Valerie is a tall, lanky nine-year-old girl. She loves writing and drawing with chalk. She is a bundle of energy, riding her scooter over the concrete in her backyard. She has a younger brother, but she doesn’t play with him very much. You see, Valerie is autistic and her lack of response to her brother and other children is just one aspect of her autistic personality.
The latest studies suggest that as many as one in 150 kids, age 10 and younger, may be affected by autism or a related disorder, a total of nearly 300,000 children in the United States alone. If you include adults, according to the Autism Society of America, more than a million people in the United States suffer from one of the autistic disorders (also known as pervasive developmental disorders or pdds). The problem is five times as common as Down syndrome and three times as common as juvenile diabetes.
Parents of autistic children don’t have time to wait for a cure. Children with pervasive developmental disorders benefit greatly from early intervention. Children, as young as 12 months old, work with occupational and speech therapists to help them develop normal conversational speech. Physical therapy helps them control the hyperactivity that often accompanies the disorder. When the children reach school age they can be placed in specialized settings that maximize their learning potential.
That’s what happened with Valerie. As soon as she was diagnosed with autism, she began receiving services from the State Regional Center and her school district. Her parents meet regularly with her teacher, her speech and language therapist and her physical education teacher. She has an aide to assist her during the school day to help her focus and participate in class activities and she has a tutor who works with her at home for additional academic help.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work so well. The Los Angeles Times featured an article on autism, relating that black children were diagnosed a year-and-a-half later than whites and that immigrant children were often overlooked because their teachers thought they had a language problem. The Times further noted, “The public school enrollment of autistic children… has gone from a trickle to a flood. Their legal rights are crashing up against strapped school budgets.”
State Senator Don Perata is quoted as saying, “We’ve seen school systems using every trick in the book, every interpretation of the law, to avoid having to accept financial responsibility for these children.”
It’s hard not to notice a family that is struggling with autism. Perhaps they have a baby who is not babbling as he should or rocking back and forth for hours on end. Maybe they have a toddler who isn’t making eye contact or seems extra sensitive to touch or a 4-year-old who is not speaking. School districts are required by law to educate children with disabilities.
There is nothing more important than the healthy growth and development of young people. Our children can’t wait.
Nancy M. René is a retired school Principal with the Los Angeles Unified School District and a Senior Consultant on Special Education for the WorldEsquire Law Firm, LLP.
For more information, please call 661-294-0911 or visit www.worldesquire.com .