What Is Goin’ On?

This is my second interview with Anna Bullard. In her first interview we discussed her efforts to organize an Autism Awareness group here in Toombs County. In this interview Anna provides insight into the difficulties that parents of autistic children encounter in dealing with Special Education programs of our public schools.

Anna estimates that almost 100 children in Toombs County and Vidalia public schools fall within the autistic spectrum. That’s a lot.

Anna emphasizes that behavior modification is the only effective program that deals with the core problems faced by autistic children. And yet, when her child was first evaluated by the school system, she was seen by individuals who had very little understanding of the needs of autistic children. The school system did not employ a behavior analyst.

Many county school systems don’t employ a behavior analyst. The one that serves her child comes from South Carolina. Instead, school systems send someone in special education to a program that lasts a few days and they consider them to be trained. Anna considers this inadequate. What is needed is a trained behavior analyst who knows what to do for autistic children. Chatham County has 5 behavior analyst who write programs for autistic children.

One of the biggest problems is getting the school systems to understand that early intervention is the key to success in providing an autistic child with the tools and training needed to participate in mainstream education. As we all understand, public organizations tend to ignore problems until they become bad enough that they have to be dealt with. Such is plight of autistic children.

Anna says that Georgia is about 10 years behind other states, like South Carolina. In South Carolina Medicaid pays for the early intervention needs of autistic children.

Anna’s advice to parents of autistic children: Learn your rights and make the public school provide what your child needs. It is hard work, but in the end it is worth it. The problem is that many parents don’t have the time, the money or the ability to fight this battle. As a result, many autistic children that could benefit from early intervention, don’t get it. They become misfits in society and in many instances dependent upon public support all their lives. The opportunity to make the difference early in their lives was lost.

Sad, but true. At least our taxes are low here in Georgia. Don’t it make you proud?