Tour seeks autism funding

Lawmakers and UA faculty toured the University's Autism Spectrum Disorders Research Clinic and the Speech and Hearing Center's preschool classroom Tuesday to try to increase funding to expand the clinic's resources.

Laura Klinger, Autism Spectrum Disorders clinic director, said the clinic is a collaborative program of the UA departments of psychology and communicative disorders.

She said the clinic provides outpatient services and intervention services to autistic children and their families, as well as training for undergraduate and graduate students in psychology. As the number of children diagnosed with autism increases, she said, the resources will be more important.

The Speech and Hearing Center provides a preschool program for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Klinger said additional space and resources are needed to accommodate the growing need for intervention and diagnostic services in the state.

"Autism has become an epidemic in this country, and Alabama is no different," she said.

Klinger said there are an estimated 30,000 people living with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Alabama, including about 645 children and adolescents in West Alabama.

Klinger said she provided a presentation that showed areas needing improvement, such as diagnosis and screenings for autism.

Most diagnoses aren't made until a child is 3 or 4 years old, and Klinger said it is crucial to diagnose a child as early as possible, due to increased language development and IQ associated with diagnoses before the age of 3 and a half.

"We can't meet the need for diagnosis services. There are 20 families on the waiting list for a diagnostic evaluation," Klinger said. "The earlier the intervention, the better the outcome."

Klinger said she proposed collaborating with the College of Community Health Sciences to implement a regional early screening program to fix this problem.

She also said she wants to expand diagnostic services to include psychology, communicative disorders, pediatrics and special education services, as well as increased service delivery and personnel preparation.

A statewide protocol needs to be developed to make all programs effective and provide a research database, Klinger said.

"Successful parents go all over the state for services," Klinger said.

She also said it is difficult for individuals to find the help they need due to the absence of a coordinated state-wide service delivery program.

Klinger said preschool intervention is important, which the National Research Center advises to take place 25 hours per week for autistic children. Klinger said most families only receive intervention services for five hours each month.

The center currently has one preschool classroom staffed by psychology graduate students that autistic children and children without disorders attend from Tuscaloosa City and County Schools.

Both autistic children and those without disabilities attend because of the need for autistic students to interact with other children.

Klinger said there is not enough space to meet the growing demand for autistic-specific education.

"Families are just begging to get their children in the classroom," Klinger said.

What needs to be done

Karen Steckol, chair of the department of communicative disorders, said the preschool program has been so successful that administrators are working to expand it.

Steckol said the room used to be filled with cubicles and patient care rooms, but they were gutted to make the classroom.

"We wouldn't change it, we would expand it," she said.

Steckol said the University has funded a large part of the clinic, but state funds are needed to progress with the expansion.

The revised preschool program would provide a training opportunity for teachers from across the state to learn more about teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

State Rep. Cam Ward, head of the Alabama Autism task force, said things needs to be done to address the issue of autism.

Ward, whose daughter was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3, said the number of individuals diagnosed with autism in the state grew 3,337 percent from 1990 to 2006.

The task force was created during this year's legislative session to raise awareness of the disease, as well as to transfer benefits of programs such as the Capstone's to other parts of the state.

The issue of making Klinger's proposals a reality, however, is a financial one, and for funding to be provided, autism needed to move up on the priority ladder, Ward said.

"[Lawmakers] have 100 priorities and they're trying to juggle them around," Ward said. "Where's it at on the priority scale? We need to make it number one."

Ward said his task force wants to get insurance coverage for autistic individuals and to provide resources for more teachers to be trained, especially those in the public school system.

"Public education is not our enemy in our battle to help these children. It is not. It is our friend," Ward said.

Tuwanna McGee, a senior case advocate for the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, is part of Ward's task force and said the University's program needs to be expanded.

"I get calls from parents all over the state who can't get services anywhere," McGee said. "Professional teachers aren't trained to work with autistic kids."

Rep. Gerald Allen said the presentation reiterated how important it was to address the problems in the care for autistic individuals.

Allen, whose nephew has autism, said his personal connection to the disease has made him even more passionate about improving resources in the state.

"Our job now as lawmakers is to take these measures to our colleagues in Montgomery and show them how we can help families who need help and provide long term effects," Allen said.

Allen said if the proposals were put into action, the University could be the leader in the national fight against autism.

Ward also said the University's program was exemplary and proposals were already in place to address the problems Klinger identified in her presentation.

"These are the kind of programs we need to replicate around our state," he said. "I think Dr. Klinger has a program that has the opportunity to change the way we deal with autism in Alabama."