would she ever be accepted
anywhere?
Excerpt from Northland Educational Centre, June 1999:
CLASSROOM REPORT
Carly is beginning to show an interest in symbolic play, particularly in the Daily
Living Center . . . Carly is able to identify five body parts and she enjoys the shape
sorter and puzzles when encouraged to do so. We continue to work on increasing Carly’s
attention span.
Carly continues to use a combination of communication systems in order to have her
needs met. These include sign, gestures, sounds and photos. A recent addition to her
verbal approximations is the “s” sound, which she has used to request “chips” and,
in a different context, “swing.” She has been observed to combine “words” by signing
“more” and saying “s” to request “more chips.”
Carly enjoys gross motor play such as running, jumping and climbing on playground
equipment. She is propelling herself well on a riding toy and now able to turn corners
. . . she has been practicing throwing and catching games. Carly has also been working
on “turning” activities and has shown good wrist movement when turning objects such
as jar lids.
Matching, sorting and copying are all important goals for Carly. She is now able to
sort two colors, match identical objects as well as pictures to objects she is motivated
by.
Carly has learned to independently remove her shoes and socks and shirt if they are
loose. She is working on independently putting on her socks. She drinks from a cup
with nospillage. Next year we will introduce such fasteners as zippers, snaps and buttons . . .
After two years at Northland, just past Carly’s fourth birthday, she began to outgrow
the services that the school provided. And even the reduced fees outgrew our credit
line. We moved on to the public school system’s watered-down services for special-needs
education. There were suitable placements for a child with more common disabilities.
However, for a child like Carly with a mixed bag of behavioral and what we presumed
were intellectual deficits, there was no perfect fit. The philosophy of the public
education system in our area was to offer “good enough” for as many as possible. It’s
what our friend and lawyer Martha Ellison once called “equality with a vengeance.”
Provide a bit to everyone, but not enough for anyone.
Even though we were prepared to send our ABA therapists into the classroom at our
expense, the rules of the school board forbade outside staff from working in the classroom.
In one of the neighborhood schools, however, the principal was prepared to be flexible
and admit a worker with Carly. Then, partway through the year, we were called to a
meeting. The teacher stood in front of us with a written statement.
“Your daughter does not seem to like me or the environment of our classroom,” she
read from her script. Her hand shook slightly as she spoke, and she avoided our stunned
gaze. She was a fastidious woman who kept her classroom tidy and efficient, and Carly’s
needs were anything but efficient. The principal and school board administrators looked
on in sycophantic sympathy.
“Doesn’t like you?” I interrupted, incredulously. “She’s autistic , for God’s sake. She doesn’t ‘like’ anyone.”
“I just don’t think I can do this,” the teacher responded.
As far as we could tell, the teacher had made no effort to learnabout autism or our daughter’s needs. Nor was she required to actually teach Carly,
since we had provided a trained ABA therapist to run all programming for the half-day
sessions. In fact, Carly wasn’t even in the classroom very much because her therapist withdrew her to a private work space
in the hall when she needed quiet and greater focus. But it was clear the battle was
already lost. Carly was asked to leave the school by the end of winter break.
We were told that there were more appropriate schools for Carly
anywhere?
Excerpt from Northland Educational Centre, June 1999:
CLASSROOM REPORT
Carly is beginning to show an interest in symbolic play, particularly in the Daily
Living Center . . . Carly is able to identify five body parts and she enjoys the shape
sorter and puzzles when encouraged to do so. We continue to work on increasing Carly’s
attention span.
Carly continues to use a combination of communication systems in order to have her
needs met. These include sign, gestures, sounds and photos. A recent addition to her
verbal approximations is the “s” sound, which she has used to request “chips” and,
in a different context, “swing.” She has been observed to combine “words” by signing
“more” and saying “s” to request “more chips.”
Carly enjoys gross motor play such as running, jumping and climbing on playground
equipment. She is propelling herself well on a riding toy and now able to turn corners
. . . she has been practicing throwing and catching games. Carly has also been working
on “turning” activities and has shown good wrist movement when turning objects such
as jar lids.
Matching, sorting and copying are all important goals for Carly. She is now able to
sort two colors, match identical objects as well as pictures to objects she is motivated
by.
Carly has learned to independently remove her shoes and socks and shirt if they are
loose. She is working on independently putting on her socks. She drinks from a cup
with nospillage. Next year we will introduce such fasteners as zippers, snaps and buttons . . .
After two years at Northland, just past Carly’s fourth birthday, she began to outgrow
the services that the school provided. And even the reduced fees outgrew our credit
line. We moved on to the public school system’s watered-down services for special-needs
education. There were suitable placements for a child with more common disabilities.
However, for a child like Carly with a mixed bag of behavioral and what we presumed
were intellectual deficits, there was no perfect fit. The philosophy of the public
education system in our area was to offer “good enough” for as many as possible. It’s
what our friend and lawyer Martha Ellison once called “equality with a vengeance.”
Provide a bit to everyone, but not enough for anyone.
Even though we were prepared to send our ABA therapists into the classroom at our
expense, the rules of the school board forbade outside staff from working in the classroom.
In one of the neighborhood schools, however, the principal was prepared to be flexible
and admit a worker with Carly. Then, partway through the year, we were called to a
meeting. The teacher stood in front of us with a written statement.
“Your daughter does not seem to like me or the environment of our classroom,” she
read from her script. Her hand shook slightly as she spoke, and she avoided our stunned
gaze. She was a fastidious woman who kept her classroom tidy and efficient, and Carly’s
needs were anything but efficient. The principal and school board administrators looked
on in sycophantic sympathy.
“Doesn’t like you?” I interrupted, incredulously. “She’s autistic , for God’s sake. She doesn’t ‘like’ anyone.”
“I just don’t think I can do this,” the teacher responded.
As far as we could tell, the teacher had made no effort to learnabout autism or our daughter’s needs. Nor was she required to actually teach Carly,
since we had provided a trained ABA therapist to run all programming for the half-day
sessions. In fact, Carly wasn’t even in the classroom very much because her therapist withdrew her to a private work space
in the hall when she needed quiet and greater focus. But it was clear the battle was
already lost. Carly was asked to leave the school by the end of winter break.
We were told that there were more appropriate schools for Carly
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