Photo Courtesy of Fred. R. Volkmar, M.D.
Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., is the director of the Yale Child Study Center and was the keynote speaker at the third annual Hilibrand Autism Symposium, held at UJA-Federation on April 22nd.
How have services for children on the autism spectrum changed in the last 10 years?
We’re providing services earlier. There’s more interest in earlier detection, which is fantastic, because there’s some data that would suggest that the earlier you intervene, on balance, the better.
Secondly, we’ve done a better job of increasing the sophistication of the interventions we do with children with autism.
What would most help individuals on the autism spectrum lead independent lives?
The short version is early intervention and sustained, fairly intensive intervention. The other thing is having a very clear focus on helping children learn to generalize skills. Children with autism often have unusual learning styles, and they tend to learn things in a kind of isolation. For example, kids who are very bright mathematically but can’t walk into McDonald’s and get a cheeseburger and change because of the social demands.
What do you think still needs to change for special-needs children as they become young adults?
Our current model of care is that basically children get out of school and they’re on their own. The school’s no longer obligated to have support, and the insurance system changes as well, so there’s a whole set of transitions that children and families have to face. As children become adults, often there’s a scarcity of services in terms of all kinds of things — behavioral therapists, psychiatrists, even medical care. Much of the work in terms of intervention has focused on younger children and not enough on older children, adolescents, and young adults.
How has increased activism around special needs changed the landscape?
It’s brought more attention to the problem, and it’s also brought increased funding. That’s the good part of it. We need to help researchers think about the implications of their work. I think activism is part of it, but I think the activism has to be on both sides — both the parent and researcher.
How have issues of autism also affected issues of children with other special needs, such as ADHD and learning disabilities?
I think many of the challenges that have happened in autism apply to other special needs as well, which is integrating research into clinical practice, having parents have good access to quality information, thinking about developing quality programs, and having good research that can help us understand what does and doesn’t work using evidence-based treatment. ♦
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