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Autism Statistics: Cause for concern
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Posted by Sylvia on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 (14:14:27)
Rocky Mountain News 03/02/2004
By Susan Glairon
In a small room in a Longmont home, 4-year-old Ashe Vogan is hard at work.
"What's the weather like today?" his therapist, Angele Tatem-Juth, asks.
"It's cloudy," Ashe says.
"Do you think it's cold? Let's touch the window."
"Touch the window," Ashe repeats, sliding the window open.
"What do we need to wear?" Tatem-Juth asks.
"A hat," Ashe says. He pauses. "Gloves."
Hat, gloves, window, cloudy - typical preschool chatter. But to Ashe's family, his simple words are nothing short of a miracle.
Ashe is one of a rising number of children diagnosed with autism, a baffling neurological condition that increased 172 percent in the 1990s, according to the Autism Society of America.
The syndrome impairs language and social skills and is characterized by poor eye contact, difficulty in making friends, abnormal interests and repetitive body movements such as hand-flapping. It affects boys four times more often than girls.
Autistic children often show no sign of the disorder at birth and appear to develop normally until about 15 months of age, when they suddenly regress, losing the few words and skills they've learned.
Despite the fact that autism is estimated to affect two to six of each 1,000 children, the cause remains elusive. There's no known cure.
Federal and private sources have begun to respond to the alarming numbers with funding, which has helped to build impressive research centers in Denver and Boulder.
But desperate parents, well aware that early intervention is key to keeping an autistic child connected with the world, don't have time to wait.
They're reading journals, searching the Internet and networking with professionals and other parents about therapies. They're placing their children on special diets and giving them nutritional supplements while spending tens of thousands of dollars on an array of behavioral and occupational therapies, most of which aren't covered by insurance.
Money for research was almost nonexistent until parents began lobbying congress and raising funds themselves after autism rates began climbing in the 1990s.
Nationwide, $90 billion will be spent this year on autism treatment, education and services, a figure projected to grow to $300 billion over the next decade, according to the Autism Society of America.
"In 1993, there were probably 12 scientists in the whole country who were lonely and devoted and in a desert working on autism," said Hollywood producer Jon Shestack, whose 11-year-old son is autistic. Shestack and his wife, Portia Iversen, helped create the research foundation Cure Autism Now.
The societal costs are staggering. The average child with autism will require $4 million in lifetime supervision and care. Personal financial resources are drained to pay for doctors, behavioral therapists and treatments. Instead of saving for college, parents worry about how to provide care for their child after they're gone.
"We've had people lose their homes, mortgage everything they have . . . trying to take care of their kids," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who has an autistic grandson.
Kathleen Berry and her husband, Michael McIntire, of Sacramento, Calif., have spent as much as $50,000 a year of their own money on behavioral therapy and other treatments for their two autistic children, Stewart, 9, and Caroline, 4.
Individual therapy relies on a system of rewards for learned behaviors, such as how to brush teeth or sit properly at a table. It's been shown to make a dramatic difference in whether an autistic child is institutionalized or is able to attend school in a mainstream classroom and eventually live independently.
"This isn't going to go away," says Theresa Wrangham, president of the 100-member Autism Society of Boulder County and mother of a 12-year-old, Rachel, who has autism. "The numbers are rising. In your lifetime, you are going to know someone with it."
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Posted by Sylvia on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 (14:14:27) (13826 reads)
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