TORONTO – Ontario will be expanding services for children with autism spectrum disorders starting next spring, Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten said Tuesday.
The province will spend $25 million a year to provide Applied Behaviour Analysis services and supports in community agencies and centres, schools and homes.
That will help about 8,000 children and youth communicate and cope better in school, Broten said.
"More kids are getting the right supports at the right time," she said in a release.
The government will also establish a committee of experts next fall to provide advice on emerging research to help children with autism, she added.
The government already funds a more intensive form of ABA – called IBI therapy – for 1,446 children and youth, which is more beneficial for kids at the more severe end of the autism spectrum.
Some schools have therapists to provide IBI therapy, but not in regular classrooms. The government argues that the one-on-one treatments work better in a separate space.
Some parents have complained that they’re facing long waits for the expensive therapy or have seen their kids arbitrarily cut off from IBI treatment.
They argue that the lives of children with autism can drastically improve if IBI therapy is started early enough. But delays in accessing the crucial but costly treatment has forced families to drain their savings and go into debt to pay for the therapy the province has promised to provide, they say.
Taline Sagharian, whose son Christopher has autism, said the move to expand services is a "positive" step, but one that leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
It’s still unclear what kind of services will be offered and where they’ll be delivered, she said.
Parents like herself have long argued that IBI therapy should be provided in the classroom.
"What I’m wondering is, are they going to now allow these children to be able to access IBI in public school together?" said Sagharian, who battled the government in court over funding for specialized autism treatment.
Many parents are also concerned that the government is setting benchmarks to cut children off therapy prematurely, she said.
"It looks promising, but I have a lot of questions right now and we’ll have to see," Sagharian said. "We just need the answers."
Parents who aren’t satisfied with a decision regarding their child’s eligibility for IBI therapy will be able to request an independent review starting next fall, according to the government.
Autism spectrum disorders affect about one in 150 children in Ontario. It also affects four times more boys than girls.
It usually appears within the first three years of a child’s life. Kids with such disorders can have difficulty relating to others, problems with speech and language, and limited and repetitive interests and behaviours.
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