One thing that can cause massive amounts of problems for autistic children is lack of consistency. Our classroom is strewn with visual reminders of one sort or another to help the children stay calm by giving them a pattern to their day. At the basic level, it consists of schedules given to each student — rather, placed in “his/her” area — that outline what we’ll be doing the whole day.
Unexpected changes can send more profoundly autistic children into spirals of panic, which manifest themselves usually in a meltdown of screaming and other “typical” autistic behaviors.
Even with this, some children have trouble navigating through the day without having someone assist them exclusively throughout the day. These services are supplied by the Autism Society, which receives a great deal of federal funding.
Well, the Federal funding has been cut, and that means that all services in our area end 17 March. No tapering off; no warning — just BOOM!
“Sorry Joey, but your one-on-one had to leave. You won’t see him again. The entire structure of your school day will now be instantly and violently disrupted. Have fun!”
Thanks, W. Really — No Child (who isn’t autistic, and whose parents are middle or upper class and contribute to my campaign) will be Left Behind.
This applies to all children with special needs. Any child with an IEP is exempt from the standards of the No Child Left Behind act and is therefore not entitled to a quality education. Schools have gotten creative in developing “portfolios” to document that they have met the standards regardless of how much your child actually learned or retained.
Our public school system has passed my son into the seventh grade, but he can’t spell second grade words or do basic math without difficulty. We had to fight to have him retained in the fifth grade. As a result, we revoked his IEP in an effort to hold the school accountable for providing him with a real education.
My friend whose child is severely autstic, was doing great in his school environment and actually learning. He can speak, dress himself, and isn’t potty trained. Budget cuts eliminated the program at his school and he was bussed to another school with limited resources. His learning regressed.
The cookie cutter approach to teaching our children is drastically flawed and the entire educational system needs an overhaul.
Stop spending money on meaningless research projects and spend it on our children, who are our future.