LOST
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support themselves.
Of course, autism spectrum disorders are complicated. Researchers
have yet to identify the causes of
the condition, and every child develops differently. But many physicians, such as researcher Dr. Laurie
Stephens of the California-based
Education Spectrum and Dr. Kathleen Atmore, Max’s doctor at Children’s National Medical Center, describe a “window of opportunity.”
“The window of opportunity is
that the brain is still developing
and very malleable until age eight
or nine,” Stephens said. “If, at
that point, you utilize some of the
evidence-based best practices like
behavioral intervention strategy,
you really are rewiring the brain.”
Different researchers have
different ideas about how this
works. Peter Mundy, the director of educational research at
University of California Davis’
MIND Institute, says there might
be a second window lat er on. But
Mundy and Stephens agree that
study after study has shown that
early intervention — targeting
children during this critical period for brain development — is
key. A 2005 Research in Developmental Disabilities study found
that children who received spe-
HUFFINGTON
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cific autism school programming
called “intensive behavior analytic intervention” in small teacherstudent ratios yielded “statistically significant” gains in all areas
except for motor skills when compared with their peers. Studies
like those have made Greg and his
wife, Maya Wechsler, hopeful that
if Max catches the right instruc-
Max has severe autism. He
can’t talk, sit still or express
his desires. Sometimes he
smears his own feces on
bathroom walls and dives
head first onto his bed.
No one understands why.
tion at the critical moment, he
might learn to ask questions. To
read. To become an independent
member of society.
Experts have seen children become self-sufficient after starting
off more despondent than Max.
That’s what enrages Greg during
the school meetings, an extreme
version of the kind experienced by
nearly every parent: That schools
are wasting his son’s precious
time and, more significantly, the
plasticity of his young brain.
After cycling Max through four
public schools in his short life,