Left Behind
May 30, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
While the rest of his classmates went on a field trip, an autistic student at Stephen Decatur School in Philadelphia sat in class with a bus aide, CBS3 news reports:
While his classmates went on the trip, Jimmy was supposed to enjoy a day of learning, but that was not the case.
Dawn said her son was left in a classroom with only his bus assistant who is not trained to teach autistic children.
“I cried, I cried first and I just had it,” Dawn said. “I thought you had a choice, you could just sit there and take it or you do …read more
Square Pegs
May 30, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
For the past two weeks, one post after another has been about the exclusion of autistic individuals: 13-year-old Adam Race from church—and by a restraining order. 5-year-old Alex Barton from his kindergarten class—and by a “voting out” process that has had more than a few echoes of the “Survivor” reality TV show.
But these cases weren’t the stuff of network drama (like this TV show—remember the “mercuritol”?). They were real things that happened to real autistic people and—based on what’s been said ‘round the web and here on this blog—this kind of exclusion is not at all uncommon. And it’s not …read more




