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Post by wvhsparent on Jul 14, 2008 13:20:13 GMT -5
OK Blago can do a few good things......www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-autism-14-jul14,0,498946.story chicagotribune.com Blagojevich alters bill so insurance companies would have to cover autism therapyMeasure must win lawmakers' approval By Monique Garcia Chicago Tribune reporter 11:00 PM CDT, July 13, 2008 When Brianna Dicianni was diagnosed with autism two years ago, doctors said the girl would never learn to speak. Undeterred, her family sought therapy, only to run into another roadblock: Because their insurance company didn't cover treatment for autism, they would have to pay for the costly sessions out of pocket. Brianna's parents borrowed against their home, dipped into college savings for their three children and—$80,000 later—Brianna, now 5, can talk. On Sunday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich moved to help families like the Diciannis, using his amendatory veto power to alter legislation so insurance companies would be required to cover diagnosis and various therapies for autistic children. "The billion-dollar profits of insurance companies are being put before our children, and it's wrong, it's criminal," said Brianna's father, Peter Dicianni. The legislation would force insurance companies to cover up to $36,000 a year in occupational, physical, speech and behavioral therapies in addition to psychiatric and psychological services. Children would be covered until they turned 21. Proponents of the legislation said early treatment is vital to the development of children with autism. By undergoing therapy early in life, they are more likely to gain the communication and social skills needed to live independent lives. "This is literally about whether a child can grow up and live a good and happy life, or whether a child will grow up and be in his own isolated world, unable to communicate," Blagojevich said at a news conference announcing the legislation. For Peter Dicianni, the governor's action comes after more than a year of lobbying lawmakers and insurance companies to cover autism treatments. But hurdles still remain. Lawmakers in both chambers must approve the governor's changes. mcgarcia@tribune.com Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
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Post by specialneedsmom on Jul 14, 2008 13:39:07 GMT -5
There are a few very high rollers involved with pushing autism legislation, among them Autism Speaks, which is flush with cash and clout. Not that this is a bad thing; it's always wonderful when more and more is done to help disabilities. But if this weren't the case I don't think Blago would be so enthusiastic. In the autism community, we get the most help from legislators and business leaders who have family members with autistic spectrum disorders. They are the ones who understand how autism impacts families because they see it first hand.
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Post by eb204 on Jul 14, 2008 13:54:10 GMT -5
Not only legislatures and business leaders are affected, but celebrities are getting involved as well. There are some celebrities that I personally don't have much of a tolerance for, but I have to admit their "voice" will be heard and this is what is needed, not only for coverage on these treatments or interventions, but for more research to be done as to the cause.
I was reading Obama's website and John McCain's website and I have to say that Obama has a whole plan dedicated to autism research and funding. McCain has a small paragraph. I'm an undecided voter right now, but I'd say that Obama seems to have more ambition to tackle autism research right now. Of course campaign promises have to be taken with a grain of salt, but at least he seems to have put some thought into it.
I've not been impressed with Blago at all, but this is certainly a much needed initiative. I hope it passes. The financial impact on families is huge.
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Post by Arch on Jul 14, 2008 14:01:53 GMT -5
I'm glad to see this move forward in a proper direction. Like with anything though, there is always the potential for misdiagnosis and mis-therapy where organizations may try (on purpose or accidentally out of ignorance) to force the square peg through the round hole (so to speak). I hope the followup from the community at large is more individual tailored things to each kid's ability and leveraging each kid's individual strengths to help overcome their weaknesses and it's not just seen as a cash-cow to just simply rack up 'billables' while making less progress than may be possible to keep the recurring billing going. I can see both sides to this but I fall onto the side of doing something that ultimately helps each individual child.
For us in D204, there has been a mis-fit of 'intervention' based on a test that on the surface shows 'a deficiency' but the intervention employed tries to help the wrong thing and therefore makes no positive impact whatsoever. As a result we are declining further 'intervention' because we already made our own progress in finding out exactly where the deficiency resides and have made excellent progress this summer as a result.
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Post by eb204 on Jul 14, 2008 14:13:22 GMT -5
I'm glad to see this move forward in a proper direction. Like with anything though, there is always the potential for misdiagnosis and mis-therapy where organizations may try (on purpose or accidentally out of ignorance) to force the square peg through the round hole (so to speak). I hope the followup from the community at large is more individual tailored things to each kid's ability and leveraging each kid's individual strengths to help overcome their weaknesses and it's not just seen as a cash-cow to just simply rack up 'billables' while making less progress than may be possible to keep the recurring billing going. I can see both sides to this but I fall onto the side of doing something that ultimately helps each individual child. For us in D204, there has been a mis-fit of 'intervention' based on a test that on the surface shows 'a deficiency' but the intervention employed tries to help the wrong thing and therefore makes no positive impact whatsoever. As a result we are declining further 'intervention' because we already made our own progress in finding out exactly where the deficiency resides and have made excellent progress this summer as a result. I'm glad you found something that is working. It seems like we are always in a "trial and error" mode. That is one of the reasons I am optimistic about more research in all areas of developmental delay or dognitive impairments. There's so much guesswork involved with therapies, interventions, even medications, and consequently, much money is sometimes wasted on these processes. But it has to be done - at least for now. I was especially encouraged by a recent new report on identifying 3 genes involved with autism. In a nutshell, early interventions are key and now researchers hope to get the pharmacuetical companies involved in manufacturing a drug that will simulate that same brain activity that is at work during these interventions to speed up the process. Of course, medications can be tricky, too. One must weight the benefits vs. the risks. Always a mental struggle.
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Post by Arch on Jul 14, 2008 14:26:49 GMT -5
In our particular case, the test of reading a new passage out loud and reaching a certain point in a certain amount of time was the root of it. The 'intervention' was to teach phonics (which both kids were taught and taught how to read before even starting Kindergarten) and then keep testing... The slowdown actually occurs in the brain where the sight information has to pass directly to speech. For whatever reason, that pathway is slow in real-time... I have this exact same problem too, always have. My way around it was to simply scan ahead to myself (no speech involved for that fraction of a second scan) each sentence, then back up visually and read it outloud. 'Problem' solved. Both kids who were receiving intervention also made a miraculous JUMP in their distance down the page with that simple strategy that took 2 minutes to explain and does not require being pulled out of core subjects multiple times a week to be bored to tears with phonics and simply 'trying again' with a new passage never seen before. This was a classic square peg / round hole situation. The remedy allows the brain to pull from short term sight memory (photographic being a strength) to supplement the real-time flowing down the page to produce a huge boost in performance on that 'test'. Added: This can help kids who have the exact same problem, but can also be viewed as a 'oh rats' by those who want to push (for a fee) intervention techniques. (spelling fixes)
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Post by eb204 on Jul 14, 2008 15:29:54 GMT -5
In our particular case, the test of reading a new passage out loud and reaching a certain point in a certain amount of time was the root of it. The 'intervention' was to teach phonics (which both kids were taught and taught how to read before even starting Kindergarten) and then keep testing... The slowdown actually occurs in the brain where the sight information has to pass directly to speech. For whatever reason, that pathway is slow in real-time... I have this exact same problem too, always have. My way around it was to simply scan ahead to myself (no speech involved for that fraction of a second scan) each sentence, then back up visually and read it outloud. 'Problem' solved. Both kids who were receiving intervention also made a miraculous JUMP in their distance down the page with that simple strategy that took 2 minutes to explain and does not require being pulled out of core subjects multiple times a week to be bored to tears with phonics and simply 'trying again' with a new passage never seen before. This was a classic square peg / round hole situation. The remedy allows the brain to pull from short term sight memory (photographic being a strength) to supplement the real-time flowing down the page to produce a huge boost in performance on that 'test'. Added: This can help kids who have the exact same problem, but can also be viewed as a 'oh rats' by those who want to push (for a fee) intervention techniques. (spelling fixes) Is this a home based approach that you are doing yourselves or are you working with a specialist in the area? Can you share who you are using (you can PM me if you'd prefer) if this is the case? I have some friends who are experiencing some reading issues and they are always looking for other resources.
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Post by Arch on Jul 14, 2008 15:40:11 GMT -5
In our particular case, the test of reading a new passage out loud and reaching a certain point in a certain amount of time was the root of it. The 'intervention' was to teach phonics (which both kids were taught and taught how to read before even starting Kindergarten) and then keep testing... The slowdown actually occurs in the brain where the sight information has to pass directly to speech. For whatever reason, that pathway is slow in real-time... I have this exact same problem too, always have. My way around it was to simply scan ahead to myself (no speech involved for that fraction of a second scan) each sentence, then back up visually and read it outloud. 'Problem' solved. Both kids who were receiving intervention also made a miraculous JUMP in their distance down the page with that simple strategy that took 2 minutes to explain and does not require being pulled out of core subjects multiple times a week to be bored to tears with phonics and simply 'trying again' with a new passage never seen before. This was a classic square peg / round hole situation. The remedy allows the brain to pull from short term sight memory (photographic being a strength) to supplement the real-time flowing down the page to produce a huge boost in performance on that 'test'. Added: This can help kids who have the exact same problem, but can also be viewed as a 'oh rats' by those who want to push (for a fee) intervention techniques. (spelling fixes) Is this a home based approach that you are doing yourselves or are you working with a specialist in the area? Can you share who you are using (you can PM me if you'd prefer) if this is the case? I have some friends who are experiencing some reading issues and they are always looking for other resources. Doing it ourselves.
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