Pervasive Developmental Disorder

I think awareness is the biggest problem teachers face when an autistic child enters their classroom. As a parent of a ten year-old with PDD-NOS and a teacher of a 4th grader with Asperger's, knowing what to expect and how to plan for it makes a world of difference. If your son has an IEP, there is a legal obligation to provide him with the direct services that will support his needs. Being in a small school district is hard for the school, but it is not an excuse. Check into local colleges and universities that may have education departments; often they have experts in special ed needs that can help the teacher/ school. A behavior modification plan may be needed and a school counselor can help develop "social scripts" for the teacher to use with the class.

It may be on you to be the expert and advocate for your son. Check out www.wrightslaw.com for help in developing an IEP. Good luck and let us know how things unfold!

Hi...my son was recently diagnosed with pdd-nos..the schools are trying to help,but we live in a small town and are finding that the school is not as experienced in this situations as we like. He is being re-evaluated in 2 weeks...but I find his teacher is getting frustrated with his behavior..any suggestions.

My daughter has high functioning autism, she was only diagnosed in the 12th grade. Thsi is overwhelming sometimes, because had she been diagnosed before this she would have gotten the help, on with how to study, arranging time, dealing with classmates etc. Right now she is in a special art program provided by the regional center. She is smart enough for college, and she will go there, this is a place for her to get use to her situation and learn all different aspect of drawing. She has an excellent teacher and her art has
developed nicely. She would like to develope her own comic book line, complete with t-shirts, toys, posters etc. So the program is helping with that and so am I.
She is writing 3 different comics and just made her first t-shirt with her comic characters. She is very talented, but her autism makes her very introverted.

We live in Fremont, up north so I do not know about any schools down south. Sorry.