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 Prognosis
Varies Among Autistic Children
by Callie Clark, Southeast Missourian, April 25, 2004
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Fifteen-year-old
Derrick Liddell wants to know what his future holds. He wants a
driver's license, a job and his own apartment.
"I just tell him we'll have to talk about it," said his mother,
Natosha Primer. "He wants so much to be independent."
Like all parents, mothers and fathers of autistic children must
balance the push and pull between protecting their offspring and
letting them go. Autism only intensifies that conflict.
"He's so kind. No one is a stranger to him," Primer said. "I
want to know what he's thinking. I want to know what life is
like for him."
Like nearly everything else associated with autism, long-term
prognosis can vary among children.
Through the 1970s, many autistic people were labeled mentally
retarded and institutionalized. Some autistic children are still
institutionalized today, but the many success stories over the
years have shattered the hopeless stigma that once surrounded
the disorder.
Take Ella Farrow, for example.
At age 2, the Neelys Landing girl stopped talking. For five
years, she didn't utter a word. After a variety of seemingly
ineffective therapies and programs, her teachers were sure she'd
never talk again.
Then, while walking past a kindergarten classroom one day, Ella
looked up at her teacher and said, "Happy Valentine's Day."
Now 23 years old, Farrow graduated from Jackson High School and
later attended Southeast Missouri State University for a year.
Then there's Taylor Crowe. He was diagnosed autistic at age 4 by
a St. Louis physician who told his parents that their son should
be institutionalized.
'Gifts and limitations'
"It's devastating, numbing to hear someone say that," said
Taylor's father, Cape Girardeau orthodontist Dr. David Crowe.
"If I had accepted that, Taylor probably would have been what
that physician said he'd be. But I knew he was capable of so
much more."
Today, 22-year-old Taylor is a student at the California Art
Institute studying animation.
"Everyone has gifts and limitations. That's no different for
someone who is autistic," David Crowe said. "You have to find
their abilities, not their disabilities."
Cyndy Jones, nurse clinician and coordinator at the Center for
Autism Disorders at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said
parents go through a grieving process when they find out their
child is autistic, denying the diagnosis, becoming angry about
it and eventually accepting it.
"What we say to them is, lay foundations day by day and have no
ceiling limit. Every day is a day of promise. Every day is a day
of hope and potential," Jones said. "I've seen a lot of great
things in our patients when the parents approach it with a
positive attitude."
Farrow made quite an impression on her classmates in high
school.
The girl who didn't speak for five years was voted "most
friendly" in her graduating class. She was a member of the high
school French club and even won several language contests.
She doesn't remember too much about the silent period of her
life, but she can talk about what it's like to be autistic.
"People are what they are," Farrow said. "I don't think I'm
superior or inferior, just different."
A message to get out
Sally Blankenship, Taylor Crowe's mother, said all autistic
people have a message they're trying to get out.
"As a parent, you have to be a detective and try to figure out
what that message is, even though it's frustrating," Blankenship
said.
Blankenship said she once made the mistake of telling Taylor he
would never be able to drive a car. Taylor set up lessons with a
high school driver's education teacher and then consulted his
parents about the prospect of driving again. In the end, he did
receive his license.
"That was a lesson that I should never again stand in Taylor's
way," Blankenship said. "I should never tell him, 'No, Taylor, I
don't think you will do this.'"
David Crowe gives credit for his son's success to the therapy
and support Taylor received growing up. Crowe says he never
looked at Taylor as disabled, just inconvenienced.
"Sometimes the handicapped mindset is the most handicapping
thing of all," Crowe said. "Taylor's living out his dream. How
many of us can say that?"
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