What are some of the educational challenges you have faced as a parent of a child with autism?
It was such a struggle year after year. Kenny suffered acquired autism, brain damage and seizures from his d.p.t. vaccine at 19 months old. There were so many behaviors going on with him, little was known on how to deal with them. There was never a classroom that met all of his needs. They were always over crowded, understaffed, and overworked, while trying to cope with a variety of challenged children. As he got older, I had to look for programs out of our city that were more appropriate for him. We had to have fair hearings, [battles], with our school district to insure these placements I found. Kenny needed a one/one aide throughout his school years. His last special education school consisted of extreme and sometimes violent students that created fear and chaos in others. There were also very dedicated aides working with Kenny, and that is the strength of any special education program. The down side is, there is such a turnover of aides, and it severely affects behaviors in autisti
