Helping kids with disabilities

Re An action plan for Ontario’s autistic children, Opinion, Online, Jan. 25 I am an early childhood educator who works with autistic children. Based on my experience, all children have their own individual developmental level, even though they have the same diagnosis. How to support them effectively within a tight government budget is important. Our final goal is to assist the child in developing and adapting to society. We need to distribute funding based on their needs. We also need quality-educated specialists to participate. Supporting education for more specialists is also necessary. I have witnessed many families experiencing helplessness, disappointment and frustration when their child is diagnosed with autism. Children are our future. What we are doing today is able to change their and our future. Chloe Chunyi Wu, Daycare supervisor, Toronto If families in Ontario are to receive something like $22,000 a year for autism services for children under 6 and those between 6 and 18 are to get something like $5,000 (as per the B.C. model), what about families with children/youth who have other disabilities (vision, developmental, hearing, physical disabilities, etc.)? Isn’t there an equity issue here? Also, with the proposed model, won’t there be a race to the bottom with respect to agencies and providers cutting services in order to lower costs and compete for those dollars? Brian O’Sullivan, Stouffville