Bobby?
“I don’t know.” I did a quiet mental double-take. “Can you find it in the text?” He scanned the first page. Shook his head. Bobby did not understand a word he had just read. No matter what I asked, how I prompted, or where I pointed in the text, he made no meaning at all of the words. I sent him back to his seat with a Dumb Bunny book. I sat back and watched him turn the pages, laughing vaguely and pointing at the words. » » ¤ « « Bobby was my first student with autism. I had just changed the focus of my work in San Diego from a middle school ED class (which stood for “emotionally disturbed” though that was rarely spoken) to a mild-moderate Special Day Class for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. On the first day of that school year I met Bobby, who was moving to the upper level SDC class after two years in the lower grades at my new school. He was compliant, wanted to please, and was completely accepted by his classmates. The results of that first reading conference were confirmed when
