UNH Institute on Disability Receives $600,000 for Autism Training

DURHAM — Too many children are going undiagnosed for autism and the UNH Institute on Disability (IOD) has stepped in to lend a helping hand.
In collaboration with the graduate program of Dartmouth Medical School, IOD recently received a $600,000 grant to screen and assess children suspected of having autism.
Autism, the fastest-growing developmental disability, affects one in every 150 American children. Due to the increasing rate of occurrence, children are not being properly tested for the condition, said Ann Dillon, a project director at IOD.
“There are just not enough people to test all the children suspected of having autism,” she said. “The children are the ones that suffer and the parents are put under significant stress.”
The huge boom in autism diagnoses have made it difficult for doctors to keep up. According to Michelle Jarvis, president of the Autism Society of New Hampshire, “it’s like being hit with a tidal wave – we need to play catch-up.”
The lack of in-state clinics that assist in screening autism has forced some families to go on waiting lists for as long as a year.
They wait for “diagnostic evaluations, and referral for and implementation of intense early services,” according to the 2008 Findings and Recommendations report of the New Hampshire Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Even six months is precious time lost for a child suspected of being afflicted with autism, said Jarvis. Her own son demonstrated red flags of the condition when he was younger than 18 months.
“He didn’t play with his toys, didn’t look at me,” she said. “There is no parenting handbook to get you through this.”
By the time he was 2-years-old, he could no longer repeat the few words he had learned in six months.
Early intervention (diagnosing children before the age of two) provides for greater future opportunities. The average child is not diagnosed until the age of four.
The IOD plans to use the grant to educate and hire more people to assist in screening and testing children. The aim is to alleviate the mounting cases of waiting families.
“It’s so important for the money to help children finally get the diagnosis they need to get proper treatment and to help out their parents,” said Dillon. “The challenges they face can be difficult.”
According to the Autism Society of America (ASA) Web site, some of those challenges include shifting “much of their [parents] resources of time and money towards providing treatment and interventions for their child, to the exclusion of other priorities.”
The affect on familial relationships can also be strained, especially with siblings trying to cope and understand the struggles.
“It is incredibly overwhelming when you put those challenges on top of just getting through the day,” said Jarvis.
Elizabeth Macdonald, mother to a 7-year-old boy with autism, stressed that it is important to integrate children with the condition into society and more importantly, within their home.
“Our daughter has princessism,” she said. “At the end of the day, we all have isms and my son’s is autism.”
IOD benefited her son with their determination and efforts in autism training, said Macdonald.
“Our son waited six months to see a specialist, but we were not the norm,” she said. “A lot of families have had to wait longer; we were very lucky.”
The federal grant, received from the Health Resources and Services Administration, is part of $5.6 million in funds distributed among universities and research organizations.
It’s goal to train people for screening autism would prove to be life-changing for some families.
The grant acts as a three-year expansion project with a total of 132 interdisciplinary professionals. They will strive towards enhancing their skills, knowledge and leadership, said Dillon.
The chance for the IOD to work closely with state agencies to develop a qualified work force for the community will hopefully produce maximal outcomes.
Autism screening should become mandatory routine, said Jarvis. The condition is prevalent in enough of America’s children that local doctors should meet qualifications for testing.
There is no known cause of autism, but there is intervention treatment.
According to the ASA site, “intervention may help to lessen disruptive behaviors, and education can teach self-help skills that allow for greater independence.”
Therapy, dietary changes, vitamins and minerals and occasionally medication are all possible remedies to ease the lives of children with autism.