Autism Vox

Every 1 of the “1 in 150″ Needs to Be Taught

by Kristina Chew, PhD on February 11th, 2007

In the wake of the CDC releasing its “1 in 150” figure for the prevalence of autism last Thursday, some groups have responded with cries of horror, alarm and shock and called on the CDC to declare autism a “national emergency.” But the “1 in 150″ figure—even the “1 in 94″ rate found in the state where I live, New Jersey—is really yesterday’s news, as such rates have already been seen in England, Sweden, and elsewhere (see Problems with prevalence on Left Brain/Right Brain).

And if you work in the field of special education and teach autistic children–if you’ve been working on the front lines, spending every day with a child and trying to teach him or her—-the higher rate is no big news either. “‘We have seen the rates of autism increase dramatically over the last seven years,’” notes John Somers, director of graduate programs and coordinator of special education in the University of Indiana’s School of Education, in the February 11th Medical News Today. Autism, he notes, has become “a more ‘comfortable” diagnosis because it carries fewer stigmas than a diagnosis of other disorders such as mental retardation or emotional disability.” Numbers of autistic children are growing precisely because we can better identify and diagnose autism and because our culture and society have become more accepting of and accommodating of disability and of disabilities in children. When my own son Charlie was diagnosed with autism in 1999, a relative said “There are special schools for kids like that.” Even then we countered that the public schools now have programs for special ed children, so they can go to school in their own communities, and my son is currently in such a program in a local public school and has been thriving.

I do have to say that this program was only put into place through the unwavering advocacy of parents, and that, while things are good now, everything could change. More families have moved to my town precisely because of the program’s quality and we have to be constantly insistent, and vigilant, that Charlie receives all the services—highly trained staff with good supervision, speech therapy, physical education—-that can help him learn best. There are never enough autism teachers and speech therapists and OTs to go around, it seems, and Somers emphasizes the current tremendous need for educational program and placements, for services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, for autistic children—-and how school districts are struggling to meet these growing needs. (And proposed cuts to Medicaid spending for these therapies for autistic students seems a step in the wrong direction.)

“Schools are reeling today to accommodate the needs of the increasing number of children diagnosed with autism…..Because students with autism embody a multitude of needs and services (special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, etc.), the increase is overwhelming and we do not have enough school personnel trained in this area to deliver much needed services.”

If there is a figurative “epidemic” of demands for school placements and services for autistic children, it is because such school placements and services exist, parents find out about them, and I cannot count how many autism parents that I know who would gladly march off to the ends of the earth to ensure that their child has the best. Indeed, it seems to me that many parents respond with nothing less than virulent anger to anyone who states that there is no epidemic of autism—even and perhaps all the more so with a well-substantiated and thoughtful argument—-because parents fear that unless school districts and the general public think that there are epidemic numbers of children with autism, no one will pay for all the special services and programs that can help a child do so well.

My own belief is that we do our children a thorough injustice if the only strategy that we can think of to “get what my child needs” is to create an atmosphere of fear and panic, of hysteria and distortion. Autistic children need a specialized education with a full complement of highly-trained teachers and staff, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, because they need it, period. They need all of these special services because autism is a serious neurological disability that can make it very difficult for children, wherever they might on the autism spectrum, to be taught using traditional teaching methods. So many resources are now being devoted to research to find out the causes of autism, but what about devoting even some of those funds to the children themselves? And the teachers who spend their days with flashcards and Edmark reading programs, the speech therapists who get bubbles spilled all over them and who teach a child how to shape their lips to say their own name, the OTs who are on the lookout for ways to soothe our children’s often over-loaded sensory systems so they can sit still a bit longer in class?

Instead of getting stuck on the one question of “what is the cause of autism,” and of conjuring up images of hoards of autistic children who will drain our nation’s coffers in an epidemic of devastated parents, let’s look at the autistic children and autistic adults who are right in front of us instead of and, starting from them—-from my boy, who just told me “walk” and ran to get his socks and coat and hat and gloves—teach them, and not be fearful of causes, or of autism.

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POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Education, Epidemic