Autism Report Writing

Preface

Early childhood professionals are swamped with writing reports that discuss children’s autism concerns and developmental delays. As professionals have time constraints and an overwhelming amount of educational details, I felt a need to focus this work on hints and suggestions to broaden the professionals’ writing style. The book Autism Report Writing focuses on different ways to describe a child’s participation in the classroom, preschool, daycare and home settings. These valuable autism reports may guide a child’s eligibility and education program determination to address each child’s specific needs.

One of the most common mistakes made is being to general in reports and not describing each child’s personal situations. There are many elements of autism report writing and these elements can include over all information on the child’s strengths and weaknesses, preschool progress and how referrals are made. Input is another factor that can be included in reports whether it is from outside sources, teachers, parents or agencies working with the child. As well, the observations of the child are invaluable in writing an autism report to be fully descriptive of the child.

Prologue

This is not my first book on autism, but since I spend an enormous amount of time writing autism reports I wanted to write a book on this topic. When I reflect on my first autism book (Is My Child Autistic or Delayed?), I tried to cover topics that applied to both parents and professionals in understanding developmental delays and autism concerns. My second autism book (Questionable Autism) focused on the types of questions parents and professionals could ask to better understand autism and gain input from those evaluating or working with the child.

The present book (Autism Report Writing) emphasizes the value of using report writing to help guide choices that impact the child’s future educational journey. Autism reports cover a wide variety of information from initial concerns for the child to recommendations for specific autism programs or educational planning that meets each child’s needs. The journey for many children with autism is complex and these written reports are important in describing the child’s intricate nature.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for all of the professional colleagues I have known over the years and their input on my report writing. Their editorial comments at meetings, brief suggestions in the hallway and personal remarks have all helped me improve and reflect on my report writing style. My professional friends have grown over the years and I will miss many of these colleagues who are now retiring and going on a new journey.

When I first started writing autism books my twin daughters were very young and didn’t quite understand their mother’s insane passion for writing. However, they took the journey with me even though they were not quite sure what I was doing during those early morning hours. Now that the twins have grown up and are heading to college I hope the twins develop their own individual writing journey as a form of self expression. I wish my daughters the best in the incredible journey they will be taking next year.

I can’t forget to thank my wonderful husband, Alan for his unbending support of my writing career. His late night hours helping me with computers and tech work was the support I needed after a hard day as a tired writer working with young children.

Introduction

I never really thought much about writing a book called Autism Report Writing until I reflected on how important these reports were in determining a child’s autism eligibility for special education. Parents come to school early childhood diagnostic and eligibility centers with lots of ideas about autism. Some of those ideas are misguided and confusing, while some of the parent’s ideas