Page 22 - Conundrum of Autism #2

al (2004) shade light on the experience of Catherine Maurice (1996) a mother of children

with autism who published her book titled Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family’s Triumph

Over Autism. Maurice saw the urgent need in early intervention because her children

recovered

from autism as a result of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI). Although the

effectiveness of this early intervention has been questioned, however, Schwartz et al.

(2004) suggested a 25 hours instead of 40 hours a week intervention which would

minimize the level of intensity of services on the children.

In their 2001 book entitled, Educating Children with Autism, the National

Research Council (NRC) identified effective programs for young children with Autism

Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These programs include (1) a 12 months a year of

systematically-planned educational activity with a minimum of 25 hours a week

Conundrum of Autism 21

intervention; (2) sufficient individual attention given to the child everyday to address

adequate intensity of his Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) and the Individualized

Education Program (IEP); (3) to set up an ongoing assessment; (4) have a successful

interactions with typically-developing children; and (5) give instruction in the areas of

functional spontaneous communication, social interaction, play skills, cognitive skills

taught in a manner to facilitate generalization, proactive and effective approaches to

challenging behavior, and functional academic skills.

In a Thursday February 19, 2009 article on the Gazette, a Frank Abbott,

Publishers in Silver Spring Maryland, a twelve year old six grader autistic pupil of

Oakland’s Elementary School who had an early intervention turns to comic to express

herself. She aspires to become a professional cartoonist and her ability and prolific