Special education law advocate Wrightslaw posts about the handcuffing of a North Carolina middle-school student. Over at my friend Liz Ditz’s I Speak of Dreams blog is a post about crisis prevention training “to help professionals—those who have occasional workplace encounters with people on the autism spectrum—interact safely, effectively, and respectfully,” via the Crisis Prevention Institute.
Physical restraint can seem like “the only way” and a “last resort” but I think we need to focus on teaching autistic kids in ways appropriate to their needs and training and supporting teachers and staff, so things just never get to the point of …read more

How to avoid being bankrupt by autism, is the topic of another NPR story on autism. We’ve skirted the bottom of our checking account on more than a few occasions; when we moved to the town my in-laws have been living in so Charlie could attend the autism program there in June of 2006, one reason we lived with them was because it was easier on our finances (though not on “family relations,” I guess you could say). One of the main reasons that there’s constant talk about “costs of autism” is because a lot of therapies, treatments, and …read more