Listen to the Mp3 file of “Weird Kid” here: Weird Kid MP3 File

It was the first year I would not be with Matthew on his birthday. He was turning sixteen and completing his first year at Camphill Special School across the country in Pennsylvania.

Birthdays since his autism diagnosis had been difficult, and coincided with Matthew’s Individual Education Plan, a yearly meeting that outlined Matthew’s educational and behavioral goals for the year to come. The meeting reviewed the goals Matthew had met, and those he had fallen short of in the past year. There was always a discussion of his IQ and his actual grade level-both low. These meetings were devastating to me. I worried about them for weeks before, cried during, and went into a decline after.