EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
|
| ||||
|
Advertise
With Us
Click here to request more information.
OC Family reaches:
- Active & educated parents
- Growing families
- And more...
Early Years (2-6)
|
||||
 “It is like you have the flu, rock music is blaring, someone is making a really pungent dinner and there are really bright lights,” says Ackerman. “For you, the flu goes away. For some kids, it never goes away. It is day-in and day-out with all of those distractions.” Membership for the Costa Mesa-based TACA, founded in 2000 and expanded nationwide in 2007, today totals more than 16,000 families. Sensory sensitivity, as well as a myriad of other explosive symptoms, afflicts autistic persons and their families. Autism is a brain development disorder impairing social interaction and communication, causing restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and is often diagnosed before age 3. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that one in 91 children, and one in 58 boys, is diagnosed with autism, according to a report released last October. This number rose from one in 500 in the late 1990s and one in 250 in 2000. An estimated 673,000 children in the United States have autism. A subgroup of autism spectrum disorder, autism can be elusive due to the malady’s broad range of symptoms. “There are 22 different symptoms of autism. There can be one child with five and one child with 20,” says Ackerman, the mother of a 12-year-old autistic son. The result is a diagnosis ranging from the milder Asperger’s syndrome to entirely non-verbal behavior. However, some non-verbal children may have a normal intelligence level but are treated as though they are retarded. “They are devastated inside,” Ackerman says. “What is really interesting is when a child recovers, and he can give us some insight into what that is like. It is heart-breaking.” TACA aims to “speed up the time from autism diagnosis to effective treatments through information, resources and support to families affected by autism,” says Ackerman. Despite rising prevalence, autism remains under-funded, according to TACA; the National Institutes of Health allocates $80 million, or .28 percent of its $29 billion budget, to autism research. One local child with autism is 8-year-old Anaheim resident Akshay Garcia. Akshay is the first child of his mother, 39-year-old Simran Mangat-Garcia. She was unsure if her son was developing normally, but intuitively she knew that something wasn’t right. Akshay was no longer his lively self after receiving a routine round of vaccines that were given in 2003, says Simran. Shortly before his fourth birthday, he had his first seizure. “Every time I read about seizures in my research, autism kept coming up,” Simran says. With great emphasis on early diagnosis, Akshay’s diagnosis at age 4 was considered relatively late. But after running from home twice, as well as obsessive-compulsive behaviors and frequent outbursts at school, something had to be done. Dealing with the school district and insurance company while Simran went through “post-diagnosis haze” was daunting, she says. That’s where TACA came in. A parent at school passed along a folder containing a variety of TACA materials. TACA’s helpful Journey Guide became Simran’s “autism bible,” she says. “It was a lifesaver. There is a place, somewhere I can go where there are other parents to talk to.” Soon, Akshay was receiving 15 hours of in-home behavioral therapy a week and got help from the Orange Unified School District’s Individualized Education Program. “It met 95 percent of what I needed,” Simran says. Despite the rising prevalence of the disorder and difficulty in obtaining resources (insurance companies often drop coverage and school districts have limited budgets, for example), progress has been made. Nearly 2,000 children in the U.S. have recovered from autism, says Ackerman. Many are receiving targeted treatments such as gluten- and casein-free diets, annual allergy exams, and assessments and regular behavioral and occupational therapies. While not recovered, Akshay, who had become asocial, now participates in class and plays tag with his classmates. The progress is due to in-home behavioral therapy, diet and vitamin supplements, and appropriate school placement, says his mother. To commemorate April as Autism Awareness Month, TACA held its 2nd Annual Walka for TACA on April 17 at Newport Harbor High School. Simran, who raised $1,200 at last year’s event, sought donations in the amount of her age, in lieu of gifts honoring her birthday. “It is getting to the point where we have to look at what is going on,” Simran says. “Why are the numbers of diagnosed cases rising so much? We get angry about cancer and so many other things. It is time to get angry about this.” With the help of individual and corporate donors, TACA offers 95 percent of its services free of charge. In January 2009, TACA received a $300,000 grant from the Pacific Life Foundation, a Newport Beach-based insurance company. The grant money is being used to launch three new resources: a Spanish language program, a TACA in-house attorney advocate and scholarships for families to fund independent medical assessments. “A lot of people look at autism like it is ‘game over,’” Ackerman says. “It is quite the opposite. It is ‘game on.’” Ashly McGlone is a contributing writer to OC Family magazine. KEY ADVICE Here are a few tips for parents who suspect a neurological disability like autism, from Lisa Ackerman, executive director of TACA and mother of an autistic child. > Go with your gut. If you feel like something is wrong, it probably is. > Get the diagnosis as soon as possible; early intervention is key. > Don’t give up. If you have an older child with autism, it is never too late. > Get yourself a good support system, like TACA meetings and mentors. Source: talkaboutcuringautism.org |
||||
RSS SubscribeSEARCH THE SITE
