Skip to main content

Question from a Reader

This question was asked by a reader of The Autistic Me:
I just stumbled upon your blog today as I was seeking out feedback from other people regarding residential support programs for my 21 year old HFA son. He desperately needs, wants, and deserves the opportunity to live a more mainstream life — he has isolated himself from the world and I know he's unhappy and frustrated. Unfortunately, my finances are such that I cannot afford to take risks and the fees I'm finding to be prohibitive. Any insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated. We are in the DC suburbs.
Does anyone have any thoughts? I don't know much about residential programs, other than what parents and individuals have told me. The programs are expensive — and no two programs are the same.

I have recommended college residential programs. The programs were $30,000 or more per year and they work well for only some students. That's a lot of money to risk on the hope that a program helps an autistic person gain the life skills necessary to live independently.

There are no easy answers for parents and caregivers. Still, ideas might help.
Labels:

Comments

  1. randomly...May 6, 2013 at 12:38 PM

    Thank you for your feedback. I just found today a program called Beyond Academics located at UNC Greensboro. It seems to be largely funded by grants but I can't get a firm grip from the online information how much beyond tuition it costs. Do you by chance know anything about it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments violating the policies of this blog will not be approved for posting. Language and content should be appropriate for all readers and maintain a polite tone. Thank you.

Popular posts from this blog

Autistic Burnout

Summer demands a lot of social energy, especially for parents. For autistics, the never-ending social calendar of summer can cause serious autistic burnout. Host C. S. Wyatt discusses his need to find a balance between social demands and self-care. Check out this episode!
Post a Comment
Read more

Autism, Asperger's, and IQ

"Aren't people with Asperger's more likely to be geniuses? Isn't genius related to autism?" A university student asked this in a course I am teaching. The class discussion was covering neurological differences, free will, and the nature versus nurture debate. The textbook for the course includes sidebars on the brain and behavior throughout chapters on ethics and morality. This student was asking a question reflecting media portrayals of autism spectrum disorders, social skills difficulties, and genius. I did not address this question from a personal perspective in class, but I have when speaking to groups of parents, educators, and caregivers. Some of the reasons these questions arise, as mentioned above, are media portrayals and news coverage of autism. Examples include: Television shows with gifted characters either identified with or assumed to have autistic traits: Alphas, Big Bang Theory, Bones, Rizzoli and Isles, Touch, and others. Some would include
12 comments
Read more

Scott on Fall 2023

Normal life has made it difficult this fall to maintain the podcast, my blogs, and my social media accounts. I have no idea how other working parents with podcasts and blogs manage to produce any content during a school year. Trying to produce episodes at least monthly proved beyond my stamina. After months like November, I find myself envying full-time creators who earn a living producing quality podcasts, videos, blog posts, and social media. They have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers and followers. Their podcasts have sponsors. Many of them have small teams or they outsource editing and transcription of content. And then there are the dedicated hobbyists. That’s me: a slightly insane, certainly overwhelmed, and sometimes on-schedule hobbyist. Podcast 0111; Season 07, Episode 04; 4 December 2023 The Autistic Me: Blog:  https://www.tameri.com/autisticme/ Podcast:  https://autisticme.libsyn.com/neurodiversity https://autisticme.libsyn.com/ Facebo
Post a Comment
Read more