Autism Awareness Month

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by Hanna Bogen, M.S., CF-SLPSpeech Language Pathologist,Clinical FellowWith April being National Autism Awareness Month, it may be simply coincidence that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement on April 2nd, 2014 announcing a readjusted estimate for autism prevalence. The statement began with the following staggering numbers:“CDC estimates that one in 68 children has been identified with autism. This estimate is based on information collected from health and special education records of children who are eight years old and living in 11 communities in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, north Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin in 2010. These data are from CDC-sponsored autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network. The new estimate exceeds previous overall estimates, roughly it’s 30 percent higher than our last estimate of one in 88 children. To better understand the why, there’s an urgent need to do more research. There’s also an urgent need to put these findings to work for children and families. More is understood about autism than ever before, but these numbers are an important reminder of the need for answers and to use CDC’s data to help children now.”While an initial reaction may be shock over this 30% surge in autism prevalence, this information must be tempered with an understanding of the changes in how we have come to interpret autism disorders as a wide spectrum over the years.  The CDC representative went on to say:"I would just like to add that we recognize now that autism is a spectrum, so I think in the past we thought of children as being severely affected, meaning children with intellectual disability, children who were nonverbal, children with a host of co-occurring conditions, that was the picture of autism, I think, about ten years ago. Our understanding has evolved to the point that we understand now that there are children with higher IQs and children who perhaps are even not receiving special education services. So our understanding of autism has changed over time, and I think that our numbers may be reflective of some of that, as well."The Communication Works team is devoted to supporting children who fall all along the autism spectrum by applying individualized, motivating, and evidence based interventions to all aspects of their lives. Each of us is more than a list of our individual challenges, and the best interventions highlight and utilize children’s strengths to scaffold and bolster areas of difficulty. Throughout the month of April, we encourage families to explore the latest autism research, seek out ways to support development of this research, and celebrate children’s big and small successes, regardless of their learning profiles. To get you started, here are some resources to consider:The Communication Works Open House Event: April 26th from 11:00am-3:00pmhttp://www.cwtherapy.com/news-and-events/open-house-saturday-april-26th/Article about Sesame Street’s new focus on autismhttp://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/04/04/sesame-street-autism/19257/Resource for books about autismhttp://www.pediastaff.com/blog/resource-of-the-week-childrens-book-list-for-autism-awareness-month-20536A short video tutorial about the use of social stories to support learninghttp://www.myaspergerschild.com/2014/03/the-importance-of-social-stories-for.html