Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is an important legal document that every student with a disability has. The education team creates the document with input from the parents. It’s an education plan that describes the student’s current academic status; include modifications that need to be in place to help the student learn, and most importantly the goals that the teacher and related services (Speech, OT, PT) are going to address during the year. An IEP annual meeting has to occur to discuss progress, make any changes, and create the next year’s IEP. Parents are strongly encouraged to attend and be a part of the decision process. It could be intimidating for a parent to go without any support. There are educational advocacy agencies that attend meetings with parents to support the rights of the student. Parents have to right to disagree with the recommendations in the IEP. Parents also have the right to “table” a meeting. Tabling a meeting means to stop the meeting and reschedule it. This can be used if the parent is feeling pressured by the school or just to take more time to consider their options. Parents should never agree to anything they don’t feel comfortable with. A parent is their child’s best advocate.

Frequent communication between home and school is so beneficial to the child with autism. Daily communication is a good way for everyone to be consistent on behavioral strategies as well as academic progress. The most common method is having a notebook sent from home to school daily. We, as parents, have an opportunity to express our concerns about behaviors or describe a positive situation that occurred at home. Some teachers will write very specific and detailed summaries about what went on during the day, others may simply say what kind of day it was (good, better, great, difficult). It all depends on the teachers themselves. And it’s nice to have written documentation that might come in handy later on. I have used my children’s communication notebooks for tracking behavior patterns, forewarning teachers about a sleepless night, successful community trips, etc. And I also have years and years of journals that I can reflect back on. Effective communication is always the key to any success.

Last week, I presented a workshop for teachers who work with students with autism. The topics included successful behavioral interventions, different teaching approaches, and improving social skills. After I spoke, I left the floor open to discussion. The main focus was how do we cure autism. I explained that there was no cure, but there are treatment options that have had a lot of success. The audience seemed dissatisfied, as if there just had to be an ending to this autism problem. At that point, I had to voice my personal opinion. Autism is not life threatening. No one has ever died from having autism. I love my children for who they are, even with their autism. Now, of course, I support research on treatment techniques and I do worry about their future as adults. But as a society, we need to have more acceptances for individuals who are different from the “norm”. It has taken me a long time to accept the autism in my children. And the truth is that I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. In the beginning, I just had to accept that my children would have autism and I would just have to get over it. But I started to see how great my children are and, because of their autism, they teach things that I would of never learned. These are some of the awesome things my children have taught me.Appreciation Children work especially hard to reach the some challenging milestones. It seems like a miracle when you hear your child’s first word after four years. And when they can finally eat at a restaurant without having a meltdown. You hardly take any accomplishment for granted.

                           I love my children with autism