Educating children with level 3 Autism

 

Some people do not like South Park, but it is a good example of genuine inclusion

The number of children with autism and intellectual disability continues to rise and this is putting a strain on government resources in many parts of the world. Increasing budgets can never match the increased perception of needs.

In spite of the vast amounts of money being spent very little attention is given to evaluating what gives the best results.

In the US it has long been put forward that the earlier the intervention starts the better the results will be and often it is stated that 40 hours a week of one-to-one therapy is needed.  This view is generally limited to the US.    

ABA therapy became a big business in the US and many providers are now owned by private equity investors.

I did point out that in the book the Politics of Autism, the author recounts her discussions with the founding father of ABA, Ivar Lovaas, that revealed he had rigged his clinical studies by excluding those children who did not respond to his 40 hours a week therapy from the final results. He just dropped them before the end of the trial. This would totally invalidate his conclusions.

There is a recent study on this very subject.

Rethinking the Gold Standard for Autism Treatment

Research shows some autistic children may get more treatment hours than needed.

The JAMA Pediatrics study looked at the relationship between the amount of intervention provided (hours per day, duration, and cumulative intensity) and the outcomes for young autistic children. Researchers analyzed data from 144 studies involving more than 9,000 children, making it one of the most comprehensive analyses of its kind.

Contrary to what many have long believed, the study found no significant association between the amount of intervention and improved developmental outcomes. As the authors write, “health professionals recommending interventions should be advised that there is little robust evidence supporting the provision of intensive intervention.”

Determining Associations Between Intervention Amount and Outcomes for Young Autistic Children A Meta-Analysis

A total of 144 studies including 9038 children (mean [SD] age, 49.3 [17.2] months; mean [SD] percent males, 82.6% [12.7%]) were included in this analysis. None of the meta-regression models evidenced a significant, positive association between any index of intervention amount and intervention effect size when considered within intervention type.

Conclusions and Relevance  Findings of this meta-analysis do not support the assertion that intervention effects increase with increasing amounts of intervention. Health professionals recommending interventions should be advised that there is little robust evidence supporting the provision of intensive intervention.

Some parents in the US get to the bizarre situation where their child can receive 40 hours of ABA for free, but if they say they want only 20 hours because they have other activities for the rest of the week, this is refused.  It is the full 40 hours or none.   

School segregation

Segregation is a word with negative connotations, but it is used when it comes to the merits of inclusive education versus special schools.

There are many ways in which schools are segregated, including

By sex

It is still very common to have separate boys' schools and girls' schools in many countries

By religion

Religious schools are common in both public and private sectors

By ethnicity

This was widely practiced in the United States and South Africa. The legacy of these policies is still evident today.

By ability

Selecting pupils by academic level is very common.

By disability

Segregation of those with learning disabilities into special schools or special classes within a mainstream school is widespread.

By socioeconomic status

Segregation by the ability to pay is common all over the world. In parts of the world there is no schooling for those whose family cannot afford it.

Homeschooling

In parts of the world homeschooling is legal and thriving. The US has by far the largest contingent, with 6% of children home-schooled.  In Germany it is illegal.

What is the best type of school for level 3 autism?

There is no “best” choice.

From the parents' perspective, some are desperate for their child to attend a special(ist) school and some are desperate not to attend such a school.

Some parents choose to home school.

Some parents look for some kind of hybrid solution.

Most parents just take what is given to them.

Inclusion vs segregation

The key issue here is whether the child is “includable”. It is fashionable in Western countries to be anti-segregation and pro inclusion.

Some children are not includable and some school environments are hostile rather than welcoming.  Even some children with level 1 autism struggle to cope in mainstream school.

Monty was lucky and completed all his schooling in a mainstream school with very small class sizes, about 12 pupils. He had his own teaching assistant throughout. Two of his former assistants later became class teachers at his school. We paid for the school and the assistants.

Had Monty attended a school with 30 children in the class with 3 other special needs kids, each with their own teaching assistant, the result would not have been so good.

As you can see it is a question of “inclusion in what” versus “segregation in what”.

What is the purpose of “school”

If you talk to parents of older children you will discover that over the years their view of schooling changes. It is an illusion, one grandfather told me. For many schooling is just daycare for the pupil and respite care for the parents.

Some parents do not want their child to be just taught daily living skills, they want the academic curriculum.

Some schools teach non-verbal children an alternative method of communication, whereas other do not bother.

It is not surprising that the result is often nobody is satisfied.

Peter’s idea about schooling for level 3 autism

I would require all children with level 3 autism to be taught at primary/elementary school a means of communication. Remarkably this is not done.

Proactive parents have been doing this for decades at home, but what if your parents are not proactive?

I read the other day that a mother commented that her non-verbal 7 year old daughter would greatly benefit from an augmentative communication device, but that the council/municipality did not want to provide one. In previous decades these were expensive devices, but nowadays these are just apps that you install on an iPad, or android device. Some of these apps are even free !!

Clearly, I would ensure all pupils with level 3 autism were screened and treated for any type of treatable intellectual disability, the most common one being elevated chloride inside neurons, which was the case for Monty.

I recently was contacted by a parent who, after trying to help his son for 7 years, has finally had success by increasing his dose of leucovorin (calcium folinate). Now his son responds to verbal instructions like "wash your hands".

Some of these children, once under medical treatment, will be able to follow much of the core academic curriculum and be genuinely included in mainstream classes. That was the outcome for Monty, now aged 21.

Children who remain with a lower IQ should not be in classes that teach academic concepts far above their level of understanding. This is pointless and will just lead to frustration.

One non-verbal child I know, who cannot read or write is “taught” a second language at school. How about teaching him a first language?

Children should be taught in groups of similar ability/functioning level, rather than grouping them by age. I thought this would be just common sense, but not in the world of education.

If the material has not been mastered there is no point moving forward, just repeat it. After 15 years at school there should have been measurable progress.

Beware of prompt-dependence and assistant-dependence. Skills learned at school need to be such that the child can apply them independently and can generalize them to new situations. Some wealthy schools provide very high levels of support and this risks that the child will become an adult dependent on a similar level of support. This is an example of “too much of a good thing”.

 

The services “cliff-edge”

Some people with autism, and their families, receive very considerable support for two decades and become dependent on it. At some point in early adulthood these supports may get abruptly withdrawn.

In other parts of the world, there was only ever very minimal support and the family became more self-reliant and so do not experience such a cliff-edge. The family and the young adult learnt to cope.

Level 1 autism / Asperger’s

This post is about level 3 autism, but I am always surprised how many people with level 1 autism write to me so here are some thoughts on them.

You would think that all people with level 1 autism should be able to thrive in mainstream education these days. There is so much in the media, or social media, about accommodating differences and promoting the “able disabled” who are featured everywhere, so how come kids at school are still bullying/tormenting their classmates who are 1% different. Times have not really changed as much as we might have thought.

Most kids with level 3 autism love going to school.  Monty adored it.

Many kids with level 1 autism clearly hate it.

During my time helping to run my children’s school one of the things teachers told me was that kids are actually very supportive of those who are clearly disabled but will delight in picking on kids who are a tiny bit different.

The net result is that many children with level 1 autism thoroughly enjoyed their on-line education during the pandemic away from all that awkwardness at school.

Many parents whose child goes to a special school for autism or Down syndrome are completely unaware that there are also some special schools for level 1 autism. It greatly surprised me.

 

Conclusion

The idea of trying to educate children with level 3 autism is relatively new. In the recent past they were just put aside in institutions and forgotten about.  Today much is possible, but a lot comes down to who the parents are and where they happen to live.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975 (later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, in 1990) was the major turning point in the US. This ultimately opened the door to a flood of ABA, paid for by private health insurance, but only in the US.

My doctor mother once commented to me that we had shown that such children can be taught and can genuinely learn. This was a combination of personalized medicine and personalized learning.

Good things don’t just happen, you have to make them happen.

The outcome in level 3 autism is hugely variable and that is rather sad.

Education and Autism

This blog mainly concerns personalized medicine, which is a therapy targeted to a specific person, or sub-group.  Personalized medicine can include drugs, OTC supplements, diets and, importantly, non-drug medical therapies like vagal nerve stimulation.  Some non-drug medical therapies were covered in previous posts and others will be covered in future posts.

The other part of the bigger puzzle can be called personalized education; anything from ABA to music therapy to what you do at school.

Eleven years ago, when starting with our first ABA consultant, just about his first question was “are you following any special diets or biomedical therapies”. He was clearly against such therapies, seeing them as a big distraction from the all-important ABA and Verbal Behavior (VB).  He did indeed have a point, you do have to focus your attention on multiple tasks and avoid being obsessed with vaccines, gluten or candida, as some people appear to be.

ABA does have its limits, as our first ABA consultant found with his own son. In the case of severe autism it may well help a lot, but it usually is not enough. Rather ironically this ABA consultant eventually came back to me years later to ask about personalized medicine.

Some people report terrible experiences with ABA and, if these are genuine, I think there must be some terrible ABA therapists out there. We had very positive experiences with ABA consultants and our home-trained therapists. 

Education

In the case of Monty, aged 15 with autism, he started with very personalized education and only much later, at 9 years old, did we add personalized medicine.

It is pretty clear than in cases of severe autism you need all the help you can get and so as to achieve a  relatively good life (the palm tree by the beach, in the above graphic); you need personalized education and personalized medicine.

Education of typical children

For some years I was a school governor at an international school and so I got to know many different teachers, different educational systems and curricula.

When schooling kids with autism the choice is normally between mainstream school, special school or home schooling. In some countries home schooling is illegal.

Mainstream schooling varies greatly from country to country. Most active autism parents seem to be North American and they likely do not realize how lucky they are to have a pretty easy school curriculum, which lends itself to less able learners.

In some other countries the standard of maths and science is very much higher and school is really geared up to benefit the most able. Anyone of average ability, or below, very often gets left behind.

The level of selection in schools is also important and highly variable. In some countries kids get separated at age of 10-12 into those who are expected to do well and becomes doctors/scientists/ lawyers and those who will end up with vocational training rather than a degree.

In other countries you get a genuine mix of abilities all the way up through high school.

Poor Learners

I had a visit recently from a friend of mine who runs an organisation in Austria that tries to attract top achievers from university to spend two or more years teaching in the country’s worst performing schools, before starting their intended high-flying careers. It is part of an international group doing the same thing across the world. They seem to be doing well and the schools perform much better with their energetic young teachers.

What was interesting to hear was just how bad the standards are at some of these schools.  A significant minority of 12 years old kids are functionally illiterate. One reason is that they have many immigrant children who do not speak German at home, did not speak German in Kindergarten and now sit in a class that is 80% non-native German speakers. The end result is that they cannot write a sentence in German, even though they might have lived all their life in Austria. So much for inclusion/integration.

Interestingly, my friend told me that in Austria, almost no one knows that Hans Asperger was an Austrian.  I did not mention that some Americans are worrying about whether Asperger was a Nazi.  Andreas Rett, another Viennese doctor, whose name was given to Rett syndrome by the English-speaking world 17 years after he described it in the German literature, is another forgotten Austrian. Rett actually was a Nazi, so I suppose some people will want to rename that syndrome, when they figure this out. Leo Kanner was really Austro-Hungarian, being born in Lviv. Kanner was Jewish, so definitely not a Nazi. So many Austrians connected to autism and yet nowadays the German speaking world contributes almost nothing to autism research. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

How Austria can restore its status as a center of autism research

Back to education.

The top performers educationally are usually Singapore, where they practice old-fashioned education and Finland, where they follow a very enlightened non-pressurizing Scandinavian approach and where school starts at 7 years old.

The maths curriculum and the workbooks from Singapore are widely used by home schoolers around the world and I bought them for my son. 

A suitable learning environment for someone with severe autism

In many developed countries education authorities believe that children with severe autism can be educated in both mainstream classrooms or in special education.

Given just how variable mainstream education is, we should not expect consistent results. For some children inclusive education will work well and for others it might be a disaster.  A lot depends on what you are being included into and you have to be “includable”.

Small classes, with up to 12 kids, that include all abilities and only one special needs learner give the best chance of success, in my opinion.

Classes with 30 kids including 2+ special needs learners are a recipe for failure for all 30 kids.

Special education varies from large groups and a single teacher in some countries to tiny groups and where each child also has their own 1:1 assistant. There is no normal or typical special school.  There are some very good special schools in the United States, but they must cost someone $100,000 a year.

Home schooling is only as effective as how good the “teacher” is.

Parents need to think long and hard about how to educate their child with severe autism and not assume the State will provide them a perfect solution.  The better the education is for typical children, the greater chance you have of good special needs provision. Not surprisingly, special education is good in Scandinavia and terrible in most poor countries.  One of Monty's assistants moved to Norway to be a special needs teacher.

Some people with severe autism will struggle to learn anything, anywhere. These people need personalized medicine or else their 15-18 years spent in “education” is just day-care and a prelude to institutionalization, perhaps with a nice name like a group home.                                      

Personalized Education combined with Personalized Medicine

At the age of 8, after 4 years of intensive ABA-inspired intervention, Monty could not grasp the simplest elements of maths; I mean single digit addition or subtraction using the number line. Language and cognitive function appeared to be immovable barriers to progress.

December 2018 marks six years after starting personalized medicine, and I just learned that Monty’s grade for Maths this term is B+. He could handle the algebra and trigonometry in the end of term test, without any prompting from his assistant.

The addition of personalized medicine has had a transformative effect on cognition.  This continues to surprise people even now. 

Equally encouraging is that Monty has taught himself to swim "properly", he has long been confident in a pool or in the sea, but now at school they go to swim in a full sized pool and get timed swimming laps. Today he was the fastest of two combined classes, that is something else that would not have been expected. 

One autism Grandad we know regards Monty as "80% fixed", but "some problems will always remain"; that is quite a nice summary. It is all relative to what you know, this Grandad only knows really severe autism.  I think many of the parents of the 1 in 40 now diagnosed in the US with "autism" would regard Monty as far from "fixed", but then their kids are fully verbal and have few challenges.  

People with severe autism inevitably plateau at a low cognitive-equivalent age, but it does not have to be like that, if you can treat the underlying biology.  

If you start by treating the biology and fine-tune brain function to the extent that is possible, then you should benefit greatly from all that costly personalized education, that you may or may not get someone else to pay for.

Conclusion

If you have a child with severe autism, life may become a huge challenge. There are all kinds of horror stories you can read about - I suggest you do not dwell on them.  Everyone has options, whether to rely entirely on what you get for free from the State, or whether to apply other methods.

In a resource unconstrained situation, the best outcome is likely to come by combining personalized medicine with personalized education. I can only say that this combination has worked well for us.  In terms of money, it has clearly cost much more than having a typical child, about twice as much. 

If money is tight, start with personalized medicine.

People tend not to put a value on time, but for many time may be the greatest cost. You typically cannot leave a person with severe autism unattended and if they have a complicated schedule, somebody always has to be there and to be able to step in when something gets cancelled, or someone is off sick. 

Until the 1970s, medicine did have a strategy for people with severe autism. It was diagnose, institutionalize as a young child and forget. The Germans added their own variant to this.  Having shut down all the big residential hospitals for mental conditions, there is now often a big gap in provision.  Where do you put adult-sized people with severe autism?  It may not be a problem for those who are docile, but what about those who are not?