FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
January 14, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Autism Epidemic: Record Increases Continue in
California
·
Autism, Main Story
Autism Epidemic: Record Increases Continue in California
Numbers continue to climb, no peak in sight
·
All time one year record number of cases.
·
Autism becomes number one disability entering California’s
system.
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Previous 25 years autism pop. now reached in three.
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4 of 5 Male born since 1980, Most no mental retardation
[From Rick Rollens, autism research advocate.]
With no changes in the diagnostic criteria for many years,
and a system that has been ascertaining autism since 1970, the California Department
of Developmental Services (DDS) recently released the following data on the
number of new cases of fully diagnosed DSM IV (Level One) autism (not including
other autism spectrum disorder such as PDD, NOS, or Asperger’s, or other rare “autism
like” genetic diseases):
1. An all time
one-year (1970-2001) record number of cases (2,725) were added to California’s
system in 2001. This number represents a 20% increase in one year over the
previous record year of 2000. The just completed 4th Quarter of 2001
(Oct. 4, 2001 to Jan. 3, 2002) also set an all time record for numbers of new
cases for any 4th Quarter in the history of the system. During 2001,
each of the four quarters posted all time record setting increases. There were
more cases of level one autism added in 2001 then in all of 1994, 1995, and
1996 combined.
2. In 2001, for the
first time ever in California’s history, level one autism became the number one
disability entering California’s system...accounting for an astonishing 35% of
all new intakes in 2001. A percentage that has exploded from historic levels of
3%. Autism Has Surpassed Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, And All
Other Conditions Similar To Mental Retardation As The Number One Disability Entering
California’s Developmental Services System.
3. California now has
16,802 persons with level one autism in its system. It took 25 years
(1970-1995) to add 6,527 cases. Unbelievably, it has taken only 3 years
(1999-2001) to add an additional 6,596 new cases. Simply put, what use to take 25 years now takes three.
4. According to DDS,
of the 16,802 persons with level one autism in it’s system: 82% are male, 56%
have NO mental retardation, and 80% were born after 1980... the beginning of the autism epidemic.
Amazingly, of the total number of persons in the system (16,802).... 11,104 or
two out of every three persons (66%) are children between the age 0 to 13 years
old.
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Autism, Main Story
[By Kelly Bothum of The Patriot-News, Pennsylvania. Thanks
to Nancy Richey.] http://www.pennlive.com/living/patriotnews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_sta
ndard.xsl?/base/living/101015237416238105.xml <-- address ends here.
On a mild Sunday afternoon, Dan scampers into kitchen and
makes a beeline for the screen door. He can’t maneuver the lock so he stands
there waiting for someone to unlock it for him. Tom uses this as a chance to
work on Dan’s verbal skills.
“I want,” Tom says, pausing a few seconds between each
word.
Dan responds with an unintelligible mix of sounds.
“I want,” Tom says again.
“Euh annt,” Dan answers.
“Outside,” Tom says.
“Side?” Dan replies.
Tom obliges with a click of the screen lock. Dan’s out
the door,
settling on a patch of grass just beyond the concrete patio
in the spot where his inflatable pool sat until a month earlier.
He plays with the mound of sand that remains, throwing
tiny handfuls of it into the air and smiling as it falls around him. Sometimes
he stops and stares at a patch of grass or looks up at the sky, content to be
alone with his thoughts. Tom and Nancy watch from the table in their kitchen.
“One of the great things that is refreshing about children
like Dan is they can’t pretend. They don’t understand metaphorical language,”
Tom says. “It’s just raw emotion and
that’s really refreshing. There’s no game playing.”
The couple has worked hard to bring Dan out of his
cocooned world. They’re constantly
prompting him to talk, to say what he wants to eat, where he wants to go, which
video he wants to watch.
He has a slew of therapists whose services are covered by
medical assistance which Dan qualifies for because of his medical condition. Wrap-around services from Edgewater
Psychiatric Center provide assistance for Dan at home and in school. A staff
member helps him get ready for school and stays with him in class for part of
the school day.
Dan visits weekly with speech therapist Ted Huryn to
increase his verbal communication. He also works with aquatherapist Esther
Strader in an indoor pool, where the combination of motor exercises and rush of
water across his body helps soothe his senses running on overdrive.
“For certain, we have tried to get in his world, but by
the same token, he’s a very curious kid. He wants to find stuff out. He wants
to seek things out. If you take him someplace, he’ll remember,” Tom says. “He’d
know when I took him to get a haircut in downtown Mechanicsburg that there’s a pet
store at [routes] 114 and 11. He’s like, ‘Why aren’t you taking me there, jerk?’
At first, it’s hard to figure out that sort of stuff.”
Three times a year, Dan’s behavioral therapist, Karen
Hornung, revises his behavior treatment plan, which dictates strategies to deal
with his autism. It includes specific goals for Dan (better verbalization,
improved social skills) and ways to achieve those goals (ignoring his one-word utterances,
teaching him to take turns).
At home, Dan adheres to a strict schedule with frequent
reminders about what his next task is. The same is true at Middle Paxton
Elementary School, where he’s in an autism-support class with three other
pupils, all boys. Teacher Amy Nissley and the aides involve the pupils with
quick activities, none more than 15 minutes or so. The short bursts keep the children
from getting frustrated or distracted.
Each time Dan completes an activity, he removes an icon
with the corresponding task from his daily schedule. The icons—describing
reading, computer and other activities—are part of the Picture Exchange Communication
System, which is used to communicate with autistic children.
“They like to know what’s coming. It’s very important and
it helps them stay stable in the sense they can anticipate what’s coming,”
Karen says. “Oftentimes if something comes up and it’s not what was planned,
they get upset.”
Repetition and routine are constants in Dan’s life. The
challenge is trying to expose him to new things. Over the past months, Nancy
and Karen have made it a priority to get Dan comfortable with going out in
public. During the summer and into the
fall, he and Karen took weekly trips to places like Arby’s, Media Play, even
Lake Tobias Wildlife Farm in Halifax.
Dan’s tolerance for going out has increased since the
excursions began, Karen says. The people and the sounds aren’t as overwhelming
to his senses. And he’s starting to understand how he’s supposed to act in
public, which is critical.
“Before, we could only try to go through drive-throughs.
When Nancy and I would try to sit down in a restaurant, he would get down on
the floor or under the table,” she says. “He’d get impatient because it was a
long wait. In Dan’s mind it was like, ‘Why should I just sit there?’”
The improvement is subtle but noticeable. On a trip to
Friendly’s with Karen one weekend, Dan sits patiently in the booth waiting for
his plate of French fries. Once the fries arrive, he eats a couple—his usual
quota— and waits for Karen to finish her Fribble.
Only once does he duck his head under the table to sneak a
peak. He likes affectionOn the weekends, everything slows down in the Richey household.
Tom works long hours during the week, leaving at 4 a.m. and often driving to
New York or Philadelphia for his job running construction projects and
overseeing maintenance for a property management company. Sometimes he’s gone for a couple of days.
Nancy spends the most time with Dan during the week. She
works part time from home on her recruiting business when she can, usually when
he’s in school.
Saturday morning, Dan is their alarm clock. Around 8 or 9
a.m., he bounds into their room and onto the bed to cuddle and snuggle between
his parents. Unlike some autistic children, the 8-year-old likes affection, taking
in hugs and compliments like he was drinking them through a straw.
He especially loves to snack on Tom’s homemade bread,
which he makes every couple of weeks and packs with whole wheat, fiber, protein
and other nutrients. It’s also one of the few things Dan eats willingly.
Picky eating habits are common among those with autism and
Dan is no exception. Arby’s chicken fingers, white-cheese pizzas made by his
father and an occasional peanut butter sandwich round out the short list of
foods he’ll eat without a fight. Corn chips are the closest he gets to
vegetables, his mother says ruefully.
To make sure Dan gets his nutrients, Nancy feeds him a
vitamin cocktail prescribed by a nutritionist. The grape-flavored liquid
vitamin packs all his nutritional needs except for vitamin C. It’s also not
cheap; the vitamin runs $50 a month and isn’t covered by the family’s
insurance. Visions for futureWatching
Dan amuse himself outside with the sand, Tom and Nancy say they have great
hopes for what Dan can accomplish when he gets older. His future is something
Nancy’s been thinking about a lot lately since she started taking a class
offered through Temple University about advocating for people with handicaps
and special needs.
They imagine him with friends, which he doesn’t have many
of right now. Nancy doesn’t want to limit Dan by expecting he’ll have to live
in a group home as an adult. They envision him living out of their house,
either independently or with a house mate.
Given his love of nature and the outdoors, he might be
a park ranger.
Whatever it is, Tom and Nancy want to encourage him to
find what he
likes.
“Other people may say, ‘Oh, he’ll be a janitor at McDonald’s,’
and that’s what you don’t want people to do,” she says. “I want them to say he can
be a park ranger if he wants to. Or maybe he does want to be a janitor at
McDonald’s. But right now, let’s shoot far.”
They don’t imagine he’ll always live with them. One thing
Nancy says she tries to do is think how it would be different raising Dan if he
didn’t have autism. Would she let him stay home forever? Probably not.
“I’d say, ‘No, Dan, get your own life.’ So now I feel the
same way,” she says. “If he can live independently, but he says when he
graduates from high school, ‘Mom, I’d like to stay home for a couple of years,’
maybe we’d do what all parents do—give him a couple of years and then give him
the boot.” She finishes the sentence with a laugh.
Dan pulls the screen door across and let’s himself
inside.
“Oh yeah, Danny, we’re talking about you,” Nancy says,
smiling. “We’re
talking about what you’re going to do. Lots, right?”
He wears a mischievous smile like he’s the only one in
on a good joke.
Kelly Bothum may be reached at 255-8440 or kbothum@patriot-news.com.
Copyright 2002 The Patriot-News
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