Early Intervention in Autism
Sarah’s sister Kit sent us an article from her local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, about Early Intervention and a new program being tried at the Bay School. Now this school has been around since 1998 and it purports to be on the cutting edge of treating autistic kids. I don’t mean to be too acerbic here (okay, maybe I do), but I’m more than a little surprised that they’ve just discovered that early intervention may be helpful. The rest of the world seems to have gotten the word long before now. Even here in backwards Marin (social services-wise) they’re hip to the fact that the earlier you help kids the better the chances are they can be mainstreamed. According to the Bay School’s website, until two months ago (when they began the “new” program) they only admitted students from age five to twenty-one. Another way of looking at that is that for the last seven years they completely ignored children at the critical ages below five years old. That seems like a HUGE oversight, in my humble opinion. The Bay School Executive Director (whatever that means) is quoted in the article saying “[t]here’s not many places like this.” To which I can only say, hey pinhead, what about every county school in the state that has classes for autistic kids? Or don’t they count since you’re a private school? The more I read this, the madder I get. He makes it sound like they’re the ones who “discovered” early intervention. And to think I’d heard good things about this school. Sheesh.
Ooo, I sparked a rant!
To be fair, it might be better to question to quality of the reporting than of the school, since our local newpaper is not exactly known for accurate in-depth information. Still, the Bay School’s web site confirms that they’re not as cutting edge as they think they are.
Comment by Kit — October 18, 2005 @ 4:09 pmmmmm1 to 1 ratio teacher to kid…..how do you learn to play with kids if the grownups are always in the way…..i’d say keep him where he is ….he’s come a long way baby ..in the last year
Comment by ruthanne — October 18, 2005 @ 10:34 pm