Oh, I might as well add some more musings.
I don't know how I feel about a personal assistant. I had a lady follow me around for a short period to time to help control my behavior. But this lady was MEAN. She would threaten me in the hallway and even smack me sometimes when I was misbehaving. I tried to report her to the principal, but they didn't believe me, and the lady just got more abusive. Anyway, it was kinda embarrassing when the lady followed me around too.
Oh, and special seating in the class is embarrassing too. I don't know exactly how sitting next to the teacher really helped my behavior, in every class I sat right next to the teacher and I had to stare at the other kids in the class all day. Plus it just singled me out as different.
And the worse was being in special ed when the rest of the kids in that class were LD. And I got no help... seriously, I sat there and did homework while the other kids got other training, because they really didn't know what to do with me. They had puzzles that were hard for the LD kids and they got a piece of candy for solving them, but I did them easily and earned so much candy... lol.
And I should have still gotten a chance to be put in a gifted school or to skip grades. I could have done that, but they held me back because of my behavior.
Oh, and follow up on the kids, I went off to college with no support. I didn't consider myself disabled anymore, but indeed I was and actually I didn't do as great because I can't learn very well if the material is not only hard, but also something I am totally not interested in learning. In fact, the off-major classes I had to take I did poorly, but later on in college I was 4 pointing the zoology courses. I really needed a tutor in English-related classes and higher math. Plus, I found out I could have gotten more scholarships with my status, but I was bull-headed and denied I had problems and took out student loans that now I am having a hard time paying.
Oh, and please correct people that tell you that it's your fault that your child has problems... I STILL have people coming up to my grandma, mostly family members and saying junk like "she wouldn't be like that if you would have spanked her more" stuff like that, and she believes them and takes it to heart.
Also when they grow up, don't put your kid under lots of emotional stress. I mean when I have no job, since I have trouble in that area, they force me to take care of my dementia grandmother in exchange for room and board, and don't even let me have a break from her. The emotional strain tears me up(both meanings of the word tear), they might be able to handle it, but they don't care that I don't. Know your kids limits!!!
