Autistic offered H.O.P.E.

Group shows families options in therapy

Doug Carroll
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 27, 2003 12:00 AM

MESA - When a stranger compliments Lisa Cook on the manners of her 5-year-old son, Cook's first thought is always the same.

"I think, 'If you only knew what we went through to get here,' " she said of the effort that she and her husband, Phil, have put into therapy for Trevor, who was diagnosed with autism at 25 months but is now fully "mainstreamed," attending all-day kindergarten in the Gilbert public schools.

The Cooks say they couldn't have done it without H.O.P.E. Group, a Mesa agency that specializes in aiding families of children with autism. The agency works to set up home-based therapy programs that emphasize teaching language skills to the children.

H.O.P.E., or Honoring and Optimizing the Potential in Everyone, is sponsoring a workshop March 7 and 8 in Phoenix for parents and professionals, seeking to raise awareness that "these kids don't have a life sentence," as Lisa Cook says.

The workshop's presenter, Mark Sundberg, is known for using the techniques of Applied Behavior Analysis to achieve learning gains with children often thought to have little chance of avoiding institutionalization. Lori Cairns, the co-founder of H.O.P.E. Group, knows of the despair felt by such families - and of the possibilities.

"I live with a miracle," she said of her 9-year-old son, now a third-grader in the Kyrene Elementary District. "No one would ever know that when he was 2, he had the language skills of a 9-month-old, which is basically nothing.

"I was told that he was autistic, mentally retarded and that he'd be in an institution by the time he was a teenager. How many parents just accept that?"

The Cooks didn't when they were given a similar prognosis for Trevor, who received more than 35 hours a week of therapy, much of it home-based, from the age of 2. Cairns estimates that the annual cost of a home program is $30,000 a year, and she's concerned that stiffer financial requirements being considered by the state Department of Developmental Disabilities would leave many families behind.

"These children can learn, you just have to find the right way to do it," Cairns said.

"Autism is a spectrum disorder, and some will do better than others. But these children need to be given a chance."

Information on H.O.P.E. Group or the autism workshop: (480) 610-6981.