His Saving Grace

Since the beginning of the school, year he’s attended a pragmatics group led by a speech pathologist, group to improve his social skills. The class is taught a local school for children with disabilities. They have a lot of children there with autistic spectrum disorders. I was under the impression that my son was to high-functioning to attend so I never pursued it. A couple of days before his dismissal from his previous school, I got a call from his pragmatics teacher. She told me how well he was doing and said I should consider sending him to school there.


I spoke with the director who was very up front with me, which I found very refreshing. She said they normally would not consider a child like my son because of his emotional issues, but based on his pragmatics teacher’s recommendations they were willing to give him a chance.

He was invited to the school for a visit and loved it! He came home telling us about all the friends he made. He went again the following day and was upset he was unable to stay for the whole day.

Our meeting with the school went well and they offered him placement. Again they told me he never would have been considered were it not for the teacher’s recommendation, but after meeting and spending with him, he made a perfect fit and unlike the previous schools he had attended, they threw aside their rules to make a special exception for his acceptance.

My husband and I had planned a trip to Ireland since the previous December and were due to leave the day after we learned this extraordinary news. We were anxious to get the ball rolling, but we weren’t quite ready to have him start at a new school, even though the place looked like the perfect fit for him – a place where he would grow intellectually as well as emotionally. We happily agreed to wait things out and let him start when we returned. I made arrangements for him to stay with friends during the day while we were gone and his sister was in school. At night, he had the company of both his sister and a friend of ours who as may as well be a child herself. This helped salve my nerves while the two of us were on a different continent an ocean away. If he was still at the other school, I would have been worried sick the entire trip thinking someone was having to come and pick him up for some frivolous reason.

He started at his new school the week we returned and it’s been wonderful. They immediately scheduled him for physical, occupational, and speech therapy evaluations which he would receive on site if necessary.

Now he’s like a different child. He can’t wait to go to school in the morning. He doesn’t mind doing homework. He’s a slow mover from task to task and his teacher says other teachers could easily get frustrated with him, but he’s a very smart boy. His classroom allows him to work at a level at which he’s comfortable. For example, he’s at grade level in math, but above grade level in everything else so he can work ahead in those subject areas. I can’t sing their praises enough. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have phone calls and notes telling me how great my child is instead of what a problem he is. I thank God every day for sending us there.