Autism is a condition that many parents find difficult to understand, but the important thing to realise is that they are not alone.  It is possible for your child to grow up with a chance of living a relatively normal child hood and adult life, but it's important to consult with the experts to find out what services are on offer.

One of the biggest parts of any child's life is education.  We often take our education system for granted, but for an autistic child the education process can be a totally different challenge.

This has been recongised and throughout the country specialist schools are now available where your child can feel more comfortable with their surroundings, class mates and more importantly be educated by experienced people who understand Autism and the needs of the sufferers.

These schools aren't just run by ‘teachers'.  They are run by specially trained teachers, residential carers, learning support assistants and therapists, who all work closely with parents to achieve the best outcomes for the child.  It's not uncommon for different children to have different levels of autism, or differ in the way they react to certain situations, so it's important that the people in charge of the education of these children are aware of how to react to the different children who attend.  Through experience a strategy can be put together for each child to ensure that they receive the maximum benefits from their education.

One thing that Autistic children can suffer with is a lack of confidence, and by attending a school that is focused on the needs of an autistic child, they can participate in exercises that can help them to interact with people, take on challenges and generally become more confident in their abilities to respond to situations that arise as part of growing up in todays world.

Specialist education provides the care, attention and understanding that normal schools cannot provide.  The responsibility of a standard school is to provide pupils with curriculum based education and it has been proven that in most cases this just does not work for autistic children.

In summary, the specialist schools that are available for autistic children provide them with a foundation and framework to learn, adapt to real life situations, interact with like-minded children and prepare themselves for the coping with their condition in the real world.

Based in Derbyshire, High Grange is a Specialist Autism School for Young People with Autistic Spectrum .