Centre Helps Families of Autistic Children

CARING MATTERS
Published Thursday November 1st, 2007
Appeared on page B7

Have you ever looked at a picture of a loved one and spoken to it? Smiled at it? Reached out and touched it with fond memories of the individual?
When you did this, I am sure you did not expect a response. When you didn't get one, you weren't surprised.
Have you ever spoken to a loved one in person? Smiled at them? Reached out and touched them?
When you did this, you anticipated, and probably received a similar response back.
Think now of a parent reaching out to their child with affectionate words and loving touches, only to get a blank stare back.
That is often the case of parents with children with autism.
The common visual image used for autism is a puzzle, simply because of the puzzling nature of the syndrome.
It is typical that two autistic children with the same diagnosis can act completely different from one another. If you were to compile a group of autistic children, the most common characteristic would be their differences.
But some common traits include frequent movement, trouble sleeping, impaired mobility, impatience, picky eating habits, obliviousness to danger, specific and limited interests, lack of verbal communication, inability to read non-verbal clues.
Children with autism and their families require a great deal of support, especially early in the diagnosis. That's where the Autism Connections Intervention and Resource Centre comes in.
The centre is able to help in only a minimal way the challenges facing parents of autistic children because of a shortage of funding.
Currently, the centre offers help to 52 children and their families. Staff here use applied behaviour analysis or ABA to teach non-verbal communication and socially appropriate behaviour to autistic children. ABA therapy takes about 20 hours of work a week, plus reinforcement at home. This system is particularly helpful in reducing behaviour that interferes with development.
Funding from Family and Community Services provides services to children up to five years old. After age five when the child enters the education system, treatment is supposed to be funded through the education department.
There are many stumbling blocks to a child's progress once in the school system. The child may be paired with a teacher's assistant who is not trained in ABA, jeopardizing the progress already made. For example, this year, one entire kindergarten class has two trained teacher's assistants, but the intervention centre is sending at least 13 children with varying degrees of autism to the school system.
And once a child enters school, there is no funding for that child to get help at the intervention center.
Fortunately the resource centre, funded in part by the Fredericton Community Foundation, is open to anyone affected by autism. That centre provides materials, self-help books and a support group that meets every third Monday.
Plans are afoot to offer support groups for siblings, guest speakers and parental training classes on toilet training, eating and sleeping patterns.
Has the system improved over the years? It certainly is better in many ways. The intervention centre and resource centre are two concrete examples of improvement.
But there certainly is room for improvement. Offering ABA therapy to autistic children past school age would be a great starting point. Having more teacher's assistants trained in ABA therapy would also help.
For more information on the Autism Connections Intervention and Resource Centre at 1666 Lincoln Road, call resource centre director Lana Tompson 450-6025 between 12 and 4 p.m. With limited resources and high demand, the centre fundraises most of its operational costs.
This year, the centre's main fundraising event is a concert by opera singer Janet Coats at the Delta Hotel on Saturday.
Cindy Sheppard is the executive director of the Fredericton Community Foundation. She has worked in the non-profit sector for eight years. Her column will profile Fredericton's non-profit agencies.