For Judy Lewicky, traveling more than 3,000 miles to Howard County so her autistic son could receive a quality services was more than worth it.
Lewicky?s family moved from San Francisco to Ellicott City last summer so her then-5-year-old autistic son, Jonathan, could wait a year before enrolling in kindergarten to attend a preschool program devoted to children with autism and related disorders.
“Howard County made that decision very easy,” she said. “In our previous district, they didn?t give waiting for kindergarten as an option. We would have had to fight it.”
Jonathan and many other autistic children with impaired communication and social skills are sometimes not ready for kindergarten and need additional support.
He is largely nonverbal with emerging speech and communicates with signs, pointing and gestures, and a voice-output device, Lewicky said.
Last year, he enrolled in the school system?s Multiple Intense Needs Class-Early Learners program for preschoolers with autism and related disabilities at Dayton Oaks Elementary School.
Now 6 years old, Jonathan has started to sight read, type his name on a computer, and play and learn better with others. Constant emphasis is placed on improving his speech and expressive language throughout the day, Lewicky said.
The program, formed in 2005 through the efforts from the school system and Autism Society, is distinguished by small class sizes, personalized attention and the integration of typically developing students, called “peers,” with those who have autism, said Patricia Daley, the school system?s coordinator of special education.
“One of the great things about the program is the one-to-one support,” she said. “And he?s really matured socially.”
All counties have programs for autistic children and must do so in the least-restrictive setting, but Howard has a particularly rich menu of options that has been able to sustain the heavy interest, said Marjorie Shulbank, a senior staff specialist with the state Department of Education.
About eleven percent of students in special education classes have autism in Howard County public schools, the largest percentage in the state. The state average is 6.1 percent.
“There?s not a week that goes by where I don?t hear a parent call up and say, ?Is this really the mecca for a child with autism?? ” said Kim Manning, executive director of the Howard County Autism Society.
