Page 22 - Luke AFB Thunderbolt 5-6-16

May 2016
22 www.aerotechnews.com/lukeafb
AuTiSM (from Page 13)
of ABA in-home for two hours a day, ve days
a week; speech therapy for 50 minutes, one
day a week; and 50 minutes of occupational
therapy, two days a week.
Research estimates the cost of care for a
person with autism is between $1.4 million
and $2.4 million across a lifespan. In the ci-
vilian sector, the average cost of a one-hour
session of therapy is $90. To cover speech
therapy, physical therapy and occupational
therapy, the cost after insurance is approxi-
mately $29,000 annually.
Conversely, TRICARE covers the cost
of services such as occupational therapy,
speech therapy and physical therapy. For
eligible bene ciaries, ABA is covered under
the TRICARE Comprehensive Autism Care
Demonstration.
While therapy co-pay amounts vary based
on the TRICARE plan selected, the annual cost
of autism-related therapy services can amount
to approximately $600 after insurance.
ABA addresses social development and
behavioral issues. ABA services focus on how
learning takes place and applies techniques
and principles to increase useful behaviors
and decrease potentially harmful behaviors,
or those which could interfere with learning.
For a young child, this could involve learning
how to communicate to avoid throwing toys
— which is not done with any malice, but as
a means of communicating.
“Dawson has the biggest smile … the big-
gest heart,” said Jennifer Stock. “He’s so pure the other children,” said Jennifer Stock. “We
… he’s missing any meanness. Everything he
does is pure, sweet and from the heart.”
Because of you,
we never received a bill.
St. Jude patient Bailey with her father William, Marine Corps
Applied behavior analysis uses behavior
modi cation principles and can help with
development of skills such as speech and self-
help. Since beginning ABA therapy, Dawson
has grown and developed in leaps and bounds,
but there is still a long road ahead, according member who has special needs. For military
to his parents.
“Children with autism have a hard time
connecting with other people,” Michael said.
“They don’t look you in the eyes. However,
now you see Dawson looks you in the eyes,
interacts, and it is apparent he is making
that intentional effort to have a physical and
emotional interaction.”
Dawson is also becoming well-versed in
nursery rhymes. “For him to recognize a
nursery rhyme and be able to sing it is a great transferred to their new duty location.
accomplishment,” his mother said. “When he
sees a star, or hears ‘twinkle, twinkle,’ … he
will say, ‘like a diamond in the sky.’”
Since Dawson’s diagnosis in 2014, the
Stocks have gone through a permanent
change of station to Fort Hood, Texas. “It was
the right move for our family,” Michael said.
“We had family in Dallas, Fort Worth and
San Antonio. It was critical for our kids to be developing a social network. “We have very
around family. Fort Hood was the only base
that made sense for us.”
While Dawson is too young for enroll-
ment in elementary school, his parents have
already begun thinking about his future
education and plan to speak with a counselor.
“Dawson’s education is something huge
that I think about often. I don’t want him to
be isolated. I want him to be integrated with
are hoping to have some type of normalcy.
For that reason, we don’t want to move. We
are hoping to stay at Fort Hood for as long
as we can.”
The Air Force Exceptional Family Member
Program provides support for families with a
sponsors with a special needs family member,
enrollment in the program is mandatory.
The EFMP helps to ensure that families
with special needs children are assigned to
locations which can support the medical and
educational needs of those children. Families
preparing for a permanent change of station
should get in touch with the local EFMP of ce
preferably six months ahead of their move. It
is critical that families have TRICARE insur-
ance and the Extended Care Health Option
For parents whose children are diagnosed
with autism, the Stocks shared some advice.
“Breathe, it will be OK,” said Jennifer
Stock. “Take a deep breath and look into
ABA.”
Michael talked about the importance of
good friends whose kids have autism. If not
for reaching out to them, we wouldn’t have
fully understood how to navigate through it
… only experience teaches you.”
The Stocks credited as a great source of
support, the experience of other parents whose at the drop of a dime and help
children had also been diagnosed with autism.
“I called my buddy as soon as we first
learned about what was going on with Daw-
son,” Michael said. “He gave me a pep talk,
told me what would happen, and literally gave
me a mental checklist of what to do.
“We did everything on the list and it all
worked out.”
Because of you, families never
receive a bill from St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital®
for treatment, travel, housing
or food. Because all a family
should worry about is helping
their child live.
800-822-6344
stjude.org
A CFC Participant. Provided as a public service.
©2015 ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (21337)
Thunderbolt
http://www.luke.af.mil
fEMA (from Page 11)
requirements. Finally, together
they built a pallet with required
cargo based on aircraft specifi-
cations.
“An event like this helps us
identify de ciencies that either
they or we didn’t think of, and
then we can go back, put them
down on paper and formulate a
plan and move forward so that
when there is a national crisis,
we can execute as ef ciently as
possible,” Pagurek said.
“We identified some issues
today — getting onto the base
was a bit of an issue for us, but
if we didn’t do this event, we
never would have identi ed that,”
he said. “We’ve already put the
wheels in motion to resolve that.”
According to training team
members, both instructors and
students gained something from
the training.
“Some of them are retired
military who work as police of-
ficers, EMTs or firefighters, and
also work for FEMA,” Cave said.
“They have to go somewhere
people get through some devas-
tating situations. I was just like
‘Wow.’ I only hope when I get
to the point of retirement, that
I’m as willing to help people as
they are.”