Education
1) Get your child into an Intensive Behavioral Treatment Program
2) Once your child has progressed to the point where s/he can understand simple commands, then it is time to look for mainstreaming the child into a pre-school with a tutor/therapist who is from your child’s program and understands your child’s abilities and needs. The idea here is for the tutor/therapist to eventually fade out once the child learns the routines. Every child is different and your consultant will let you know what is best for your child in their opinion.
3) When the child is ready to go into kindergarten, s/he may be able to be mainstreamed in class, with or without a therapist. It is child dependent, though, and the decisions must be made based on the child’s needs and NOT on the budget of the school district. In the United States, there are laws protecting disabled children. It is important that you learn your child’s rights. The important law as it pertains to the education of children with special needs is call the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA). If you are getting the impression that your child is not being appropriately served, I recommend the following book: How to Compromise with Your School District Without Compromising Your Child.
If all else fails, and you need a lawyer, contact Mayerson & Associates, the premier law firm in the U.S. in litigation on the rights of children with autism.
If you are not as fortunate to be in a country with laws protecting the disabled, then you may need to band together with other parents to bring about change (which is very difficult to do). If you are interesting in reading about how Canadian parents fought a battle to have their children included in the health care system, I suggest that you read Science for Sale in the Autism Wars. Ultimately, the Canadian parents were not successful in having their children’s rights codified in law, or protected by precedent; however, they are still fighting the good fight.
If you are interested in learning from them, I suggest that you go to Medicare for Autism Now where this group still lobbies for inclusion in the health care system (health care inclusion has implications in the educational system because, in Canada, a child’s treatment needs must be accommodated in the school and nurse accompany medically fragile children).