AUTISTIC CHILD HAS BLOSSOMED WITH THERAPY

It has been seven months since Michelle and Vince Wingo withdrew their son, Elijah, from the Cape Girardeau School District's early childhood special-education program. The district was not providing the necessary support to meet their autistic son's needs, they said, so they opted for an in-home curriculum called applied behavior analysis therapy.

They haven't regretted the decision."Things are getting so normal it's kind of scary," said Michelle Wingo. "I'm really trying to pay close attention to neurologically-typical children when I'm out in the community because Elijah's doing these things now."The couple said Elijah was a typical child until about halfway through his second year. That is when he became nonverbal and started demonstrating autistic behavior like spinning in circles and toe-walking. He was diagnosed as having a pervasive developmental disorder, which indicates speech and social delays. He was diagnosed as autistic last November.

The Wingos learned about applied behavior analysis (ABA) about three months later. After much research and numerous visits with families receiving the therapy, the couple decided that ABA was the right therapy for Elijah."The most incredible thing for me out of this whole thing is Elijah has his own curriculum that's completely created around Elijah's unique needs," said Michelle Wingo. "We wouldn't trade all of this hard work for anything."ABA relies on high intensity, precise techniques to teach children diagnosed as autistic. Parents, teachers and therapists are trained to use positive reinforcement and behavior management to work with students for up to 40 hours per week.

The technique is most effective when it's begun before children reach school age. ABA is generally completed within two years and can cost up to $30,000 annually.

Elijah receives 40 hours of therapy each week. Funding from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education covers about 60 percent of the costs. The remainder is paid through a Department of Mental Health program and private donations. Consultant Debbie Rausch, who works at the Childhood Learning Center in San Diego, Calif., and coordinates Elijah's therapy, said he is outperforming her expectations so far."Elijah is doing incredible," said Rausch. "He's doing remarkably and probably far above where I would have expected him to be."Rausch returns to Cape Girardeau every six to eight weeks to oversee a team of ABA therapists working with Elijah. Her visits are videotaped, and the videotapes and progress reports are forwarded to school officials."I make changes to his program to make it more functional for him and get more spontaneous language," she said. "By the end of the treatment what you will see is little one-to-one time in the chair and more situations to get him where he needs to be for social interaction."Rausch listed a number of improvements since Elijah began ABA therapy last April. He is now toilet trained, is using four- to six-word sentences and is demonstrating broader comprehension, she said."He's got so much more functional skills," Rausch said. "He's really starting to converse with people, and at this point I could probably give him two or three receptive commands and he could perform them perfectly."Michelle Wingo said her son now interacts socially with peers and others. This progress allows the family greater opportunities to go out for dinner and enjoy vacations.

Elijah also has become more independent. " Before, he was very compliant, and whatever Mommy and Daddy wanted to do was fine," she said. "Now, he has his own opinions, his own thoughts. He has just absolutely blossomed."Rausch would not speculate as to whether Elijah would be able to function as a typical child.