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The Gift of Adriana…Paws 4 Autism
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The Gift of Adriana…Paws 4 Autism
The Gift of Adriana…Paws 4 Autism
By Mary Pechar
Adriana was diagnosed with Educational Autism in March and received the medical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in May of 2010. While it is not easy for many to recover from the shock of learning your child has a developmental disorder, for Terri and Ken Wible it was an answer, a direction, a place from which to move forward. Two months later Paws 4 Autism was born.
Adriana came to be their daughter through the foster care system. Ken & Terri knew from the start that she may need additional services and support to help her succeed in life. From day one, Adriana suffered attachment issues and other behavioral flags began to appear as she grew older. However, because she was not behind academically—in fact, she was above average in several areas—Adriana did not quality for services.
And so the battle began, to prove there were issues and to find answers. “More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined. It’s not contagious, it’s not curable, it is not a curse but it is a challenge,” explained Terri.
“When you work with parents of autistic children you are dealing with abused parents,” Terri went on. “They are often looked on as horrible parents for not being able to control their kids. They are abused by their kids. This is a neurological disorder, but those who are high functioning look like anyone else.”
While it cannot be cured, the great thing is that if you attack autism early enough it can be livable. If you don’t minimize the services provided and get a child started early enough, progress is amazing. Many children are out of special services by middle school, especially those who are high functioning. For the low functioning there is still a window even though they will require varying levels of support throughout their lives.
Unfortunately, there is no test to tell you what you need to do…you have to try this and this and this and find what works for your child. Every child on the spectrum has different needs and abilities and will react different to the multitude of therapies IF they are available in the area. Most services have not been covered by insurance (until the new law takes effect in January 2011 –but there will still be restrictions).
“To be able to help our daughter, I cannot give in to the negativity, anger and doubt that frustrates every parent with a special needs child. When it absorbs me I cannot help her. I have learned that I don’t need to be “right,” I just need to do whatever it takes to get the services that will help our daughter succeed,” Terri continued.
Adi has PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder –Not Otherwise Specified) and is considered high functioning. Through many hours of research, Terri found animal therapy–whether it was with horses, dogs or llamas–to be a beacon of hope to bring Adi out of her shell and help her learn how to cope with her autism and become more independent in life. Animal therapy is too much for some children, perfect for others…and Terri knew in her heart that it would be perfect for Adriana.
Service dogs are very expensive to train. Autism Service Dog Agencies expect to receive $10,000 - $20,000 for the placement of a service dog which is a fraction of the actual cost to provide training, housing and veterinary care.
So Terri pulled in the “big guns”–her friends–and they quickly began the fundraising efforts. The response from several corporations was fantastic. “They said “get your 501c3” and gave us verbal assurances of financial support,” Terri commented. Paws 4 Autism is now considered a non-profit in the State of Missouri and the IRS is reviewing their 501c3 documents. They should have full acceptance within the next 90 days.
While they considered four separate agencies, Ken and Terri settled on ASDA (Autism Service Dogs of America) primarily because their training program fits Adi’s needs the best. Terri will spend a week in Oregon being trained and bring Adi’s dog home. After a settling in period, an ASDA trainer (who is also an Autism Specialist) will come here to Lee’s Summit to work with Adi and her dog in Adriana’s environment and school.
In the meantime the Wible’s were introduced to Project Lifesaver. After applying and being accepted, the Lee’s Summit
Police Department, Beth Glover, Community Interaction Officer and Office Josh Ward came to their home, introduced themselves and completed a detailed social history on Adriana. They explored where she likes to go and calming techniques for melt downs in great detail.
“When/if Adriana “disappears?” The FIRST thing we do is to call the police–alerting the dispatcher she is a Project Lifesaver client and the frequency of her bracelet,” explained Terri. We give them a full description of what she is wearing and last known location and direction. At that point the police come out en masse and blanket the area to create a perimeter. There are several hand-held tracking monitors as well as two that are mobile in police cruisers. The range of the signal from Adi’s bracelet is about a mile depending upon the terrain. Once they have her located, then I go to meet them there so that we do not scare her more than she already is. She is also more likely to come to me or her father than she would to a police officer.”
To the Wibles, their friends and family, Adriana is a gift. Adriana has been given the gift of a supportive community and in turn, her family carries the gift forward through Paws 4 Autism.
For more information on Paws 4 Autism and how you can add your support visit the web site at www.paws4autism.org.
Service Dogs–How do they work?
Service dogs provide a physical and emotional achor for children with autism. With their child tethered to a service dog, families feel they are newly freed to engage in activities as simple as shopping at the mall. On the streets, parents are relieved of the worry their child might run away. In many cases, the service dog accompanies the child to school, where its calming presence can minimize and often eliminate emotional outbursts, enabling the child to more fully participate. Transitioning among school day activities is eased and the service dog provides a focus through which the child can interact with other children. This helps increase the opportunity for the child to develop social and language skills.
Not every child with autism will benefit from a service dog. Agencies screen and evaluate each situation carefully. Their goal is to ensure a successful match for the child, the family and the dog.
An autism service dog is a service dog trained to assist a person with autism, to help them gain independence, confidence, and the ability to perform activities of daily living similar to anyone else. For the most part, these dogs are trained to perform tasks similar to those of service dogs for other sensory processing disabilities.
Function
Autism service dogs are trained to help the human prioritize necessary information, and assist the human handle situations which are, to them, so over stimulating as to be confusing, much as a guide dog provides visual assistance to a blind human, guiding them through potential dangers invisible to the human.
As with hearing assistance dogs for the deaf, the dogs may also be trained to alert their handler to important noises or other things requiring human intervention, such as smoke or a smoke alarm, a crying baby, a telephone ringing, a knock at the door. For a person with autism, it isn’t quickly obvious which of the many external stimuli is the urgent one requiring their immediate attention. A person with autism must sort through both major and minor stimuli--the sound of crickets, the smell of the fabric softener on their clothes, a car driving past outside--in order to determine which of these, if any, needs their attention. They may understand that a smoke alarm is urgent and requires them to exit the building, but their autism may cause them to take longer going about it.
What is autism?
Autism, part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person’s lifetime. The disorder is characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills and social abilities, and also by repetitive behaviors. Symptoms range from mild to severe. One milder form of the disorder is known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Other developmental disorders that fall under the Autism Spectrum Disorders are Rett Syndrome, PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified), and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Parents are usually the first to notice unusual behaviors in their child or their child’s failure to reach appropriate developmental milestones. Some parents describe a child that seemed different from birth, while others describe a child who was developing normally and then lost skills. If you have concerns about your child’s development, don’t wait: speak to your pediatrician about getting your child screened for autism.
What does it mean to be “on the spectrum?”
Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means it manifests itself in many different forms. A diagnosis can range from mild to severe, and though children who have it (i.e. are on the spectrum) are likely to exhibit similar traits, they’re also as individual as the colors of a rainbow, each one managing a grab bag of symptoms. While one child may rarely speak and have difficulty learning how to read and write, another can be so high-functioning he’s able to attend classes in a mainstream school. Yet another child may be so sensitive to the feel of fabric that all tags must be cut off before he wears a piece of clothing, while his friend who’s also autistic may not have any sensory issues at all.
For more information on Project Lifesaver contact Lee's Summit Police Department Community Interaction Office Beth Glover 969-1700.
For more information on Paws 4 Autism and how you can add your support visit the web site at www.paws4autism.org.
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