Where can I find help?

There are a lot of different ways to find help and places to find it. There are speech therapists, job coaches, and any specialized person you can imagine to help with your child's disability. There are a lot of people out there to help you and it can be a lot easier if you let them.

There are "Paras" in the classrooms of the special education rooms that help children with disabilities. There are also special one on ones people can get if they are not always in a special education classroom or do not need to be in one. One of my friends is blind and has a one on one to help him with many things, like taking notes, when he is in the general education classrooms. He needs his one on one so he does not miss anything important and so that he can learn like anyone else. Having a one on one educator is very helpful for him. Because he has one he now can learn just like everyone else.

There are also people that help work on people’s speech. This can be hard for someone with autism. Part of the disability often comes with slurred speech as a result. This can be helped through speech therapy though. There are also word and picture cards that can be used instead of speech that the speech therapists can help with, if your child is nonverbal.

There are also different people that help with social skills. These people work with children with a wide range of abilities. They can just help with little, minor social ticks and awkward interactions. They can also help with more severe help on social interactions. It is all need based. If your child needs help with something, there is probably someone that can help.

There are also special babysitters for children with autism. Some children need help with seizures and normal babysitters are not equipped to handle that. Some are aggressive and might hurt a babysitter, but there are people that are trained for these situations and can babysit. A lot of the time parents need a date night away which is allowed.

The last thing I will talk about is there are interpreters for the deaf. I know this might sound a bit obvious to some people, but others might not know about them, and they can be very helpful. If you are hearing and your spouse or child or both are deaf, they might need an interpreter if you cannot make it there, or just cannot interpret all of what everyone is saying, like in a hospital situation. Like I said above, use all the resources you can to your advantage, they are there to help you.