Autism Family Services, LLC

We offer educational advocacy services to assist parents and caregivers with obtaining an appropriate educational program for their child with autism or other disabilities. Services provided include:

a. Obtaining child’s educational records, if needed;
b. Reviewing and analyzing child’s records and educational program;
c. Learning about parents’ concerns regarding child and the services currently offered or denied by his/her school;
d. Directing parents to information about special education law and relevant educational issues;
e. Helping parents to identify/assess alternatives for child, including whether there may be a need for additional evaluation;
f. Helping parents to participate in child’s education and to support/educate parents to advocate for child to the best of
their abilities
g. With parents’ written permission, conferring with child’s evaluators, school staff, and other professionals with whom
parents are working;
h. Accompanying parents to meetings with school officials, such as Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meetings,
Section 504 meetings, and mediation hearings;
i. Assisting parents with drafting/editing letters needed to document questions and concerns about child’s education;
j. Assisting parents with identifying additional resources for support and information.

Many school programs for autism focus on academic areas and/or achieving behavioral control in the classroom. Children in these programs often learn academic skills and may show improvements in behavior at school, but may not learn how to socially regulate and interact, adapt flexibly to change, or appraise situations for the appropriate meaning. These areas are all related to the ability to think “dynamically.” These are core deficit areas of autism. A degree of proficiency in these areas is critical to achieving independence in life. Conversely, significant deficits in these areas will relegate the child to a life in which he is obliged to rely on others for support. The school team and the parents both have a responsibility in guiding the child to competence in these critical areas.

We offer assistance to school personnel in developing, both at the individual student level and at the program-wide level, objectives and teaching strategies that focus on remediating the core deficits of autism. These objectives and strategies would help the student learn social “experience sharing” communication, flexible and creative thinking, emotional regulation, self-awareness, social and environmental appraisal, and problem solving.

Services include:
• Assistance with IEP goal/objective development
• Assistance with implementing program-wide modifications to create an environment conducive to the development of
dynamic thinking
• Staff training at a program-wide level
• Individual staff training
• Ongoing periodic coaching