Starting With What You Want
It is frequently helpful to start the search for a residential program by doing an inventory of all the things that you hope to see in a residential placement.
| What do you hope or imagine your child’s life will look like? | What are the things they need? | What things do they enjoy? | Will the residential placement you’re considering offer these things?
A NOTE ABOUT TERMINOLOGY: For the reader’s convenience, the authors of this publication have made several choices about the words that we use. First, there is a divide within the autism community about whether to use person-first language (person with autism) or identity-first language (autistic individual). We value both perspectives and have attempted to use both with equal frequency throughout. This guide is written for the families of those with moderate to profound autism, who cannot make decisions on their own. As a result, this guide is written primarily using the word “parent” to refer to the decision maker. We also acknowledge that parents are not the only ones who have to make these choices. Frequently, it is a sibling or another family member who occupies the role of caretaker. We honor the deep, intimate, challenging, complicated, and rewarding relationship that caretakers can have with those they support. We also acknowledge that autistic individuals may also have a chosen family, rather than a biological family. However, to make this guide easier to read, we’ve stuck with the word “parent” instead of using another word that – for some – may better describe them. If that is the case for you, we hope you still find the information in this guide useful. Similarly, you will see the word “child” used throughout this text. While some use that word to refer only to young people, we recognize that parents of adults don’t lose the parent-child relationship simply because their child has reached their 18th or 21st birthday.
| 2.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online