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the spring we saw him perform in a mock wedding
with the other students. The class had worked with
consonants and vowels; supposedly, consonants were
male and vowels female. The bride was Ms. U and the
groom was Mr. Q. Keaton was Mr. D, daddy of Ms. U.
He handled his part well; he was beginning to enjoy
performing “on the stage”.
During the summer following the completion of
Keaton’s first grade the family moved to Lexington
for his father to take a position with Virginia Military
Institute. Keaton began the second grade there and
remained to complete three years of school.
In Lexington his parents encountered some difficulty
getting the exact help Keaton needed. The necessity
of providing people to comply with the support called
for in Keaton’s Individual Educational Program was
slow to materialize. The information found in his
IEP came from educators and psychologists. Basically
his IEP called for “least restrictive environment.”
The school intended to place Keaton in a Special
Education Class. After the school staff understood
his needs, Keaton was given an aide all day and
was placed in regular classes. With an aide Keaton
was able to have more freedom of movement. His
apparent lack of interest in some of the classroom
activities was not as disruptive to the teacher or to the
other students. The aide was able to involve Keaton
in acceptable activities of interest to him and at the
same time teach him.
The understanding of autism remained vague as was
the experience to know how to work with persons
with autism. Keaton had an occupational and a speech