Autism Vox

Letters from Jersey, Autism Education, and BIPs

by Kristina Chew, PhD on June 23rd, 2007

Theories of autism sometimes seem to sprout like weeds—-when you have the highest prevalence rate for autism in the nation as New Jersey does, everyone (however little they know about autism) has an opinion about the causes of autism. A New Jersey autism mother responds to one theory regarding baby boomers’ past drug use in a letter published in the Express-Times:

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I am the proud mother of two autistic sons — one by chance (biological) and one by choice (adoption). Roger Gordon’s theory on autism (”Past drug use comes back to haunt baby boomers,” letter, June 16) is the most inane thing I have ever heard. I strongly urge him to do some research on autism, Google is a wonderful tool. I challenge him to spend an hour with an autistic child. I am positive he will be humbled by the experience.

He mentioned sympathy and how he has none for the parents and grandparents of autistic children. Well, he has my sympathy. I always feel sorry when people show their ignorance.

Chrissy Schuch

Wilson Borough

Then come the accusations of “playing favorite”—of political favoritism towards kids with disabilities—as Asbury Park Press columnist Diane D’Amico wrote on June 18th. Cynthia Fertsch and Catherine Helm respond:

[Fertsch] “Regarding Diane D’Amico’s June 18 column, ‘Proposed measures play favorites with student disabilities’:

“D’Amico suggests that the recent state bill requiring all teachers and aides to have training in autism is somehow unfair and came about because autism is “a high-profile disability.”Autism is an epidemic, and rather than worrying about singling out funding for autism education, we need to worry what would happen without it.”

[Helm] “On a personal note, the statement referring to autism as a “disability du jour” is repugnant. For parents, families and teachers of an autistic child, such a reference only exacerbates the obvious misunderstanding of this debilitating illness.”

While my own view is that there doesn’t need to be “epidemic of autism” to call for specialized teacher training and services for autistic students—that these kids deserve to get the education that they need—–or that autism is an “illness,” I am with Fertsch and Helm on supporting autism education. There is certainly more attention than ever being given to autism now, there are widely-ranging differences of opinion about many autism-related issues—-causes, treatments, what autism is. One could even say that there is a veritable “epidemic” of awareness about autism—-perhaps it is no wonder D’Amico refers to autism as the “disease du jour.” The trickle down of all this attention has played some role in the good year my son has had, in a public school program. After five years of “behaviors” always being the biggest concern at Charlie’s IEP meetings, this year we had to request a “behavior intervention plan” (BIP) on his IEP: The strategies his teachers and aides have been using have been successful. We still need those strategies documented: You just never know.

But even if the behavior intervention plan had been a mile long, I’d take several hours (a whole lifetime’s worth) of hours with my autistic son Charlie, any day.

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POSTED IN: Adoption, Cause, Education, Epidemic, Media, Stereotypes