Hey! I'm a single mom with a son w/autism who is 10 yrs. old. I've been battling for services since he was finally diagnosed. I use the term "battle" because that's what's it has always been. Now that they have passed the new property tax cut law, it's just another excuse to drop more services (which are very little to begin with) so if we could afford to move we would but that's impossible for now. The biggest battle is the public school system. My son started at age 3 and has attended EIGHT schools so far & I don't know what will happen for the next school year (yea, they never let YOU know, they just assign him anywhere it's best for THEM). I find great apathy here in Greater Orlando, even amongst the other parents of autistic children. I try to organize play groups, get at least ONE child to go to the park with my son, fuh-get-about-it!!!! That's what I find most confusing. The other moms seem more concerned about running away from the issue then even discussing it. I had one mom tell me to my face she had to make a decision between her marriage and her son, so she chose her marriage (and maintaining their level of "lifestyle"). That is very common here. Baffling. They are even extremly embarrased to admit they have a child w/autism. These are high income, college educated folks. It seems appearance is more important then helping their own child. Another mom (I know them from Billy's school) says she can't afford behavoiral services, etc. for her child but she was bragging about their new HD home theater system. OK, I guess that's why really gets me confused. What are the priorties for these parents? I find a LOT of them dumping their autistic children on their parents. Many of my son's classmates are being raised by their grandparents even tho their "real" parents are alive, well, and pretty well off. This is an issue I have have not seen discussed on any autistic website, but it's becoming epidemic here.

My son, Ben's father, stayed home from work for 18 months after they moved here. Ben's mother tries to work on their internet business but most of the time she is so depressed she just sits on the sofa--despite 15 years of treatment and at least 3 psych drugs at present, $15K of unreimbursed medical expenses--for her. My DS had dysgraphia as a child and interestingly, kids with semantic-pragmatic language disorder, which Ben has as a part of his high-functioning autism, often do have parents with dysgraphia. Both of them are disorganized. I think we are seeing each generation becoming less and less functional and the grandparents are actually better equipped to raise the children than their parents. And I do think it has to do with iatrogenic and environmental poisoning.

Peace,
Kathy E.

Hi, I'm one of the grandparents raising (at least homeschooling and raising 50 hours/week) an autistic grandson. He simply cannot go to public school here, he is bullied and the services they provide are literally worse than nothing.

I've invested in things like biomedical interventions and AIT for Benny and that's where his breakthroughs have come. He had early intervention here starting at 2.5.

Peace,
Kathy E.