July 22, 2001|By Tanika White | Tanika White,SUN STAFF
One day, they'd like to go on a vacation, out West, just the two of them. Spend some time alone, without having to worry what's wrong, or wonder where he is, or watch what it is he's doing this very second.
For Columbia's Anna Burns and Steve Fine, that may or may not ever happen. But since their 12-year-old son, Michael - who is autistic - has been at the Kennedy Krieger School in Towson, there have been flutterings of hope that one day Michael might not need his parents quite so much. With time, maybe he'll be able to put on his sneakers, feed himself breakfast, make it through a supervised work day without hurting himself or someone else.
Today, however, Michael Fine is a tall, lithe, tangled mass of perpetual motion with wide eyes the very color of curiosity. His muscles never stop moving; his hands are always touching things.
He is a sweet and playful little boy whose kisses are so frantic and full, his mouth hasn't the time to pucker.
He is also a conundrum, with mood swings so ferocious they can leave blood in their wake.
He is the son of parents who love him, who have dedicated themselves to his care and well-being. They have resigned themselves to the fact that they will never send care packages to college. They will never be grandparents. But with help, maybe when Michael is 21 or 25, those mountains won't seem so impossibly far away.
The challenges Michael Fine poses are representative of a growing trend in Maryland and, in particular, Howard County.
In the past five years, the number of autistic children in the state has more than doubled, from 1,000 in 1995 to 2,304 last year, though no one knows exactly why. And as other counties' populations of autistic children have hovered around 2 percent of the total number of children with special needs, Howard County's has jumped to more than 5 percent.
"They're the only ones," Marjorie Shulbank, of the Maryland Department of Education's special education and early intervention services division said of Howard County. "No one else is even over 3 percent."
Autism is a severely debilitating disorder that appears within the first two years of life. Experts estimate that about one child in 500 will be affected by some form of autism spectrum disorder, the term that describes the wide range of autism-related conditions. Most children with autism appear outwardly normal, but spend their time engaged in puzzling behavior, such as staring into space for hours, throwing tantrums, running away, hand-flapping, compulsive rocking and exhibiting ambivalence toward people, including their parents.
Experts such as Shulbank and others agree that as autistic children grow older, their problems become more perplexing, their challenges more vexing. For parents, that means that there is an increasing need for help - a need many look to private institutions and agencies to provide.
But as the number of autistic children continues to grow, a subsequent need exists for public school systems to be able to assist parents and private institutions in preparing autistic children for a more independent life as they mature.
"I think there's a real issue coming down the pike," said Steve Fine, Michael's father and the president of the Howard County chapter of the Autism Society of America. "As autistic kids get older, their behavior starts to really deteriorate. It's something the school system is going to have to face. Basically, they're going to have to have more and more spots to educate them.
"But then, as they move into elementary school and beyond, a lot of these kids will develop serious behavioral problems, including self-injury and violence. They'll need very specialized school settings, that at private facilities that can be tens of thousands of dollars a year, sometimes up to $50,000 to $60,000. It's incredibly expensive. And there's not enough spots in the school."
In Howard County, the challenge is something special-education officials recognize.
"We do realize that there's a need to do more for the kids that have more intensive needs," said Diana Mitchell, the school district's coordinator of special education.
Howard County has done well in recent years with its programs for younger children with special-education needs. The district's Multiple Intense Needs Children (MINC) program has expanded from regional centers to include smaller, self-contained classes in several schools, allowing children with mental retardation, Down syndrome, autism and other disabilities to remain in their neighborhood schools.
In a MINC classroom at Ilchester Elementary School, autistic children share teachers, toys and floor space with children who are developing normally. A recent summer morning's activities resembled those that observers would expect to see in any preschool - bubble-blowing, spreading frosting on crackers, lots of "repeat-after-me" games. But the system is designed to show the children with disabilities the correct way to behave, to speak and to learn.
