This is Adina Rich’s second guest blog for AutismSpot. Adina is a mother of three and is the Chief Education Officer at Rich Educational Consulting. You can read her first guest post HERE. We welcome your comments below. Also, we welcome your comments and thoughts on Facebook and Twitter.
HOW TO ENSUSRE THE NEEDS OF YOUR CHILD BE MET IN THE SCHOOL SETTING
By Adina Rich
“…People say believe half of what you see,
Son, and none of what you hear.
I can't help bein' confused
If it's true please tell me dear?... Cuz I heard it through the grapevine.”
These are the lines of a popular song from the 60’s sung by the late Marvin Gaye, but could just as easily have been written today about programming for kids with ASD. School districts often have difficulty recognizing what an individual child with ASD needs based upon their observations and parent feedback - not on what they’ve “heard” works with kids with ASD.

Like most parents of young children I know, I’ve been scrambling to buy school supplies and revert back to strict bedtime routines to prepare Ethan to start school in just over a week. Additionally, since Ethan lives with an Autism Spectrum Disorder – Asperger’s Syndrome – I’ve also been busy working to prepare information to be shared with his new classroom teacher next week at “Meet the Teacher” night.
Every year I tend to do the same thing(s) and I’ve had rave reviews from teachers, administrators and support staff, so I wanted to share some ideas.

In my last post, I shared suggestions from Chapter 1 of Elizabeth Strickland’s book Eating for Autism about how to transition to a more healthy diet; with an acute focus on what must go. With this post, I want to share a little more from the book because it is overflowing with information that could be useful to anyone raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Elizabeth goes into great detail about how to make sure our kids get enough basic nutrients (think protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals and water). She describes how to assess each of these nutrients and make sure that you’re feeding your child the right foods and combinations of foods.

Some days it just really pulls on my heartstrings to send Jacob away on the little yellow bus, watching his sweet chubby face through the tinted window as they head down our street and off to school.
You'd think I would be used to it by now- it has been five years of Jacob leaving home for preschool, kindergarten, and now 1st grade. Despite the fact that all these years have gone by, each time it is still like sending an innocent toddler away everyday, out into the big, bad world alone, without me to protect him.

Sometimes I forget that the people who work with Jacob every day have made a choice to spend their time with special needs kids. I am so grateful that they have. It has to be one of the hardest jobs.