Aaron Shakur is
an eighteen month-old boy. He lives in a town house in Chicago with his mother,
Hannah, father, Ali & two older siblings, Kayla & Amir. Kayla is two
and a half while Amir just turned four. Hannah and Ali got married right after
Hannah graduated high school at age eighteen, and when she was pregnant with
their first-born son, Amir. Ali was twenty-two. Hannah and Ali both graduated
high school, but never went on to further their education. The family is Arabic
with Hannah’s family living in the Middle East and Ali’s parents living in Chicago
as well. Ali’s family has been very helpful with helping to take care of the
children if need be so that Ali and Hannah can work.
As a young
mother with three children, Hannah thought it would be best to go straight into
the workforce. After a year of
breastfeeding each of her children, the family is now in need of formula for
Aaron, which is not cheap. Both of Aaron’s parents are hard working employees.
His mother is in housekeeping for a hotel near their home. She works full time,
sometimes she works nights in order to watch the children during the day. His
father is a well-respected firefighter for the city, who has more consistent
hours than Hannah. Their income is within the lower middle range, at about
$30,000 per year.
Aaron has
mastered crawling, and walking. He is getting into plenty of things and Hannah
and Ali have to watch him and his sister Kayla very carefully. Kayla tends to
be a lot more social and outgoing than Aaron, even their grandparents commented
on how Aaron plays by himself. Kayla tries to play with Aaron, but Aaron
doesn’t respond the way she wants him to.
Lately, Hannah
has been noticing some odd things about Aaron. She noticed that when she feeds
Aaron, he doesn’t look at her and he doesn’t reach out to be picked up. He also
doesn’t smile much, respond to familiar voices or use gestures. He prefers to
play alone as well. Hannah realizes that these behaviors are much different
than those of her previous children, and gets concerned. She mentions Aaron’s
behavior to his pediatrician. The pediatrician doesn’t seem to think much of it
during her fifteen-minute appointment with Aaron and Hannah. She says to just
wait and see if things get better. Hannah doesn’t feel comfortable with that
and she believes that there is something seriously wrong with Aaron. Hannah
seeks a second opinion after researching online Aaron’s symptoms. She reads
that at his age, he should be speaking, making gestures, responding to his name
and making other facial expressions. Since Aaron is lacking in all of these
areas, and she has mothered two other children, Hannah knows something isn’t
right.
Another pediatrician
sees Aaron and they determine that he is Autistic. Hannah and Ali are
devastated and do not know what to do. They are not very wealthy people at all,
and do not have much money to spend on expensive therapies and treatments. With
Amir getting ready to start kindergarten, and still dealing with a two and a
half year old, they are torn between starting early intervention for Aaron and
waiting until he is a little older, and they are a little more stable. Hannah
has dealt with depression issues in the past, and Ali is now worried that she
will fall back into her old ways.
Questions:
1. What
are the benefits of early intervention treatment for ASD? What resources are
available in communities for such intervention?
2. How
can Hannah be proactive with her depressive symptoms? What risks are associated
with maternal mental illness?
3. Write
a developmentally appropriate dialogue of how the parents might talk with their
older children about Aaron’s autism.
4. What
is the prevalence of Autism in Arabic-speaking countries? Is the prevalence
more or less than in the U.S.? Hypothesize as to the differences.
1. Starting early intervention treatment for ASD can be extremely beneficial for Aaron's development later on in life.Generally, children who receive will have a family that is more aware of symptoms of autism and therefore are more likely to be put on a schedule or routine that is more acceptable for them and helps them develop in a healthier environment. This also helps pinpoint strengths and weaknesses as early as possible know what needs to be worked on. Each state will have different early intervention program as outlined by IDEA but the Aaron's parents should start with the Department of Human Services to look for resources for him.
ReplyDelete2. Some of the effects of children with depressed mothers are low cognitive performance, withdrawal, and less social interactions. If Hannah starts falling into depression again after learning that Aaron has autism, she could stunt his development even greater. Since each individual is different, Hannah should first probably speak with her therapist if she or her husband are afraid of her falling backwards into depression or another mental illness. From there the options of continuing alternate forms of therapy or possibly starting on medication may be the best option for the family.
3. Because Amir and Kayla are at fairly similar stages in life, the approach their parents might use to speak with them would be about the same. The only difference would be keeping the attention span of Kayla long enough to explain it to her.
So Amir, after taking your little brother to the doctor, we found out some new things about him. The doctor says he has this thing called "autism" which means that he doesn't react the same way you and your sister do to things or even us [parents]. So we're going to try to help him but we're gonna need everyone's help, including you, to make sure he gets all the help he needs. It might make you really mad or frustrated but you're his big brother/sister and you have to look out for him and help him out."
4. The specific number of individuals with ASD is not clear for Arabic speaking countries. In Saudi Arabia, the estimated is about 18 per 10,000 but in countries in Africa, there is no clear estimate. In the US, this number is about 15 per 1,000. I believe this could be so because of the types of people evaluating for autism. In America, everyone is sick with something. Obesity is an illness here that you are diagnosed with and in other countries it is nothing more than a description of a person's physical stature. Individuals who show even slight symptoms of autism can be diagnosed as such whether it be affirmative or false. In developing countries, slight symptoms may not be enough to pinpoint autism as a cause or parents cannot afford to take their children to doctors who can diagnose them therefore less diagnoses are completed so the number could be much higher.
Decision Point: Do the Shakurs seek EI? Of course! They've worked hard to create such healthy family household. Why let this stop them? They will also probably receive plenty of extra support from Ali's family. (Am I supposed to answer this? Well I did)