The American Academy of Pediatrics announced that children by the age of 2 should be screened for autism. Does a baby not babble at 9 months? Does a 1 year old not point to toys? Does a 4 month old not smile to mom or dad’s voice? Is there a loss of language or social skills at any age? No one has an answer to the cause(s). What is known is that the number of children who have a form of autism is dramatically increasing.

There is a tremendous need for sufficient levels of services to address the unmet need across the country. In the coming years I expect the federal and state governments to expand early intervention programs to address this population. Most experts have stated that early intervention can lessen severity.

Assist employees to find the services their children need, support the development of provider programs in autism or develop programs in your service area. Acting now will accomplish better outcomes for children.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Fundraising, Corporate Giving, Business Plan, Program Development, Employee's benefits, Strategic Planning, Public Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.