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Health & Fitness

Autism-The Preschool Experience

Learning Lessons From Autistic Children Even In Preschool. This blog is the fourth in a series about a Lake Elsinore mom's personal challenges and triumphs ...

This blog is the fourth in a series about a Lake Elsinore mom's personal challenges and triumphs  ...

The preschool my son Brandon attended in Riverside, was one of the few that was mainly for disabled students. There were a handful  of children with Autism, along with other developmental disabilities. Luckily some non-disabled children attended too.

The children with Autism were all put in the same classroom together. None of them were verbal, but at this point in time the thinking was it was the best way to teach them. The main error with this idea was that each child was feeding off of the other's behaviors. 

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Soon after Brandon started in this "all Autistic" classroom, the school realized they needed to change their thinking. Things ultimately got better when they added "standard issue" (what I call our normal kids) children to the school classroom, as role models.  That was a very important move for all of the children. Remember, everyone was still learning about best practices for kids with Autism in 1989.

My son was a very alert toddler. He was given the nickname "Houdini" because he was always looking for a way to escape. That was one of my biggest fears with him being so far from home. Unfortunately, one day that fear became a reality.  While at his preschool in Riverside, the children were out on the playground as usual. Someone on the staff forgot to close and lock a gate that lead out of the playground and into the neighborhood. Brandon spotted it and out he went undetected.

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Here is this little 3 year old boy, that had no identification and couldn't speak,wandering around on two of the busiest intersections in Riverside at 3:00 PM. He went into an auto parts store, a liquor store and a gas station. The preschool didn't notice he was missing, until they had returned to class for afternoon snack. This was approximately 15 to 20 minutes later.

 You can imagine the panic and the phone call to me that followed.  When I got the first call, they hadn't found him yet.  He had been missing for 45 minutes.  His teacher could barely speak,  she was crying. She was scared at what my reaction would be. I stayed very calm and just kept asking her if they had found him and if he was all right.  

The school had everyone out looking for him.  His bus driver had arrived at the school to pick up the kids home at this point. She said she thought she saw a little boy  in this gas station around the corner. She said that he looked  a lot like Brandon.  They rushed  over there and found him.  An older couple getting gas, saw him wandering around alone. They went over to him and held on to him. They kept asking him questions, but he didn't look at them or respond. They thought he might be deaf.  They were just going to call the police when the bus driver and school staff arrived. I never did get to know who this couple was.  I am forever grateful to them however, for being good, decent people. It could have been so much worse.  

 I finally got that second call that he was fine.  I know  that someone was definitively watching over my son that day.  I really believe it when I say our "special"kids are here for a reason.  The preschool  never had an incident like this in their history.  They still remember "Houdini" aka Brandon, to this day and the lesson in "Autism Awareness" they learned from him. 

It is certainly a day I will never forget!

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