Mother Of Autistic Child

 Walks For A Cure

By Kaaren Valenta

When Carrie Cabral had her first child 13 years ago, she had never heard of autism.

“I was a working mother and this was my first child,” she said. “I had no idea that something was wrong until someone told me ‘I think your child has autism.’”

“He looked so normal to me and seemed like such a bright child,” she explained. “He would laugh. I didn’t realize that he needed help until I started to compare him to my friends’ children, who were already talking.”

In the years since, Mrs Cabral has leaned a lot about autism.

“Autism spectrum disorders affect people of all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic backgrounds and occur in an estimated one in every 250 births,” she said. “Autism spectrum disorders are the second most common developmental disability, after mental retardation.”

Autism is considered a spectrum disorder because symptoms and severity vary from individual to individual. Autism is different in each person with the disorder — no two cases are the same. Autism is a complex brain disorder that often inhibits a person’s ability to communicate, respond to surroundings, or form relationships with others. First identified more than 50 years ago, it is typically diagnosed by the age of 2 or 3.

 Few disorders are as devastating to a child and his or her family. While some people with autism are mildly affected, most people with the condition will require lifelong supervision and care and have significant language impairments. Autism is four times more likely to affect boys than girls.

Currently, the causes of autism are unknown and there are no specific medical treatments or cure. Physicians have no blood test or diagnostic scan that can definitively diagnose the disorder. As such, the diagnosis of autism is based solely upon observations of behavior. Recent epidemiology studies have shown that autism spectrum disorders are ten times more prevalent than they were just ten years ago.

.Despite increasing national interest and high prevalence, autism research is one of the lowest funded areas of medical research by both public and private sources.

That is why Carrie Cabral wants everyone to know that she will be walking on June 6 in the third annual Walk FAR For NAAR event held by the National Alliance for Autism Research at Manhattanville College, in Purchase, N.Y.

“Money raised will help fund research efforts and bring us closer to finding a cure for this devastating disease,” Mrs Cabral said.

All proceeds from the event will benefit NAAR, whose primary mission is to fund and accelerate biomedical research that seeks to find the causes, prevention, treatment, and a cure for autism.

The Newtown School District has a special program, housed at Middle Gate School, for children with autism. Currently 13 students are enrolled in this program; another three attend out-of-district programs. When the Newtown program began in 1999, Mrs Cabral’s son, Joseph Morales, Jr, was in the first class.

“It is an excellent program,” she said.

Joey now lives in North Branford in a state-approved home where the mother is a certified behavior analyst. He is doing very well there, but Carrie Cabral wishes that he could come home.

“When Joseph was young there just weren’t support services,” Mrs Cabral explained. “I enrolled him in the state’s Birth to Three program, but there weren’t programs to help parents in their homes, like the respite center that exists today.”

The stress of having a child with autism had contributed to the end of Mrs Cabral’s first marriage. She later married John Cabral, who is a policeman in Westport, and they have two sons, Michael, now 6, and Jessie, 5.

“When Joseph was turning 8, I couldn’t get him toilet trained,” Mrs Cabral said. “I couldn’t get any help from the State Department of Mental Retardation, so I went to DCF [the Department of Children & Families]. I was at my wit’s end because I was pregnant with Michael and had an 11-month-old. I was desperate to get help, so I told them I was afraid I might hurt Joseph, although I had never done anything like that.”

DCF immediately removed Joseph from her home.

“I saw it only as a short-term situation, but ever since DCF has been trying to make it permanent,” Mrs Cabral said. “I see Joseph three times a week. I take him to his occupational therapy sessions. He is doing very well. He is manageable, he listens, and has been mainstreamed into regular classes in North Branford. He is verbal and social, although the doctors had told me when he was 5 years old that he would never speak. I think Applied Behavior Analysis really helped my child — I think it saved him.”

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a teaching approach in which the child’s functioning is routinely analyzed to identify specific skills needed for improved performance and functioning.

Now Carrie Cabral works part-time at home as a medical transcriptionist, after her children are in bed, so that she can be a full-time mother. She hears everyone tell her that Joseph is doing so well in his current placement that she should “leave well enough alone,” but she is reluctant to agree.

“No matter what, I think there are better ways to handle families,” she says. “I was trying to get him services, not give him up. Whenever he comes home to visit, it makes our family complete.”

Last year Mrs Cabral, Jesse, and Michael took part in the fifth annual three-mile Walk for Autism to benefit the Connecticut Autism Spectrum Resource Center in Hamden.

“That walk is on May 2 this year, and the resource center is important, but the NAAR walk is different. It raises money for research, to find a cure,” she said.

Mrs Cabral invites anyone who would like to join in the Walk FAR For NAAR to call the toll-free number at 888-777-NAAR, or email autismwalk@naar.org or visit the website at www.naar.org. Walk FAR For NAAR is the signature fundraising event of the National Alliance for Autism Research and is the nation’s largest walk program dedicated to autism research. Since its inception in May 2000 approximately 150,000 people have participated and collectively 54 events have raised more than $15 million for autism research.

“Here is where we need your help,” Carrie Cabral said. “Any amount is appreciated — $10, $25, $50. Please make your check out to the National Alliance for Autism Research, and send it to the national headquarters at 49 Wall Street, Research Park, Princeton NJ 08540.”

NAAR funds research covering a wide range of scientific disciplines such as genetics, immunology, language and communication, epidemiology, behavioral sciences, molecular and cellular biology, and the neurosciences. In 1998, NAAR played an instrumental role in establishing and funding the Autism Tissue Program, a parent-led, science-driven brain tissue donation program dedicated to autism research.

More information also is available by contacting the local chapter office of NAAR in Cos Cob, Conn., at 203-552-8980 or by emailing westfair@naar.org.