Middle School Transitions & Beyond

We are in the midst of a transitioning our son, who is now 11 into a full day of middle school at the public school level. He is in a highly structured classroom setting with supports both 1:1 and academically, but this is huge for him and us. We hope it all goes smoothly and am thankful that we have resources to turn to as well for this period in his life. These books below are a great resource for parents who are at a crossroads in their autistic loved ones academic education and therapy support. Unfortunately, in our current disability support system there are a myriad of supports for when our special needs children are initially diagnosed and between the ages of 5 and about 9 they are covered pretty well. Fast forward to middle school, high school and college. This is where the research and buckling down comes in for parents because unfortunately the turn over is so high for the support and services our special needs kids so greatly need that our government cannot keep up with the demand. So what happens to our kids when they hit adulthood. They are usually at home with their parents because there are not resources and or programs to train them because after 22 the support stops.

“I bought this for my Kindle recently and it talks about everything from the Cognitive aspects through puberty and everything in between. Definitely a must have if you are a teacher dealing with teenagers on the spectrum for the first time and trying to navigate how to teach them and how they tick. It also explains what life after high school may look like for your special needs autistic child. Our son is always asking what high school and college will be like and I am always honest with him to say ‘well let’s get through 6th grade first and cross that high school bridge when we get to it’ and so on. It doesn’t always mean that he won’t ask again;-).”