AUTISM 1

What are the key trends or issues presented? Name at least 2

One of the key issues presented was that the BC Children’s Ministry made changes to the amount of money families would receive to assist them with their child’s autism therapy. Funding for an early intervention program was scrapped to provide more money to families. (The Canadian Press 2009). This represented a change from $20,000 a year to $22,000 a year for families with children with autism under the age of 6. (The Canadian Press 2009). The question arises, whether this is enough money for treatment? Another and important issue presented was the question of autism therapy. Is Lovaas the only therapy out there and does it work? The very fact that the government dropped intensive therapy and that the BC Supreme Court ruled in the governments’ favour puts a question mark on the outcomes of Lovaas Therapy. What legislation/litigation is being examined? The legislation being examined in both articles is whether the Province of BC discriminated against children with Autism by not providing them with a widely recognized treatment known as Lovaas Therapy. Specifically did the Province violate equality rights to medical treatment by refusing to fund autism therapy? Some important questions that arise from this debate are: 1. As citizens of BC do we not all have equal rights to medically necessary treatment?
AUTISM 2 2. Who decided that Autism Therapy is not medically necessary? 3. What research was done to validate the Government from stopping the intensive early treatment program? Why and how do you think this is important to the role of special education in BC? Is it me or does it seem that Autism is on the rise? I recently saw a posting by the North Vancouver School Board for an Autism Support Worker. This suggests to me, that more and more children are being diagnosed and the schools are recognizing they need “specialists” in this area to provide effective programs for students with autism. This to me is good news! One of the reasons I enrolled in the Education Assistant program was that I have a child with autism. I know first hand how important funding is for parents. I now realize how important it is for children to get diagnosed, as this will have a huge impact on the resources and support a school will provide. If a child has a designation of autism, the Government will provide funding to schools, to use at their discretion, to hire Educational Assistants or other means of support. The hours of support such as, Educational Assistants is vitally dependent on whether students are diagnosed. Positive and negative consequences of any decisions presented in article? By shutting down the high cost treatment program, it had both positive and negative effects. It would have been devastating for the parents who had been
AUTISM 3 receiving this specialized treatment. They basically had the carpet pulled from underneath them. For some families with no other alternative, they moved to another province, where government funded Lovaas Therapy was covered. It is not fair that we live in Canada; yet province by province the treatment for autism differs. On the positive side, more families in BC were allotted $2000 more per year to spend on the treatment of their preference. Speaking from experience, it may not seem a lot but every little bit helps!

What are your concluding thoughts with respect to future direction?

I feel as though, in the general public, there is very little knowledge about autism. Up until 4 years ago I knew absolutely nothing about autism. Today I am blessed to have a child with autism. He has been my greatest teacher and I am who I am today because of him. Looking back on my journey, there seems to be a “label phobia” that many parents are scared of. A good starting point would be to improve the current diagnosis procedure. In the current public system it can take up to two years to get a child tested for autism. The earlier parents can get a diagnosis, the better the outcome. During the diagnosis process, there should be mandatory counselling for parents. This would help parents to navigate the diagnosis process and may even help to put the “label phobia” at ease.

AUTISM 4 Once a child with autism turns 6, the funding drops significantly to $6000 for families. This is not enough money to provide effective treatment outside of the school system. This leads me to the next point. As more and more children are entering our schools with or without a diagnosis, schools should be looking into hiring specialized support workers trained in ABA or Social Thinking therapy. Students with autism will not learn by simply being “assimilated” with their peers in public schools. These students require specialized education programs to assist them to require the necessary skills they will need to succeed in life. With the current funding levels from the government, we are minimally meeting the treatment and/or support these children need. In conclusion, there are so many variables to autism and I feel we have only begun to scratch the surface. As more students are coming into they system with autism, I am hopefully that there will be continued EA support. An EA’s role for a child with autism will differ from student to student and as EA’s we will need to remember that we are not providing treatment for the child but rather assisting them to learn the skills that they are deficient in.

References

Kent, Heather (2000). BC families win suit over government payment for expensive autism therapy. Canadian Medical Journal. (2000). Canadian Medical Journal, 163 (9) 1181.

The Canadian Press (2009). B.C. cuts back autism funding. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-cuts-back-autism-funding-1.777767