A new activity center for children with autism that opened last week is a landmark achievement for our area. Built by the nonprofit group ABC of NC, this $6.5 million, 26,000-square-foot center on Friedberg Church Road will provide, along with other activities, hands-on, practical experience with some of the everyday activities that most of us take for granted but that can be challenging for children with autism. These include shopping for groceries, getting a haircut or going to the doctor. It will also help prepare young adults with autism to join the workforce.
Selene Johnson, executive director of the Autism Clinic at ABC North Carolina, last week shows one of the new clinic’s community skills lab spaces designed to look like a grocery store.
“As families with children with autism well know, it can be quite challenging going to the grocery store, a restaurant or a health care provider because of the atmosphere, which could present a situation where the child has a meltdown,” Selene Johnson, ABC’s executive director, told the Journal’s Richard Craver last week. “There’s always going to be an element of unpredictability, but these rooms can help clients and their families ease into each setting.”
The rooms in the center include rehearsal spaces for visits to a grocery store, a hair salon, a residential apartment, a doctor’s office and a dentist’s office.
“We might start with having the child walk past the hair salon, then have them stand at the door, then go inside and take a seat, then sit in the salon chair and have the cape wrapped around them before attempting to enter a real salon,” Johnson told the Journal.
“In the grocery store, we practice providing the child with a regular routine — making a shopping list, measuring out where the items are in the store, going through the checkout line and going home.”
The grocery store will also provide opportunities for children with autism to learn some work skills.
Autism spectrum disorder refers to a group of complex disorders of brain development and is marked by difficulties in social interactions, repetitive behaviors and issues with verbal and nonverbal communication. Children with autism may have difficulty picking up on social signals like smiles and frowns. They may react aversely to being held or touched.
And the difficulties can be compounded when their parents are compelled to shelter them rather than helping them reach a degree of comfort in unfamiliar surroundings. That’s what makes a center like this so essential.
One in 58 North Carolina children born today will receive a diagnosis of autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many hands have contributed to the new center, including families, board members, staff, volunteers and the business partners that have contributed generously. The state legislature also has played its part, passing Senate Bill 676, which requires qualifying health-benefit plans to provide coverage for the screening, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder, including adaptive behavioral treatment and other intensive one-to-one therapies.
The bill is only a start, though, and doesn’t cover as many services as are needed. Now that the foot is in the door, we hope for improvements in the future.
Living with autism is not easy. But with assistance, many children with autism rise to the challenge and create rewarding, productive lives for themselves.
This news was originally posted by Winston-Salem Journal