Autism age restrictions are arbitrary

Re Don’t cut kids’ chances, Editorial May 8 This editorial hit the nail on the head by saying, “To suddenly strip children and families of the hope to which they have clung, sometimes for years, is too cruel a way to save money or find efficiencies. Kids already on the waiting list and in the program should get the treatment. It’s the right thing to do.”

As the grandmother of twins who have been fortunate to receive some Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI), I have seen the difference this therapy has made. They started the program at age 4.5 but will be losing this therapy before the full benefits have been acquired.

There is no way that Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), a much less intense therapy, for an hour each week for 10 weeks once a year, will do the same. To expect the school system to take over when training hasn’t been done is ludicrous as well. To expect parents to cover IBI therapy privately when it can cost up to $40,000 a year, especially when they have more than one child on the spectrum, is unfair.

Certainly early intervention is vital but so is IBI therapy as long as children are reaching the full potential this therapy provides. To put an age at which children with autism benefit from IBI cannot be done. It is a condition that differs with every child on the spectrum.

This proposal puts money before the needs of the 1 in 68 children on the autism spectrum. The Wynne government needs to reconsider and allow children on the waiting list and in the IBI program to continue until it is shown that they are no longer benefiting from it. Clare Keast, Peterborough