Post #4: Parents have the best information

Toady I met with my friend whose son has been diagnosed with autism.  For confidentiality’s sake I’ll refer to her as Pat and her son as Eli.  Eli and his family were the reason I decided I’d like to blog about what schools actually offer in terms of services.  I have talked to Pat in the past, as a friend and as a person studying to teach young children, about Eli’s situation.  I have babysat for him in the past and have tried to understand his motivations, likes, dislikes, and level of comfort in given situations.  From the time I can remember, Eli loves numbers and has always had a natural ability to understand them.  He dose interact socially, he makes eye contact, smiles, and laughs.  He even jokes!  He just happens to enjoy numbers more than most, and has a hard time around kids who are extremely loud, that’s just a part of his personality.  He has a little sister, who I’ll call Sally.  I think having Sally around, who is typically developing, has made a difference.  Eli has learned to tolerate a “louder child” in a way he never would have had he not had a little sibling.  In this case I would say that she is a form of therapy!    Luckily for Eli, his dad, who I’ll call Dan, is a special education teacher.  This post is a bit of background information before I discuss all that I have learned/am learning about finding the right school/community for a child with autism through blogging for this class, from Pat and her family.  I have already learned from this course that the family centered approach is the only way to go if you want to enable a child with a disability to have a future with options.