Picking and Choosing
“It’s $100 a session. I have four kids. You almost have to pick and choose who gets therapy,” said Kathy Johnson, who has four autistic children.
Ms. Johnson is quoted in today’s ABC12.com (Lansing, Michigan) news, in a story about how most services for autism are not covered by insurance.
Charlie is our only child and I don’t face Ms. Johnson’s situation, but her words sound a familiar note for many parents. On the one hand it is great to know that we know so much more about how to teach autistic students; about how to accommodate for sensory needs, to understand that someone not responding quickly does not mean they do not understand, and much more. But how to fund all of these things? (And I’m not even considering the issue of how to discern which therapies are right for one’s child, or whether or not a therapy or treatment is scientifically and/or medically sound.) Some “picking and choosing” is not just inevitable; it’s necessary.
For myself, it’s also necessary to pick and choose to focus on education and on research that helps me to better understand Charlie and to find out about how to make his life better in the here and now. Concerns about the new requirement that New Jersey preschoolers get the flu vaccine and that schoolchildren get more vaccines have appeared frequently in the news this week. Some fear a link between vaccines and autism and/or some other health issues arising over taking vaccines and, while understanding the anxiety, the continual fixation on how a child became autistic is notable, when there are so many kids with so many basic needs that must be addressed: Schools that violate policies and regulations about padded rooms and physical restraint; the possibility of residential placement; getting through the holidays when school is closed and therapists on vacation….
You pick, you choose.
1 opinion for Picking and Choosing
Marla
Dec 13, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Another good point. It is so true that by over focusing on the cause leaves many children and families without any assistance. We sure fit that category. Our daughter has multiple diagnosises and never qualifies. I am thinking about applying again since we have the chromosome disorder diagnosis. But, at the same time I have become accustomed to no involvement.
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