Why early diagnosis is crucial
Therapy helps most when started promptly By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Staff Writer As Maria Romano grew up in Argentina, her only exposure to mental retardation was a neighborhood boy whose family couldn't accept his disability. At mealtime, the child ate alone in the kitchen while everyone else dined in another room. "People saw it as a stigma," said Romano, who now lives in Chapel Hill. Thirty years later, Romano's experience with disabilities could not be more different. Her daughter, Lucia, has Down syndrome. For Lucia, intervention arrived from the moment she was born. Thanks to a regimen of physical, speech and occupational therapy, Lucia understands English and Spanish. She knows sign language, a common communication device for speech-delayed children. She plays dress-up with her older sister, Maria, and coos to her baby brother, Francisco. Friendly and vivacious, Lucia is a little girl who happens to have a disability, not a disabled little girl. Early intervention can mean the difference between adults who hold jobs, manage their finances and live independently and those who remain totally dependent on others or must be institutionalized, experts say. "Early identification is critical," said Dr. Stuart Teplin, an associate professor of pediatrics who works at the Center for Development and Learning, a division of UNC-Chapel Hill. "It's important to get in there and start working with that child." Recent research shows that an infant's brain can be molded by social learning and other direct intervention, said Jane Barlow, nursing section head at the research center. "We do have a lot more power to change the way the normal pathways are laid down than we ever thought," she said. Thanks to a federal law adopted in 1986, public school systems must offer services to disabled students ages 3 and older. That law, in turn, is an extension of landmark legislation passed in 1975. Now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, the law requires states to develop special education programs, with federal support. In 1990, autism and brain injuries were added to the list of developmental disabilities covered. In two months, when Lucia turns 3, a team of counselors, social workers and doctors will help the Romanos develop an Individualized Education Plan to guide Lucia's learning. Her teachers at Chapel of the Cross, a Chapel Hill school, will rely on the learning guide. Romano marvels at the differences in treatment available to her daughter and the neighborhood boy back in Argentina, now a grown man who lives at home and can't read or write. "Lucia, at his age, is going to be someplace completely different," Romano says. "I have very high expectations of what she is going to be able to do. The sky's the limit." Alan Scher Zagier can be reached at 932-2012 or azagier@nando.com |
