New in the US, and You Hear About Autism……
August 5, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Couple of weeks ago the Minnesota Post did an article on rates of autism in Somali children in Minneapolis, with the suggestion that “something” about being in the US was causing higher rates of autism. Today’s Raleigh News-Observer also reports on autism in the children of recent immigrants to the US, but with an emphasis on the additional difficulties of getting services for a disabled child when you’re new to a country, a culture, a language. It’s pointed out that the more “open-minded mentality” here can lead to immigrant parents to seek a diagnosis, services, and education for their children:
Esmeralda Garcia feels more supported and informed about autism in Charlotte than she ever felt in her native Mexico. When her 6-year-old daughter, Marianea, was diagnosed four years ago in Garcia’s hometown of San Luis Potosi, Garcia, 30, had never heard of autism.
After a year of treatments, Marianea hadn’t improved. Garcia decided to move back to Charlotte, where she had emigrated with her husband some years before, so Marianea could get better health care.
Garcia saw an ad for Boujlil’s group in a Spanish-language newspaper and called Boujlil, who took her to the doctor and later helped enroll Marianea in school.
My grandparents on both sides immigrated to the US from southern China at the beginning of the 20th century. None of their children had disabilities, but if they had, or if any of the families in the immigrant Chinese community had disabilities, it was not talked about and there were certainly no services, not at all. The Raleigh News-Observer highlights the work of a group, the World Alliance for Families and Children, which was founded by Mariame Boujlil, a native of Morocco who now lives in Charlotte and whose now 5-year-old son Zachary is autistic. The World Alliance for Families and Children helps families to navigate the US health care system, get diagnoses, figure out treatments, and also runs a summer school: Important work that makes a real difference.
Actually I was chatting with Nonna last night [well yelling, but you know what I mean.] She was very much of the opinion that the ‘dark ages’ are over. “Mental illness” of any shape form or description was considered shameful for the family. I suspect that’s not just Italy either.
Cheers
When Nick was in preschool there was an Asian boy and the parents had to keep him at grandparents house so the younger son would not catch the autism. It was frustrating talking to her since I could not comprehend the way her familyand husband’s family were treating her child.
About two years ago the regional center worker said she had a Mom who needed to talk to another Mom, so she thought of me. It turned out to be that same Mom whose youger son was in the autism class with matthew, so both her boys were on spectrum like mine. We spoke a few times but she moved again due to family issues.
I think something like that would be helpful for everyone: free seminars, and a place to advise about the options and the school/legal system. Many people just don’t have the resources available, or they think that the school will just take care of everything. Especially if the autistic person in question is good with academics, then there is this assumption that they don’t need any more help to learn things like daily living skills than any other child or teenager, even when they’ve been told the contrary.
My parents and I didn’t start finding out about how the system works or what our rights are until I was a couple months from graduating, about to move out on my own a few months. And when I was younger, since overload at school tended to lead me to shutdown instead of being loud or aggressive, and because my parents didn’t want to be further mis-judged by telling the school the difficulties they had with me at home (they had blamed my parents for being over-protective and sheltering me, when there were things I just wasn’t ready for at age 10). So they didn’t get much insight as to why certain things would upset me a lot, though fortunately since my dad is autistic, he could mostly tell when I was starting to get overloaded, and could explain a lot of stuff to my mom.
Especially for people who don’t get much in the way of “spending money” after paying rent and food and stuff, so there’s no way we could’ve spent money for services or anything outside of the school.