Autism and St. Croix

if you can somehow contact channel 2 news, they did a story on the news last night about a day long seminar over at the UVI on Autism in the VI,maybe someone else has more details

In this case I would tell you straight out -- You NEED to come here to visit for a week or two (or three) during the school year and research the educational opportunities for your child.

St. Croix has limited resources for any type of alternative education.

If you can't afford to make such a trip and your prospective employer won't bring you down, reconsider the offer.

Good luck

You don't say how old your son is or what level of autism. Those are major factors.

As Linda J advises, there are minimal resources here at this time for any special education. Under age 12, there is one school I know of that currently has two autistic children that are doing very well. There is nothing that I know of beyond that. I would recommend contacting the schools here and talking with the principles, contacting UVI as TRW suggested above about their special report, and then coming down for a visit and seeing for yourself.

If you want school name and contact information you can PM me and I'll send you back phone #s.

Good Luck!

udsmkh - send a PM to another poster on this board 'danieljude' He lives on STX, does counseling and from a prior post it appears he does work with autism. Dan is really helpful and if doesn't have the answers you need he could probably help point you in the right direction.

From a post on the other forum, Daniel is going to become a Realtor. I would think you are looking for a daily school for your son.

This was in the Daily News regarding autism: http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17623238

Daniel still does couseling and works with autistic children.

Read the news article in the Dailynews. You can find it at www.virginislandsdailynews.com

Hello there. I believe we have been in contact by private message, but just to dispell any concerns, I still do serve, as I have for 23 years, children (and/or adults) who live with autism spectrum disorders. As there is little diagnosis going on here, I have needed to take a weekday job that will pay the bills, however generally a therapist does not work with a youngster more than one to two times per week.

The therapist, usually a master's level with very specific research and training in the spectrum, does the ongoing assessment, establishes a treatment plan, and teaches another professional to carry out the treatment plan when the therapist is not present. The adds to the element of transferability, in that the child can 'transfer' the thrust of the plan component from one person to another, then to the family and to school (generalization).

The missing element that I have yet to find is a school that has any program for children with autism. Stateside, I always acted as a consultant to schools, assisting them in understanding how autism impacts the specific child, how to implement behavioral supports and requesting that they follow the tenets of each step in the treatment plan, which eventually becomes part of the Individual Education Plan, or IEP in school terms.

I hope this clarifies what I do, what can be done here, and the job at hand, finding a school that will support your child with treatment plan/behavioral support plan and incidental teaching that is included in the psycho-therapeutic plan.

In order to be more specific, again, I would need more information regarding your child. Autism is such an umbrella term, as I have served perhaps 2,000 children with autism, though no two were alike except in terms of some of the basic social learning delay.

I would be more than happy to help, though again, I cannot do it full time, both for reasons of moving into realty for financial and physical reasons (I was rather crushed by a truck 10 years ago), and that having one person only serving a child is doing a disservice to the child. Yes, the child might learn very well how to work with me, however this learning would be specific to me and not generalized to others.

If you would like to get into more detail, once again, PLEASE pm me, or send me an email at Affiliationllc@aol.com. That address was the one used for a team of professionls I put together in the state of Connecticut to provide wrap around services for students with autism........back in the mid 90's.

Best wishes as always,

Dan