One of the first meetings bringing together everyone who cares for and works with autistic children took place on 7 March. The meeting was led by Agnieszka Basta, a mother raising a son with a disability. Parents and teachers also spoke. There is much to be done regarding care and support for parents of children with disabilities.

The issue of creating a new special school was raised. A modern, well-managed school, not subject to powerless county officials under the banner of “It can’t be done and it isn’t possible”.

Although the special school was not spoken of negatively, it was considered not to meet the expectations of all parents and not to be adapted to caring for children with autism. Among other reasons, this is because the special school has no room for the quiet and reduced stimulation so important to them (they are even placed in groups of 30 together with children with varying degrees of disability). Caring for children with autism at the institution is a complex problem, but given the inept management of the Powiatowy Zespół Szkół i Placówek Specjalnych by successive county heads, the criticism comes as no surprise.

Another problem is the lack of awareness of what autism and Asperger’s are. One mother told the sad story of her son being harassed by five parents from the class at the local-authority school he attended. It turned out that the parents had neither knowledge about Asperger’s nor any desire to learn how to integrate such a child with their own children in the class. The additional teacher assigned to the boy and the opportunity to use a laptop during some lessons were considered by the parents of non-disabled children to be an unjustified privilege, and they completely failed to take into account how difficult it is for this child to live with the condition in a world hostile to him.

It is encouraging that both sides attended the meeting: parents, and teachers and therapists. The idea is to build a shared space where people can reach an understanding, because parents want more for their children’s health and lives than solutions offered to them as if from the Stone Age.

For more information, call 606953892. You can also join the Facebook group: My Razem dla Autyzmu w BC (a support group for parents and therapists).