Autism Education
What types of Autism education are available for my child? Great question for parents new to the Autism diagnosis but you will find that you will need to ask this question throughout your child's school years.
Autism is a spectrum disorder and you will find that you probably have to try different methods of Autism education as each individual will respond differently.
Early intervention is important and you will find that you will have to make decisions as to what teaching strategies for Autism you will need in the preschool years. You will have to decide whether to pursue ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) or Floortime (for information on these areas, please see Autism Treatments) in the early years.
As your child is near school age, you will have to decide whether to have your child enter main stream school (inclusion in the classroom), specialized Autism or special needs schools, private schools or home schooling.
If you choose to have your child enrolled in the public school system, you will need to work with the school's educators as well as your private therapists to develop and IEP (Individualized Education Plan). The IEP is an essential part of Autism education in that details what types of services your child will receive.
The IEP will include how many hours of speech and occupational therapy will be made available to your child, as well as where the services will be conducted.
Parents should plan in advance with a list of questions that you may have. For example: Does the school have a sensory room for sensory integration? How do teachers and other students deal with Autism in the classroom? What is the student to teacher ratio? Will my child's teacher aid have training in Autism?
If you have private therapists make sure that if they can't attend the meeting, they send a report with their recommendations. Do stand up for your child's rights but do not argue just for the sake of arguing.
A good idea is to find other parents of Autistic and special needs children and find out from them what their experiences are with the school their child attends. They will be able to give you information that you may not get just by taking a tour of the school.
Private schools or specialized schools will have specific teaching strategies for Autism and the use of different special need resources but can be costly if you are not subsidized.
Home schooling offers the luxury of more one on one interaction which is great but the drawback comes in the lacking of interactions with other children at school.
All three options have pluses and minuses. You know your child best and will have to decide which method is best for him.
Recommended Autism sites:
Autism Asperger Publishing Company
