Meet Patrice

from Special Needs Living Indy December 2023 Digital Issue

Lucky Mama Project Calendar is Here!

BY ANGELA ARLINGTON

I first met Patrice Hunter when she was in elementary school. Her mother, Ledrena Girton, was having issues with the school system. I attended 2 separate IEP case conferences as an advocate for the family. To this day, I wish I had the recording from the meetings, as all of the school professionals agreed that learning math was not important and that her spelling words should be the names of Disney Princesses. The whole case conference committee had extremely low expectations for her because she was nonverbal. Fast forward to 2023, and Patrice has gone above and beyond what the school system ever expected when she was younger.

“Patrice HATED coming home after school because she got to play all day, so I decided to teach her after school,” Ledrena shared. “I rescued a desk being thrown away to use at home. I told the speech therapist, the regular education teacher and the occupational therapist what I was doing and they supplied me with lots of work.”

“Patrice HATED coming home after school because she got to play all day, so I decided to teach her after school,” — LEDRENA

OUT IN THE COMMUNITY

“Taking her into her community is VERY important. They need to know an autistic person lives in the community,” Ledrena explained. Patrice is involved in Girl Scouts, volunteers at many places, and enjoys eating out and shopping. Patrice lives her life to the fullest and enjoys meeting people everywhere she goes.