Mikey is a great kid and we love him like crazy so sending him to a residential school was a very difficult decision. The decision came about because Mikey was having so much difficulty in school. The problem was finding a school that understood Mikey and was willing to work with his strengths and weaknesses.

Mikey was never right for being mainstreamed so we had tried schools that specialize in children with autism. Although they had been good in some areas we thought Mikey wasn’t getting sufficient help in academic areas such as reading and writing. Part of the problem is that Mikey has trouble with transitions. This led us to thinking about trying a residential school. The result has been that Mikey is getting a much better education. Transitions are handled much better as the teachers at this school really do understand how to work with kids like Mikey. Living at the school helps him too. Here his teachers, therapists, nurse, doctor, and aides are all working together observing Mikey and seeing what works and what doesn’t work with him. The school makes sure that Mikey always has plenty of activities on the weekends such as playing basketball, going to the mall, going swimming, and playing video games. He has full days every day. When Mikey is home he is much more in control of himself. We don’t see any more of the tantrums that we used to see.

And how is Mikey feeling about the school? He loves it! After a few days at home Mikey is asking to go back. When we drop him off, he kisses us, says goodbye, and runs off with his friends. When we first started back in January our thought was that we could try it out and see how it works for everyone. If it didn’t work we could bring him home and try something else. But it has been a huge success so far even though we do miss him like crazy. I can’t wait until his next time home with us.