The Report Card appears weekly and is written by staff, administrators and partners of the
Anglophone East School District. This week’s column is written by Katherine Colpitts-Beers,
Subject Coordinator, Student Services.
Students in our schools today are fortunate to be able to attend classes where they are not only
educated about the immense diversity of society by a teacher speaking in front of a class, but also
simply by attending school where an array of people of varying physical abilities, cultures and cognitive
abilities are sitting right beside them.
As April marks Autism Awareness Month, it is the perfect time to explain the differing degrees to which
individuals affected by it function. Gone are the days when Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man character Ray
Babbitt was the only image conjured in a person’s mind when they heard the term autism. Now, our
pop culture references include Max Braverman from NBC’s television show Parenthood, Jody Picoult’s
Jacob Hunt from her novel House Rules, Crake from Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, as well as actual
individuals such as James Durbin (a finalist on American Idol), Adam Young (from the band Owl City),
Stephen Wiltshire (artist), Daniel Tammet (savant), and Temple Grandin, Ph. D. (designer of livestock
handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University) depicted in HBO’s
movie titled Temple Grandin starring Clare Danes.
But what exactly is Autism?
Autism is a spectrum disorder; meaning symptoms fall on a continuum and individuals can present with
a range of characteristics. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder (disorder of brain function that
affects emotion, learning ability, self-control and memory and that unfolds as the individual grows)
made up of lifelong deficits in social communication and interaction.
Some of the ways Autism affects a person’s ability to interact socially are:
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Inability to maintain back-and-forth conversations
Failure to initiate or respond to social interactions
Abnormalities in eye contact
Challenges in understanding gestures
Difficulty making friends
Lack of interest in peers
Often the symptoms listed above are coupled with restrictive, repetitive patterns of behaviour,
interests, or activities, such as:
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Stereotyped play (lining up toys, spinning or flipping objects)
Insistence on sameness and inflexible adherence to routines (extreme distress with small
changes, need to eat the same food every meal)
Intense interests and preoccupations
Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input
Symptoms present themselves early in an individual’s development, but may not fully manifest until
later in the preschool or later school years and they often interfere with an individual’s daily functioning.
Research shows that early intervention treatment can improve a child’s development. It is important to
talk to your child’s doctor if you suspect your child has Autism Spectrum Disorder or you have any
concerns about your child’s development. “Learn the signs and act early”: The CDC provides milestone
check list for various stages ranging from 2 months to 5 years at
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html
Prevalence rates of Autism are increasing and occur across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.
Just last month, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention released a report indicating that 1 in
68 children were estimated as being identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder, with boys being five
times more likely than girls to receive an Autism diagnosis. Canadian rates vary from province to
province, but are estimated to range from 1 in 110 to 1 in 63.
In the past few years, researchers have been able to identify a number of genes associated with autism
however scientists are unsure of exactly what causes Autism. The common belief is genetic
predisposition coupled with environmental factors influence early brain development resulting in
irregularities in several regions of the brain.
While there is no known cure for Autism robust treatment is grounded in science and is comprised of
many evidence-base practices such as antecedent-based interventions, cognitive behavioural
interventions, discrete trial teaching, functional communication training, prompting, reinforcement, selfmanagement, social skills training, task analysis, and video modelling to name a few.
For more information on Autism evidence-based treatment practices, visit The National Professional
Development Centre on Autism Spectrum Disorders website:
http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/content/ebp-update.