Media stories are full of parental struggles to get their kids with autism included in the larger community. Stories of exclusion from the public school system, from restaurants, from stores and airplanes are commonplace. The ‘no one came to my kid’s birthday party’ has become somewhat of a genre in autism circles. And, if you know any autism parents, you’ll know the exclusion of autistic kids from extracurricular activities or field trips is a regular occurrence.
In other words, kids with autism are too often systematically excluded from their communities. But this has costs — for everyone.
Here’s what real inclusion looks like.
Over the years, we’ve had many calls from our son’s school — addressing his particular anxieties, his learning challenges and his inability to sit still and focus for long periods of time. Our son, Casey, has autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that is often characterized by rigid and repetitive behaviours, difficulty with social communication and uneven intellectual development, among many other challenges. Regular participation in an integrated public school has not always been easy for him.
So getting a call from Casey’s school was not an unusual event. But this day was a good day.