Autism explanation card? | Autism PDD

As most of you know in addition to having a son with autism, I am also a BCBA in an autism program. I am a huge advocate of getting our students into the community. As you know it doesn't always go as planned. Our staff is trained and rarely do with have any real issues occur. However, in the last few years we have gotten more kiddos with signficant behavior issues and have had kids have trouble in the community. The problem is NOT the kids....it is the public in some cases making comments and trying to step in. I have no problem ignoring the stares....but one time I had a kid being aggressive and we were working through and some woman came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said "That boy needs a good spanking". We also had another situation where a student bite a staff member and the staff member raised her voice (not right...but pain reaction) and the community member called to complain about the child and teacher. So my administration has decided that I need to design the business card with a brief explanation should this situation occur again. My question is it is one thing for a parent to hand out the card for their child.....how would you feel about your child's school?? I am going to have parents sign off on permission for us to use the cards but just wondered what the feeling was here.

I think I'd personally be uncomfortable with that, but could probably go along with it if the card focused less on the individual child and more on the professional nature of the situation. Maybe something like "I am a teacher trained to educate special needs children. Part of their education involves experience out and about in the community. This is sometimes stressful for our students. Thank you for your patience."

I hope other people see your question and give you input on this.

Good luck with everything.

I agree with NorwayMom...nothing personal, but informational. I also like NorwayMom's suggestion.I like Norways suggestion. I would not feel comfortable having anyone else hand out cards out regarding my son's dx. mishy39349.3658449074I frequently hand out informational cards to educate the ignorant & often rude public. My son is 20. I've seen it all.... the worst has to be a mother directing her teenagers to go see the weird kid in aisle 19. Can you believe it??! Little did they know the "weird kid's" mother tiger was at the end of the aisle..... I didn't have cards then but I educated that woman & I'm sure she left the store feeling very small that day. Yes, I think teachers handing out cards is a good idea. Anything to educate the public helps!

Seriously Norwaymom.....do you just think of these things that fast !!

You are very quick !! And I'm not sure it could have been said any better !

I loved Norways mom suggestion. I would not be bothered by that at all. As for the stares that I get in public, I just look back at them, I like to keep them guessing