Finally, help is on the way for parents of autistic children in eastern Hillsborough county, Florida. You may be very surprised to know that 1 out of every 150 children has some form of Autism, and the stats are even worse for boys, there are 1 out of every 40 boys diagnosed with some form of Autism. There is a wide spectrum to Autism, from mild to severe.
In the most severe case of autism, children are very non social, often completely non verbal, and rely on communicating through pictures, like pointing to a picture of a soda can if they are thirsty, or pointing to a picture of a sandwich if they are hungry.
A real big issue here in Hillsborough county is getting proper education for these children. To this point if kids are more mildly affected, they can participate in a public school in a “regular” classroom atmosphere, but for the more severely affected kids, the choices for education become much slimmer.
As an example, I am a stepfather to a 14 year old autistic boy who falls in the severe range. He is nonverbal but he is aware of what’s going on around him, and he is really quite intelligent. He is transported on a bus about 20 miles to a school of “last resort”, which is what we’ve been told by school officials. He is put in a portable classroom with 4 other severely mentally handicapped children. None of the others are autistic, and the teacher is not familiar at all with Autism.
I have met a group of people recently and they call themselves CPOAC, which stands for Concerned Parents of Autistic Children. They are in the process of opening a therapy center for autistic children in Riverview, Florida.
Two of the concerned parents are also parents of Autistic kids themselves, and they have elected to take the kids out of the public schools due to the lack of real education being offered to them.
The center is going to be called the Riverview Academy for Autism, and should be up and running within a short time.
We at Keller Williams Realty have decided to support the academy this year as our charity of choice, and we are planning all sorts of fundraisers to support this very worthwhile cause.
This center will be a true godsend to parents 0f autistic children in this area.
Filed under: autism, autism spectrum disorder
This article is really great! Thank you for sharing this with all of us. Parenting is a challenging and rewarding job and one rarely stops to think of another parents’ challenges when they are frustrated with a child not behaving the way we need at that very moment. It has heightened my awareness and I am glad I will have the opportunity to contribute and hopefully make a difference to the families that will use this facility.
nice blog, hope you can post regularly
im now taking my master on clinical child psychology
and as i know many parents are looking for information
about autism
keep improving your blog!
Thanks for the positive feedback. This is my first foray into the world of blogging. I feel very strongly about educating myself and others about autism and how families cope with all of the challenges of raising an autistic child.