Intensive early treatment can make a big difference in the lives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that’s exactly what Colleen Middlebrooks, director of community relations for the Scott Center for Autism Treatment and psychologist Tamara Pawich, Ph.D. are now working to provide here in Vero Beach.
The acronym ASD is actually quite new. Until recently other pediatric neurological disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder and Rett syndrome were all thought to be separate conditions. Now the American Psychiatric Association links them all together under the ASD heading. The symptoms and treatments vary but one thing is clear: if left untreated ASD can wreak lifelong havoc on a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
According to the Centers of Disease Control, the symptom list for ASD can include children (or adults) who appear to be unaware when people talk to them, but respond to other sounds; being very interested in people, but not knowing how to talk, play, or relate to them; repeating or echoing words or phrases said to them, or repeating words or phrases in place of normal language; having trouble expressing needs using typical words or motions; repeating actions over and over again and having trouble adapting to changes in daily routines.
Middlebrooks and Pawich were in Vero earlier this month to help launch a spin-off of the Florida Institute of Technology’s Melbourne-based autism center. FIT leaders hope the new satellite office of the Scott Center eventually will offer a full spectrum of services to help mitigate the effects of autism on children and their families or caregivers.
For now, however, Middlebooks says center personnel will concentrate on diagnostics, early interventions and training for parents and local pediatricians. They also plan to work with local schools to help them recognize and more effectively deal with the problems ASD can present.
By employing what Middlebooks calls “nationally recognized, state-of-the art therapies,” the new center’s goal is to offer a full slate of services for nearly all the behavioral issues experienced by children with ASD.
Kathleen Cain, executive director for the Healthy Start Coalition in Vero Beach, vigorously applauds the Scott Center’s arrival.
“Adding the Autism Center is a tremendous asset to this community,” Cain says. “Their early intervention services will help put children diagnosed on the right path to learn and develop to their fullest potential.”
That potential can be much more than people used to think. The learning, thinking, and problem-solving abilities of people with ASD can sometimes appear to be severely challenged but can also rise to the level of “extremely gifted.” Some people with ASD need a lot of help in their daily lives. Others don’t.
Nobody knows what causes ASD and nobody has a cure but the number of children being diagnosed with it does appear to be rising. Whether that rise is because of better, earlier detection techniques or because there actually are an increasing number of cases remains unclear. In any case, the Washington Post reported that, “the number of U.S. children with autism has surged to one in 68,” while just two years ago the CDC estimated, “one child in 88 suffered from the disorder.”
Meanwhile, the Autism Society’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities estimates that more than 200,000 individuals in Florida are living with ASD.
The seed money for the new ASD center came from a $100,000 grant given by Indian River Impact 100, a Vero Beach volunteer organization of women committed to improving their community by providing transformational grants to local non-profit organizations.
Middlebooks plans to make the most of what has been given. Her immediate goal is, “to help make the Vero operation self-sustaining within a year.”
Meanwhile, Pawich points out that teaching parents is every bit as important as working with children who have ASD. “We definitely focus a lot on training the parents. We want them to be able to re-enforce what their children learn with us when they’re at home.”
Parents of children afflicted with ASD today undoubtedly face a slew of problems but at least they’re not facing the same problems parents in the 1960s and 1970s had to deal with. Back then some of the treatments for autism involved bizarre and borderline brutal techniques including electric shock therapy and draconian behavioral change “therapies” that relied on pain and punishment to alter children’s behavior. Today, the cornerstones of autism therapy are behavioral therapy and language therapy.
Middlebrooks says all money raised for the new center in Vero will remain here in Indian River County to help fund the growth in treatment options and educational programs she envisions.
