4 part series on Autism from the LA Times

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I have only read the first article, this post could go anywhere on this website but since it starts out with diagnosing autism and parents realizing if they use the word "autism" their child will get services at school, I thought it belonged here in the parent's forum.

Interesting read.

latimes.com

I really enjoyed this article thanks for sharing it.

I just finished the first part. I got a chuckle out of this bit:

It isn't that we won't "embrace" the word, it is the sad fact that none of the schools my son has attended will. They seem to go to any length they can to keep PDD-NOS on the IEP, and autism off it.

That is interesting about your school district rejecting the word 'autism' but wanting the PDD NOS diagnosis.

I hope this means that whoever is working with you, knows the 'system' in the Massachusetts public school system and is doing right by you and your child.

Maybe you should google that, there maybe an explanation for this approach posted by another parent somewhere....

Things are getting better in terms of services but it is sad that unless the parent is very savvy and has the time and knows how to wrench services out of their school district their child is up a creek....

At one point I considered trying to get an IEP out of my son's school and I was discouraged to read that you can labor long and hard to get one, then good luck getting all the teachers to implement it, especially Middle School and up.

Thank you very much for sharing this. From being here on WP I had gotten the understanding that getting an IEP and having it implemented were common struggles but it really angers me that parents have to fight so much to get services (was just reading part 2 of this series). I'm am gearing up for that battle myself .