Is it acceptance or giving up to look at the reality of my child?
Reality: She isn’t college bound. She may not ever be able to work enough to support herself. She may never be able to understand money or navigate a bus system to get from A to B. She may not ever have the safety skills to navigate the community independently.
Acceptance is realizing these facts. Giving up would be to allow the next 4 years to be wasted worrying about obtaining high school credits and jumping through the meaningless hoops of missing assignments and tests.
Acceptance would be to advocate for IEP goals that address the core challenges of autism. Giving up would be working on math concepts that are not functional.
Acceptance would be to recognize the extreme difficulty she has asking familiar people in her environment for help. Or commenting on someone else’s topic of choice. Or simply saying goodbye when she leaves. Giving up would be to not see these as important.
I choose acceptance. I choose to address the challenges. I choose to fight the fight. I choose to not give up helping those in her school environment see the reality.
The reality is that she has autism. The reality is she has limited intellectual functioning. The reality is she has low adaptive skills. The reality is she is amazing. The reality is she has potential. Potential to have success, defined by her learning style, her strengths and her being-ness.