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News › Mothers try to organize support group
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Various Articles: Mothers try to organize support group
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Posted by Sylvia on Saturday, January 27, 2007 (16:43:40)
News Journal
By MAGGIE SOUZA
When Loretta Ward learned that her son, Trent, was autistic, she didn't know where to turn for help.
"At first, I was paralyzed," Ward said. She checked books, went online, searched for information on autism through a variety of channels  all to no avail.
"In every direction I went, the doors were shut," she said.
Finally, Ward made contact with a teacher and a behavioral specialist and, with their help, began to understand what Trent's diagnosis meant for him and the family.
In order to make it easier for other families to find the resources they need, Ward and Cheri Hurst, who does therapy programs for people with special needs, created a support group called Parents of Autistic Children. The first meeting is Saturday.
Ward and Hurst decided to start the group after holding a seminar in October on autism. Feedback from the audience made it clear that Longview was in need of such an organization.
"It's kind of amazing that there's not been a support group here already," Hurst said. "There's a hunger for information."
Before doing work with therapy programs, Hurst was an epidemiologist. She studied patterns and determinants of diseases or conditions as they related to a general population. In 1992, she started studying autism.
"There is, I think, an epidemic of autism," said Hurst, whose son had characteristics of autism growing up.
According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 1 in 166 children has an autism-related disorder.
Boys are four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed as autistic; other than that, the rate is constant regardless of race or economic background, Hurst said.
The diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder as set out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders include: impairments in nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze and facial expression; a lack of social or emotional reciprocity; failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level; delay in or total lack of spoken language; repetitive use of language; persistent preoccupation with parts of objects; and repetitive motor mannerism such as hand or finger flapping or twisting.
The onset of delays or abnormal functioning must come before a child is 3 years old.
Ward found out that Trent was autistic when he was 18 months old. Her second son, Troy, was diagnosed with autism at about the same age.
She and Hurst were both given disheartening advice from medical professionals. Doctors told Ward she needed to put her sons in a home for children with special needs, she said.
Hurst said she was told by a neurologist that she should treat her son "like a pet."
But both kept looking for real solutions, and as a result, their children are flourishing.
Hurst's son is an attorney. Ward's son, Trent, is supposed to be in fourth grade but has been placed at the fifth- and sixth-grade levels, and her son, Troy, is on the honor roll and in his normal grade level.
The support group meeting Saturday will focus on the different ways that parents can help their children.
A speech and language pathologist will speak, followed by a panel discussion where audience members will be able to ask questions.
While every child and situation is different, the meeting should be able to help by at least pointing people in the right direction, Ward said.
Although there is still no cure for autism, there's much more information now on ways to overcome it and live a normal life, Hurst said.
"I think it's important not to give up hope," she said.
"That's what I really want to push," Ward added. "There is hope. There's no reason (children with autism) can't grow up to be successful."
If you go:
What: Parents of Autistic Children support group meeting
When: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday
Where: St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 2500 McCann Road at Hampton Court
Contact: Call Loretta Ward at (903) 758-3400 or Cheri Hurst at (903) 757-6008
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Posted by Sylvia on Saturday, January 27, 2007 (16:43:40) (1132 reads)
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