is only 4, so he doesn't need to be getting instruction 1:1 all day long. He tires easily.

He would never sit, do a non-preferred activity or speak. Now he can sit for 15 minutes, request by pointing to a picture and can work for 8 minutes at a non-preferred task in a 1:3 situation. These things are huge successes! Next year, his mother will move him to an ABA school using the McKay scholarship. Meanwhile he is learning the skills he will need to be successful there.

And yes, we have had some great successes with children, particularly in the higher functioning children. I think your idea of sending him to an ABA school is a great idea, but don't forget what a public school has to offer this year.

Answer 11

As a public school teacher who works with autistic students, my suggestion is go with what you are comfortable with. If you are being pressured by your spouse or significant other, I suggest both of you sit and listen to each other. If money is the issue, and you are willing to sacrifice for your child, do it! As far as seeing children "spinning their wheels", ask what method the teacher is using. Currently TEACCH is a GREAT method of teaching autistic children, however, many teachers who use this method, feel the child's behavior is an integral part of who they are. Many educators and parents work together to extinguish or replace behaviors that parents may feel bring unwanted attention towards the child.
School personnel are usually very willing to talk to parents about their programs, philosophy, and expected outcomes for children.
I really hope this helps and please do not bow to pressure but do check out all the p.s. that are available to you in your neighborhood.
By the way, autistic individuals improvement is based on the willingness of the family to provide structure and consistency. Have autistic children improved in a p.s. environment? YES!! There are many excellent and dedicated teachers in public schools who are strong advocates for their students and parents, who provide an excellent education and behavioral program for the community!