Frustrated parents build new careers to help their kids with autism
April 20th, 2008Seek out graduate programs in applied behavioral analysis
By Jane Gross in the New York Times:
Unable to find appropriate support for their kids, many parents of children with autism are going back to school to learn how to perform applied behavioral analysis (A.B.A.) themselves. They’re spending lots of money and even changing careers in the process — but they believe it’s worth it if it helps their kids learn.
Featured is a program at Caldwell College in New Jersey.
In most states, a generic special education degree is sufficient to treat children with autism and to use the particular techniques of A.B.A., the only therapy for the disorder with proven results in peer-reviewed research. But many colleges and universities now offer specialized degrees in A.B.A. Graduate programs are offered at Northeastern University in Boston, Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the University of Maryland in Baltimore County and California State University in Los Angeles, to name a few. Administrators at several of the programs say they, too, have parents of autistic children among their students.
For some parents, it’s just the latest in a long line of sacrifices they’ve made for their kids.
These parents
… have firsthand experience advocating for services, battling recalcitrant school districts, monitoring what goes on at school and managing home programs to supplement classroom instruction.
Many have seen their marriages crumble under the stress; moved multiple times to find a district that can educate their child or pay for an out-of-district placement; and run up staggering debts paying for private school, in-home therapists and lawyers versed in the rights of disabled children to a free and appropriate education.
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