Developmentally enabled

A year ago, most local families were forced to drive to Columbia, St. Louis and even other states regularly for diagnosis and treatment of an autistic child.

The therapies that parents were able to implement in Southeast Missouri didn't always seem effective.

But over the past 12 months, services for autistic children have increased dramatically, from next to nothing to a complete Applied Behavior Analysis-based early intervention program through the University of Missouri-Columbia's Autism Clinic, the Parent Advisory Council and Southeast Missouri State University.

The program is paid for through state funding and mostly includes university students pursuing degrees in elementary education in their practicum to work with local autistic children.

That program is part of a bigger project called the Collaborative Intervention Project, or CAIP, which also involves holding monthly workshops for parents, educators and others to learn about autism and treatment strategies at free monthly workshops.

Currently, 13 students from Southeast are working on their practicum through CAIP and several of them are considering careers in Applied Behavior Analysis, an intensive therapy that many parents say has made a huge difference in their child's abilities.

Three local autistic children are in the program, and four more will begin at the end of May, Stoelb said.

According to Judevine coordinator Leanne Hopper, one new service includes respite provided by the practicum students who are trained to work with autistic children.

"The big thing we hear from families is that they just need a break," Hopper said.

Through the respite program, parents can drop their children off with Judevine workers and enjoy free time for themselves.

This summer, Hopper hopes to expand the respite program to individual families' homes. Judevine recently welcomed 22 new families and over the past year the staff has expanded from five to eight people.

Parents say the changes at Judevine and the CAIP program have made a major difference in their children.

"We have a wonderful team of students working with Ben every day," Petzoldt said. "Benjamin has made tremendous gains through this program. Our home program was revamped, and Ben is learning new things everyday."

Ben receives 30 hours per week of intensive behavior therapy as part of CAIP. Since he began in January, he has learned 15 new objects in his environment, 21 new instructions, the answers to 26 questions about himself and his family and self-help skills such as dressing himself. He has also learned to retrieve objects upon request.

Three-year-old Nicholas McAdams has also made significant gains in the past four months with the help of the students working through CAIP.

Last week, Nicholas retrieved his shoes when his mother asked him to for the first time. Michelle McAdams, says she sometimes finds her son "playing" his therapy activities during his free time.

"These programs are so vital to our little ones with autism," McAdams said. "Without them, Nick would never be where he is today."

However, services are still lacking in Southeast Missouri for some families.

"There still aren't a lot of services for kids living outside of Cape Girardeau or Sikeston, but hopefully we can change that too," Stoelb said. "We needs lots and lots of people to work with these kids, and there's no funding available to pay them, so we're entirely dependent on students and service organizations."

cmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128