Schools Creating Social Skills Programs for Children With Mild Autism.

The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/autism-classes 12/3, Brown) reports, “As the number of children with autism has ballooned nationwide, so has the population of children who…are capable of grade-level academics,” but who lack “social and emotional skills they need to negotiate school on their own.”  Many of these youngsters “spend the bulk of their day in mainstream classes supported with a suite of special education services.”  Now, “many parents of this growing group worry that” mainstreaming “children…this way fails to teach them what they need to navigate the world independently and instead imbues them with a sense that they’re unacceptably weird.”  The article goes on to discuss alternative programs started by Washington, DC-area schools to assist children with mild autism acquire social skills.