Word.  If you don't fit neatly into one box, you're an inconvenience.

Yes - and also for me the IEP goals were mostly irrelevant to the things I really needed help with, and nothing was really done to help me toward those or any other goals. It was more like putting paperwork for show, so they could say, "oh yes, we're addressing her needs".

Speech therapy, when it did occur, was focusing on things I didn't need help with - non-literal language and social interactions - while completely ignoring things like spontaneous speech (which, when accomplished, is usually quite clumsy and difficult to understand, and also I have very long time delays if I want to communicate something essential, like being ill, and nobody ever has tried to help me better identify and communicate stuff like this, despite the fact that this is probably the most important thing I should be taught).

In fact, the only time during my IEP that speech has been remotely helpful was the beginning of one 20-minute session with a new speech therapist, except that in short order she de-railed it into trying to convince me that eye contact is pretty much the most important thing for social and work relationships despite my direct experience otherwise, and each time I tried to get back on topic she would go back to it. She wasn't nearly as bad as the previous speech therapist (who yelled at me during testing because I wasn't getting the "right" answers..WTF...and grabbed at my purse and arm during the IEP meeting), but she too got fired in short order. Still wasn't as bad as the year before, when the speech therapist who didn't do anything helpful either actually de-railed it to debating whether same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt (she was against it), after I had mentioned that I go to the gay-straight alliance club after she asked what I did Thursday at lunch. Last summer she moved to Texas, though, which is why we got this barrage of about three speech teachers in a year.

And then we got a new speech therapist who was nice and seemed to know a lot more what he was doing, but we didn't really do much at all, and there were only a couple sessions anyway. How the heck does the school expect me to take them seriously? That high school definitely didn't seem to take me or my needs seriously, dismissing them on the basis of academic achievement, and was unprofessional and disorganized.

It wasn't until IQ testing showed my scores to be at normal and low normal levels that they got all concerned and describing me as having "degraded" when in fact I've gained many skills in communication and independence in the last few years, which apparently doesn't matter when you stim more and score low in tests that require you to define words such as 'bicycle' using other words!  I can see how such a system could easily ignore the talents of a person who is referred and looked at through the basis of deficits.

Exactly. That is their goal. Make it paperwork look good enough for when the state auditors check the files, because that's where the $$$ is gained or lost.

I have a special ed for gifted education and taught in two states where "gifted" was a special education category. That gave us the legal grounds to combine services and prevented the schools from bumping a kid out of the gifted program just because there was a dual designation -- the second designation usually being learning disabled or emotionally disturbed.

Needless to say, those were some of the most amazing and difficult and wonderful kids I ever worked with.

In case they are the child's teacher's they could just concentrate in that individual child's needs at school.

LOL! This gets my vote for AFF Quote of the Week.

ATM: Ma'am, I do not believe that Autistics are a master race.  

Thank you.

All the best.

So what we have now is "your idea that autistic people are a spiritually and intellectually superior race, that autistic children should be protected from socialisation, force-fed mathematics and groomed as prophets, and that autistic people are the victim of a massive genocidal conspiracy?"

Interesting. I'm assuming I missed some interesting stuff while I was gone...

ATM: Sir, with the exception of the "genocidal" notion, common to AFF members who understand that genetic testing will bode ill, these are views that I do not hold.  

Thank you again.  All the best.

So what was all that about God's attempt to create a race of prophets?

And what about the endless "holy purpose" threads, where you rant about how Autistic children should be "protected" from socialisation and forced to conform to "high standards"?  What about the autistic kid you were employed to assist, who you laid a whole bunch of extra "rules" on, only to have it end badly because the kid wasn't interested in being your little indigo child?

I have raised these issues before but ATM has refused to debate his ideas - prefering to give people like me, Tigger and Batman a metephorical pat on the head and say something dismissive along the lines of "one day when I have time to explain this in terms simple enough for you to understand you're realise that I'm right and you're wrong".

All I'm saying is that before you get someone else's innocent child mixed up in your crazy ideas, think about whether you're really acting in the best interests of THAT CHILD, as an INDIVIDUAL... or that child as symbolic of this concept of The Autist as an intellectual and spiritual super-being.

ATM: Ma'am, "Holy Purpose" is a different concept than "Master Race."  It is not comparative.  Rather, it is individual and unique, neither equal nor unequal.  I hope that this unsettles any confusion.

Thank you again.

All the best.

In my humble opinion you should do whatever it takes to keep the autistic child from being sifted through the american school system, placed in special ed and/or and put on medication. Get help from a lawyer, do whatever it takes. The prisons are expanding rapidly all over the country to make room for those who fall through the cracks of the industrial revolution's education system legacy. Your autistic child will be generating capital in the dark murky facets of the american prison system after he generates capital for a bogus and corrupt business like the drug companies and the food and drug administration.

Also, bring your kid to work and let him boss people around for a few weeks. That will teach him the pride, ignorance and confidence he will need to make it in life. Whatever you do just teach him to be demanding and unsympathetic to others who are less fortunate then him and he will be set for life.

This is a joke, no? At the very least, the bolded stuff? Or is it a sarcastic expression of your pessimism for society?

Also, the individual being talked about is not the child of the poster, but of another child.

Definitely sarcastic. Sad reflection of society.

I know its not the child of the poster, Ive heard ATm talk about this situation before.

Its night night time.

Thank you.

Word.

Oh.

Well.

does this require circumcision?

Please don't invoke Godwin's law. It really annoys me when that happens. I think Ethel made a number of good points and there is nothing in her analogy about the prisoner of war camp -vs- the stronghold that justifies invoking a silly and irrelevant law.

How do you manage that?!

I reckon at least 30% of our household income is taxed off us for the benefit of all - and we don't get to share those benefits much because we're foregners; so another huge chunk goes on insurance.

One mile? I'd say you could just about walk that.

Rain, heat, cold... Any number of reasons you'd want to be in a car. I figure only about half the days around here are any good for walking, but it'd vary by climate and tolerance.

No offense is taken by me because you used a puzzle-piece metaphor for something other than finding a cure for autism. If you used it in the way that it is tossed around so often that I just mentioned, then I would be offended. I just feel refreshed to see the term "puzzle" mentioned in relation to something other than an autism cure.

Sad but true (I think).  THIS is why we did not tell school of dx, this is why we focused on an actual math disability dx, this is why we kept son mainstream from Kindegarten thru 4th garde - (then the MATH really was torture so - then did spec ed (resource room) JUST for math, then (just for science cuz higher grade science has lots of math)BUT , the kids on those classes ARE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS!  IT WEARS THE CHILD DOWN (as a teen self-esteem takes a major hit) energy is focused on "surviving" not learning... social skills are HEAVILY used and needed to even SURVIVE all those people!

(I miss ATM - his first post is so good)

so is this the point to opt out and do special ed?  To let a person have time to breathe and think and have less sensory challenges to have a chance to find out what they are even interested in..

maybe.

Hello kind people... need help -

If regular education becomes too oppressive - what about doing special education (non conforming alternative high school) education ?  

What, if any, experiences do you have with a GOOD outcome (left school with psyche in tact) like preparing you for more education (aka as higher education)?  As in, if you are burnt out already with typical high school, try something different, does it open you up to having the INTEREST in college etc.,? Is the less (Seemingly) stringent requirements in schedule.. in high school years better maybe for a student who is "bright" when not stressed.

Can less mean more?
Trying not to start a new thread... (when reading this - read the poll on the first page of the thread to see why I picked this thread)