Autism Parents Club

The Autism News | English

By BOB LEWIS, The Associated Press Political Writer

RICHMOND, Va.- Legislation that would compel insurers to pay for expensive but effective treatments for children with autism won overwhelming passage Tuesday in the state Senate despite opposition from mighty insurance and business lobbies.

On a 27-13 vote, Sen. Janet Howell’s bill advances to the House, where a companion measure died on a tie vote in a subcommittee two weeks earlier.

The bill would mandate coverage by certain employee health plans for applied behavior analysis, the treatment that psychiatric and medical officials say is the most effective and promising for children with autism. Insurers say ABA is an educational service, not a medical one that should be covered.

Howell’s bill restricts coverage to children from age 2 years through 6, and limits annual insurance outlays for ABA to $35,000. Because of the record $4 billion gap facing the next state budget, it exempts state employees from required coverage until 2015.

“This bill is so limited, and it breaks my heart it’s so limited,” Howell said. “But it’s a small step, a baby step, for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families.”

Autism Speaks, a national advocacy group for families of autistic children, contends that mandated ABA coverage in Virginia would increase the cost of health insurance premiums per insured by $10 to $25 a year, less than a 1 percent increase.

A 2008 study by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission said 7,509 children 20 or younger with autism received special education and related services in public schools as of December 2007. That’s a little more than half of the nearly 14,000 estimated cases of autism in Virginia.

Opponents, including Virginia’s health insurers, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, contend mandated coverage would mean higher premiums, forcing employers to either drop insurance plans, lay off workers or even close.

While the bill faces tougher challenges in the strongly Republican House than the Democratic-controlled Senate, Tuesday’s victory was significant for supporters in a General Assembly known for its hostility toward spending mandates on businesses.

By only a 19-21 vote, the bill survived a floor amendment from Sen. Frank Wagner that would have marked the bill for death by adding state employees to those entitled to mandated ABA coverage. That would have required new spending in a budget already facing draconian cuts to public schools, health care and other traditional priorities.

“If we think it’s good enough for our private insurance plans in Virginia, then it ought to be good enough for our state employees,” Wagner said, saying businesses were struggling no less than state government.

Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, whose suburban Richmond district is rich with state employees, agreed.

“I happen to have experience in my family with autism. I am very familiar with the impact that autism has on families, but to say that we cannot cover state employees because of the fiscal constraints is almost ridiculous,” said Stosch, an accountant and a member of the budget-writing Finance Committee.

Howell appealed to colleagues to reject the amendment and “not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

During the debate, Lavada Robertson of Franklin County and Amy Trail of Vinton, mothers of autistic children, watched from the Senate gallery and wept silently. While Howell’s bill comes too late to help their children, “I don’t want any other moms to have to go through what we have,” Trail said.

On the Web: Legislative Information System: Bill SB464

Source: http://wjz.com/wireapnewsva/Mandated.insurance.coverage.2.1498566.html

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The Autism News English autism treatment, autistic, coverage, Senate Passes Mandated, Virginia, Virginia’s health insurers

The Autism News | English

By Kathleen Moore | The Boston Globe

If a quiet car ride to school sounds like bliss, take note: Sometimes, your child’s wandering eyes and backseat natterings can teach you a valuable lesson. Such was the case with young Zach Levine.

A little over three years ago, the then-fourth grade student became fixated with the New England Center for Children, a private school for autistic children that he passed each day on his way to school in Southborough. Who were these children, he asked, and why didn’t they go to his public school in the same town? What did autism mean, and what could he do to help them?

Ian Levine did his best to answer his son’s questions, but at a certain point he’d exhausted his parental wisdom.

“So I got a little more information on the school, and I found out they were holding a 5K fund-raising race,” said Ian. “Zach asked if he could run.”

Zach Levine ran that race and then some. For the next two years he spearheaded a fund-raising team, Kids Helping Kids, that attracted dozens of runners, including classmates, family friends, local business owners, and his younger brother, William.

His efforts raised almost $11,000 for the school’s Michael S. Dukakis Aquatics Center, which provides therapeutic exercise for its students. They also earned Zach a place of honor at the New England Center’s gala in December, when he received one of three annual awards for exemplary fund-raising.

Along the way, Zach found out every thing he could about autism.

“We have other teams that have raised that kind of money, but generally they are corporate teams or friends and families of children with autism,” said Joseph Ziska, the center’s director of donor relations. “It is truly unique for a 10-year-old to have taken such an interest in our work. It really touched us.”

That feeling goes both ways.

“I used to wonder why kids with autism didn’t play sports, but then I learned that some things in their brains don’t function like mine. They need help, but they are just like me. They don’t think anything different from me,” said Zach, now 13. “I like to help people who may need some help. To help someone else is the best feeling in the world.”

His father and mother, Keri Levine, take a deep breath when they hear Zach speak. These are not idle musings, they say, and they are nothing new. The couple doesn’t want their son to become self-conscious, but neither, too, do they want him to change.

“We’re not sure where it all came from, but he’s been like this since he was a baby. He’s always cared about other people,” Ian said. “We’ve kind of stood back and let him show us the way.”

When he was in first grade, Zach’s attention was drawn to a boy who had a learning disability and used a wheelchair. His classmates froze. Zach melted.

“No one really talked to him, and I thought it would be nice to talk to someone who didn’t have someone to talk to,” Zach said, matter-of-factly.

“It was a little awkward but I would just say stuff that was on my mind – about sports teams, the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Eagles – and sometimes he would make a noise or smile, which meant he enjoyed what I was saying.”

A few years later, he met another classmate whose learning disabilities segregated her from the mainstream.

Last year, Zach made a point of eating lunch with her a few times in the school cafeteria. This year, he visits with her during one of his free periods every Friday.

“It’s just one study period a week, and I figure if I can help someone who doesn’t have the same abilities as me, it’s worth it,” he said. “If the other kids ask me why, I just say it’s because I’m friendly, and I think it’s nice to help others out.”

As he said this, Zach started to get antsy. He wasn’t ready to field heady questions about his character, and he wasn’t not sure whether he was running late for basketball practice. Like any teenager, he has interests that run the gamut, from a fantasy football league he’s organized to the homework he’s yet to finish. His mother fielded the next question: Will Kids Helping Kids be running again on May 8, when the center holds its fourth annual 5K?

“When they called to see if he’d be running again, we wanted to make sure he really wanted to do it,” she said. “We baited him over dinner. We didn’t want him to do it for us or anyone else. He said he wanted to, so that’s the plan.”

At this, Zach perked up.

“I want to improve my time, ” he said. “I think I can do better this year.”

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2010/02/14/southborough_13_year_old_runs_to_help_local_school_for_autistic_children/

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The Autism News English 5K fund-raising race, autism, autistic, Michael S. Dukakis Aquatics Center, therapeutic exercise, Zach Levine

The Autism News | English

By BOB LEWIS, The Associated Press Political Writer

RICHMOND, Va.- Legislation that would compel insurers to pay for expensive but effective treatments for children with autism won overwhelming passage Tuesday in the state Senate despite opposition from mighty insurance and business lobbies.

On a 27-13 vote, Sen. Janet Howell’s bill advances to the House, where a companion measure died on a tie vote in a subcommittee two weeks earlier.

The bill would mandate coverage by certain employee health plans for applied behavior analysis, the treatment that psychiatric and medical officials say is the most effective and promising for children with autism. Insurers say ABA is an educational service, not a medical one that should be covered.

Howell’s bill restricts coverage to children from age 2 years through 6, and limits annual insurance outlays for ABA to $35,000. Because of the record $4 billion gap facing the next state budget, it exempts state employees from required coverage until 2015.

“This bill is so limited, and it breaks my heart it’s so limited,” Howell said. “But it’s a small step, a baby step, for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families.”

Autism Speaks, a national advocacy group for families of autistic children, contends that mandated ABA coverage in Virginia would increase the cost of health insurance premiums per insured by $10 to $25 a year, less than a 1 percent increase.

A 2008 study by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission said 7,509 children 20 or younger with autism received special education and related services in public schools as of December 2007. That’s a little more than half of the nearly 14,000 estimated cases of autism in Virginia.

Opponents, including Virginia’s health insurers, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, contend mandated coverage would mean higher premiums, forcing employers to either drop insurance plans, lay off workers or even close.

While the bill faces tougher challenges in the strongly Republican House than the Democratic-controlled Senate, Tuesday’s victory was significant for supporters in a General Assembly known for its hostility toward spending mandates on businesses.

By only a 19-21 vote, the bill survived a floor amendment from Sen. Frank Wagner that would have marked the bill for death by adding state employees to those entitled to mandated ABA coverage. That would have required new spending in a budget already facing draconian cuts to public schools, health care and other traditional priorities.

“If we think it’s good enough for our private insurance plans in Virginia, then it ought to be good enough for our state employees,” Wagner said, saying businesses were struggling no less than state government.

Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, whose suburban Richmond district is rich with state employees, agreed.

“I happen to have experience in my family with autism. I am very familiar with the impact that autism has on families, but to say that we cannot cover state employees because of the fiscal constraints is almost ridiculous,” said Stosch, an accountant and a member of the budget-writing Finance Committee.

Howell appealed to colleagues to reject the amendment and “not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

During the debate, Lavada Robertson of Franklin County and Amy Trail of Vinton, mothers of autistic children, watched from the Senate gallery and wept silently. While Howell’s bill comes too late to help their children, “I don’t want any other moms to have to go through what we have,” Trail said.

On the Web: Legislative Information System: Bill SB464

Source: http://wjz.com/wireapnewsva/Mandated.insurance.coverage.2.1498566.html

Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

The Autism News English autism treatment, autistic, coverage, Senate Passes Mandated, Virginia, Virginia’s health insurers

The Autism News | English

“This study provides an answer to when the first behavioral signs of autism become evident,” said Sally Ozonoff, the study’s lead author

By UC Davis MIND Institute | Reviews by Dr. Sanjukta Acharya | RxPG News

A study of the development of autism in infants, comparing the behavior of the siblings of children diagnosed with autism to that of babies developing normally, has found that the nascent symptoms of the condition — a lack of shared eye contact, smiling and communicative babbling — are not present at 6 months, but emerge gradually and only become apparent during the latter part of the first year of life.

Researchers conducted the study over five years by painstakingly counting each instance of smiling, babbling and eye contact during examinations until the children were 3. They found that by 12 months the two groups’ development had diverged significantly. Intentional social and communicative behavior among children developing normally increased while among infants later diagnosed with autism it decreased dramatically. The study is published online early and will appear in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

“This study provides an answer to when the first behavioral signs of autism become evident,” said Sally Ozonoff, the study’s lead author, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a researcher with the UC Davis MIND Institute. “Contrary to what we used to think, the behavioral signs of autism appear later in the first year of life for most children with autism. Most babies are born looking relatively normal in terms of their social abilities but then, through a process of gradual decline in social responsiveness, the symptoms of autism begin to emerge between 6 and 12 months of age.”

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder of deficits in social skills and communication, as well as in repetitive and restricted behaviors, with onset occurring prior to age 3. Abnormal brain development, probably beginning prenatally, is known to be fundamental to the behaviors that characterize autism. Current estimates place the condition’s incidence at between 1 in 100 and 1 in 110 children in the United States.

Children with a sibling already diagnosed with autism are known to be among those at greatest risk of developing the disorder. The current study included 25 high-risk children who met criteria for autism at 3 years of age, matched with 25 low-risk peers who were developing normally. It was conducted at the MIND Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles. The sole inclusion criterion for the high-risk group was having a sibling with autism; low-risk participants had to have been born after 36 weeks gestation and have no autistic family members.

The children’s development was evaluated at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months of age using a series of widely implemented diagnostic tools, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). Examiners were not told which babies were at high- or low-risk when evaluating the participants’ development.

The researchers found that there were few discernable differences between the two groups at the outset but that after six months, 86 percent of the infants who developed autism showed declines in social communication that were outside the range for typical development. “After six months,” the study found, “the autism spectrum disorder group showed a rapid decline in eye contact, social smiling, and examiner-rated social responsiveness.” Group differences were significant by 12 months in eye contact and social smiling and all other measures by 18 months, the study found.

The study is notable because of the accuracy and precision of its prospective methodology, assiduously recording exact numbers of social and communicative behaviors during lab visits. Previously, researchers have constructed evidence of autism’s earliest manifestations by interviewing parents about when they believed their children’s symptoms first arose or by reviewing home movies for clues to when children begin exhibiting symptoms of autism.

“Until now, research has relied on asking parents when their child reached developmental milestones. But that can be really difficult to recall, and there is a phenomenon called the “telescoping effect” where people usually say that they remember something happening more recently than when it occurred,” Ozonoff said. In addition parents frequently will turn off the video camera when their children are behaving poorly — precisely when autistic symptoms may appear.

Ozonoff said that the study provides a deeper understanding for parents, caregivers and health-care providers and for future research of the developmental trajectory for very young children with autism.

“We need to be careful about how we screen, and we need to know what we’re looking for,” Ozonoff said. “This study tells us that screening for autism early in the first year of life probably is not going to be successful because there isn’t going to be anything to notice. It also tells us that we should be focusing on social behaviors in our screening, since that is what declines early in life.”

“This study also found that the loss of skills continues into the second and third year of life,” she said. “So it may not be adequate, as the American Academy of Pediatrics currently suggests, that providers screen for autism twice before the end of the second year. Autism has a slow, gradual onset of symptoms, rather than a very abrupt loss of skills.”

“Screening may need to continue into the third year of life, since symptom emergence takes place over a long time. If a child starts exhibiting a declining trajectory and a sustained reduction in social communication we want to refer them into therapy, especially if they are at risk,” Ozonoff said, “even before we might be able to make a definitive diagnosis.”

Ozonoff said that the study does not address the etiology of autism or causality. In this study, the infants who participated were at high risk due to having strong family histories of autism, suggesting that genetics plays a major role in the later autism diagnoses, despite the fact that their symptoms were not apparent at birth.

Source: http://www.rxpgnews.com/autism/Behavioural_signs_of_autism_become_evident_between_6_and_12_months_231958.shtml

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The Autism News English, English 6 and 12 months, autism, autistic, Behavioural signs of autism, evident