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News › Autism cases and costs on the rise
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Autism Statistics: Autism cases and costs on the rise
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Posted by Sylvia on Saturday, February 07, 2004 (21:01:13)
SM Daily Journal 07/02/2004
By Yunmi Choi
The number of autism cases is rising at a rapid rate around the world, and San Mateo County school officials are preparing to deal with the devastating impact it could have in coming years.
“These are literally million dollar kids,†said Jim Cox, director of special education in the San Mateo-Foster City School District.
From the age of 3 until they enter eighth grade, Cox said a child diagnosed with autism costs the district about $50,000 a year. And since intervention is most effective during a child’s formative years, he said the elementary district bears the brunt of these costs.
A few things autistic students require include speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and adaptive physical education — and that’s just for “functioning†autistic children. Federal guidelines dictate that public schools must provide such services to special education students.
Right now, there are more than 100 autistic students currently enrolled in the San Mateo-Foster City School District out of about 10,000 students total.
“The implication is that one out of every 100 kids is autistic,†Cox said.
When he first came to the district two years ago, Cox said there were only about 70 autistic kids. Around the state, there has been an 87 percent increase in the number of autism cases between 1997 and 2002. The trend is not isolated to California, but is taking hold of the nation and world.
“The rate is Japan is the same as here,†Cox said “What’s happening is a global difficulty.â€
Early intervention
Since children’s neural networks are about 90 percent developed by the time they’re 8, Cox said it’s critical to reach autistic children as soon as possible.
“If they get to be 8 and still can’t talk or go to the toilet by themselves, the likelihood of making strides beyond that is small,†he said.
On the other hand, getting to children early can make all the difference in turning “preverbal, cognitively low†autistic children into functioning autistics. By reaching them early, Cox said autistic kids can be taught to communicate verbally. The best way to teach autistic children early on is to reinforce certain positive behaviors, he said.
For example, he said some methods include rewarding students with M&M’s or Goldfish crackers for performing tasks correctly. Other times they are given physical re-inforcement — like a reassuring touch or hug. Praise can work for older children as well.
Getting to kids early doesn’t mean they’ll overcome their autism, however. Autism is an “existential state†that can’t be changed, Cox said — that’s just the way kids are glued together. That doesn’t mean these children’s ability to function can’t be improved.
The enormous resources being invested in autistic children is a revolution from just a few decades ago, Cox said, when autistic children were regarded as lost causes. Before 1973, he said it was widely believed that autistic kids couldn’t be taught.
Growing concern
As it preps to serve an increasing number of autistic children, the district is thinking about developing its own programs to serve this growing population, Cox said. Instead of outsourcing occupational and language therapy, for example, he said such services would be provided in-house.
In the meantime, nobody knows how to stymie the rising number of cases.
“Nobody really knows what’s happening,†said Pat Ptacek, a special education administrator with the San Mateo County Office of Education. “There are so many theories about the rising number of cases, but none have really been validated.â€
And it’s not just that more kids are being identified. In fact, both Ptacek and Cox said the method of testing for autism has remained virtually unchanged over the years. Some of the simpler explanations range from diet to new immunizations, Ptacek said.
Other theories can get more complicated. Cox said the leading theory right now is that autism is the result of a “build up†of genetic defects over several generations, combined with environmental causes.
Whatever it may be, Cox said the real reason is probably more complicated than anything that’s been proposed so far. One thing’s for sure.
“The increase in cases is very real and troubling,†Cox said. “And it should be troubling to policy makers.â€
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Posted by Sylvia on Saturday, February 07, 2004 (21:01:13) (14149 reads)
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