When my son was one, I pushed his stroller around our New York City neighborhood after lunch. When the sun was too bright, or I suddenly deviated from the usual route, he shrieked. He ignored curious strangers who tried to get him to smile. If they touched him, he would pull away. When he turned two, he could only say a handful of words, not full sentences like other children. He qualified for Early Intervention at two and for an IEP at age three. At age five, he received an official autism diagnosis.

Ian straddled between Level 1 and Level 2 autism. Verbal with high nonverbal IQ scores and a strong work ethic, he seemed very functional. But his verbal tics, OCD, anxiety, poor reading comprehension, and poor social skills kept him on the edge of public school life. He was educated in public schools but never very well and was always an outsider.

Read more at the Great Leap, my autism newsletter