Expert: James Michael Roan - 6/13/2008

Question
thank you for your web site. i truly appreciate any information you can give me. my grandson is 6 years old and has autism. he can not speak (only one word "mom") and has alot of anger problems. we have him in speech thery through the school system during the winter months inwhich he enjoyed. now that it is summer no schoold and he goes crazy 4-5 times a day with hitting and biting. my daughter and i are at the point we do not know what else we can do!! is there anything out there to help him? we live in Mitchell, SD and as far as centers that we can put him in during the day  (not overnight) there just is not any. we are just at our wits end!! please help with any info you can.  Thank you so much! Lynda

Answer
Hi Lynda;

He should be receiving limited services through the school district. It's formally called "Extended School Year (ESY) and should be added to his IEP in order to prevent regression or loss of skills learned at school. Some university autism centers offer programs and that is where I would begin. I'm sorry, that is all I know. There isn't really a lot of services for these kids.

Kind regards,
James