What is the "Detroit News" thinking?

What is the "Detroit News" thinking? I am so perplexed by the ignorance and lack of understanding of the author(s) of this editorial, Here's a guess: The writer(s) of this editorial canNOT be the parents or family members of a child on the autism spectrum, and they canNOT know any teachers of children with autism. The writer(s) of this editorial are uneducated. Ignorant. They not only do not understand autism (it is developmental, neurological and medical, not an educational disorder!), they also do not understand our educational system or the fact that teachers are not medical professionals.

Autism is so much more than a challenge to be addressed by intermediate school districts. Autism is one diagnosis. Most individuals with an autism diagnosis have several (or more) co-occurring conditions that include fine motor delays, motor planning issues, visual processing challenges, auditory processing challenges, information processing delays, sound sensitivities, feeding problems, acid reflux, abdominal pain, malabsorption, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, heavy metal poisoning, food allergies and intolerances. Some individuals on the autism spectrum have other mental health labels like Tourettes, bi-polar and schizophrenia. What typically happens when a parent takes a child w/ autism to the doctor and describes self injurious behavior, seizures, whatever, is that the doctor will not investigate, and instead, say, that's just what we see in autism. (My response: Bull hockey.)

Individuals on the autism spectrum are often the victims of discrimination by their family health insurance provider, because the provider refuses to cover "autism". These individuals have medical issues that contribute to the characteristics we use to describe autism (in the DSMIV). Treat the medical issues, and the "autism" decreases. AMAZING! Get rid of pain and illness and the student becomes a better learner. Who knew? Individuals with autism deserve to be covered by insurance plans in order to be treated by doctors who specialize in the biomedical treatment of the co-occuring "stuff" that often accompanies a diagnosis autism. These doctors understand behaviors as communication of underlying illnesses and know how to treat these individuals.

Intermediate school districts are not doctors or clinics. Doctors and parents do not want school staff diagnosing or treating the medical problems that accompany autism. We want school staff teaching our children. (Some of us choose to bypass the public school system and manage the education part with homeschooling. Homeschoolers still have to manage the co-occurring conditions with professional guidance.) Dealing with the neurological and/or medical issues that come with autism is no more the responsibility of our schools than having our schools take on the diagnosis and medical care of students with pediatric diabetes or pediatric cancer.

Children on the autism spectrum need and deserve intervention beyond the scope of what the schools provide. Autism in many ways is better understood outside the public school system. Many (most) school staff understand autism as a mental or behavioral condition, not a neurological condition or a developmental delay. Universities producing our teachers are years behind the latest research, which means schools are behind, too. Teaching a child with autism is SO MUCH MORE than the behavior management that is prevelent in our schools. Many students identified with autism are not given access to remediation programs in public school settings because autism is defined incorrectly, considered behavioral and not neurloogical, medical or developmental. In addition to school staff members sorely needing to play catch-up with the latest autism interventions, students with autism need help for co-occurring conditions that school staff members have no expertise in diagnosing or treating.

Once the job of the school has been properly defined (and that has yet to happen), there are more problems: On the education side, Congress has never fully funded federal special education law. How are schools supposed to do the job of educating students with autism when they are not being financially supported to do so?

Individuals on the autism spectrum need much more than services from an ISD, and the "much more" includes coverage by health insurance policies for neurological and developmental conditions, for starters.

Mandating insurance coverage for individuals with autism is just one of several changes that must occur to create a fair playing field, and studies show that the increase to premiums would be small. The benefits would be ENORMOUS. And it's the right thing to do.

For more info, go here: http://autisminsurancemi.blogspot.com/