Is there a whole family Social Skills program?

Every member of my family has social issues, whether from having an Autism Spectrum Disorder or an Attention Deficit Disorder. I’ve been searching to find a social skills program that helps the whole family.

Great point!

Special education was created in 1975 to prevent individuals with obvious physical disabilities, such as orthopedic impairments and blindness, from being turned away from our public schools. Once the law, The Education for the Handicapped Act (EHA) (P.L. 94-142), was passed, it was felt that there would no longer be such discrimination and that students otherwise normal or with superior gifts would be able to learn the same skills, make the same friends, graduate with the same diploma, get the same jobs, and pay the same taxes as their peers (that being a primary motive for legislation).

Well, it took the first admitted students with recognized disabilities thirteen years to move from kindergarten to graduation, having access granted to the public campus. By 1988, it was becoming painfully obvious that these students had been stuck on a segregated corner of campus, kept from peers with normal development opportunities, had not been exposed to the same curriculum, had not graduated, did not have gainful employment, and had become government welfare recipients instead of tax payers. Therefore, the EHA was completely revamped by the Congress, and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, later IDEIA), with the intent on assuring that students reaching graduation age with disabilities, actually graduated and obtained jobs (the original intent for creating special education). This provided the impetus for the inclusion and transition movements. The emphasis was on the end result, getting graduation-age kids to graduate, get jobs, and become functional adults.

IDEA identified and defined a list of a dozen disabilities. Over time, each was given civil rights status under laws such as the ADA (American Disabilities Act). Then spectrum disorders were recognized and added to the IDEA list as “autism,” but without civil rights status to prevent discrimination in such areas as employment or housing! THIS MUST CHANGE!

It is politically correct in our present society to show compassion to those with obvious physical disabilities, but intolerance toward those who are “different” with “invisible disabilities.”

Transition programs, helping those with disabilities get additional years of training to age 22, were basically made voluntary and then forgotten. A new and important emphasis on early detection was implemented but led the whole educational system, society, and government to abandon the question “what happens to our students with disabilities when they leave our schools as adults?” THIS MUST BE ASKED AND ANSWERED!

The result of these historical events is that those with autism get individual help as children and we have no programs to help them as adults; not in schools, not in the private sector, not in government legislation, not in practical real life in our society. Accordingly, there is also a void of support services for relatives, on the spectrum or neurotypical, who suffer exclusion because someone in the family has autism. I have spoken to professionals, sought referrals, and contacted support groups that were supposed to help adults with autism only to be responded to with confusion and told about their services for young children. I have directly inquired about family support groups with similar results. I have spoken to professionals who have scanned for adult diagnostic instruments, worldwide, with little success. IT IS TIME THAT WE RECOGNIZE THAT AUTISM DOES NOT STOP AT ADULTHOOD AND THAT FAMILIES ON THE SPECTRUM NEED SERVICES!

Thus, my wife, my children, and I are DETERMINED to part of this long-awaited movement. Please join with us, at the grass-roots level, and create whatever needs to be done to fill the void and put an end to the suffering for those with these silent disabilities and their family members.

Steve Emfield

Social Skills from “What Every Kid Should Know About Manners And Etiquette”

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