The Observation Deck

Without doing the math, there are thousands of babies born every day in the U.S., and with these figures on autism, 1 out of 150 are born with some form of it, and the fact that our future is in our children, my vote will be heavily influenced on which candidate supports a program as intense if not more so, as eliminating AIDS.

Autism needs wiping out, and if any presidential hopeful doesn't have a clear statement and declaration of war on this, my vote and my support will not go near those prospective candidates.

Without such a focus, can you picture the future of 1 out of 150 teenagers being autistic, for example, or 1 out of 150 people in their 20s, etc?

FWIW

Mark Allan Crnolatas

Thanks for bringing this up Mark. The prevalence of autism is astounding and very frightening. The fact is more research is needed and more funding is needed for therapy. Early intervention is key and frankly many kids aren't getting it.

Nor can all their parents afford health care - Bush once again vetoed the Children's Healthcare Initiative.

1 in 150 pretty high numbers, never should have happened.

There are other statistics as well, like the often high-quoted percentages of children having various forms of specific learning disabilities. You don't hear as much about that issue lately with the "No Child Left Behind" law.

...particularly, with its emphasis on children participating in a mandated testing process; that permits exclusion of a very small percentage of students.

One might imagine that all this has political implications, and I truly believe this to be the case.

There are those, for example, who feel that "excessive" labeling, or medicating, or identifications tend to coddle or attempt to excuse the natural growth processes of childhood.

I believe that many of those people would be proven wrong, if they knew all of the facts. Too many children need our help and attention every day in the classroom.

In my own opinion, thousands of these exceptional children are being shown a great disservice by mainstreaming them without adequate supports or funding options to assist in their success.

Children need to be treated as individual human beings, and not as cattle being driven through some stockyard and up the same chute.

Unfortunately, part of the problem with a special class assignment would seem to be that many parents DO NOT want a special class for their child, and so may well unwittingly expose their children to fewer opportunities for individualized success.

Truth be told, many children have succeeded with special education classes or tutors in the past. A little extra help for some students having exceptional needs can be a truly great key towards the road to personal success.

(Gary is a retired Special Education teacher)

sharon kinsella wrote:Nor can all their parents afford health care - Bush once again vetoed the Children's Healthcare Initiative.

1 in 150 pretty high numbers, never should have happened.

Yep. Pathetic that the Children's Healthcare Initiative was vetoed. We worry about our children and their future health care coverage. We are fortunate that they have coverage, but even still for some therapies our son's doctors have to give different reasons. Many therapies that help with autistic children aren't covered for autism but may be covered for other conditions. It's a daunting task trying to get help for autistic children. Many insurance companies don't cover autism and try getting new coverage for a child with autism. This would all be solved if we had universal healthcare for all children. Parents shouldn't have to worry about the healthcare needs of children, but I know that's just a pipe dream.