09/16/2023
What it’s like sending your autistic son to general daycare🩵♾️
They’re labeled the problem child bc they won’t sit still.
They’re labeled violent bc they throw things when they’re stressed.
They ‘never eat’ and are sometimes just not given food bc ‘they won’t eat it anyways’.
They mask and hide away in corners and they’ll just let them. Bc they’re not bothering anyone so why not let him sit in the corner for an hour?
Sometimes you get lucky and there happens to be a daycare worker that understands autism and so they have a reprieve of being the ‘difficult child’ and suddenly ‘that’s just how they are’. And it can be beautiful but even then, they’re one in a room of 30. And the other 29 don’t have the same sensory needs or behaviors. So they’re labeled as ‘wrong’ and they’re not met. So your kid will come home overstimulated, exhausted from masking all day and their behaviors will seem unmanageable.
That was our life for so long. But we knew our son was not ‘trouble’ or ‘bad’ he just had different needs than what they could offer. Since switching to an environment that is built for him his behaviors at home have completely changed.
Our evening used to be nothing but tears and meltdowns, now they’re full of play time and laughter. He’s thriving. We never needed to change the child, just change the environment we were putting him in. ♾️🩵☀️
