With a $3 million award, Easterseals plans to increase autism testing in Volusia, Flagler

When Brooklynn rolls a small toy car along the floor, her mother rolls another one next to her. When the 3-year-old girl leaps into the air, her mother hops a little higher. And when the child makes a few sounds with her mouth, her mother makes the same sounds back.

For the past five months, an occupational therapist from Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida has visited Brooklynn at her Palm Coast home. The occupational therapist has taught her mother, Cherish Moscowitz, how to use play to help Brooklynn gain language and social skills, which are common trouble areas for children with autism.

With an autism diagnosis before the age of 2 and intensive interventions done before the age of 5, Moscowitz remains confident that Brooklynn will have the tools to succeed when she heads off to kindergarten.

“Early intervention is really the key to autism,” Moscowitz said. “For some parents, especially parents that aren't knowledgeable on what to look out for, or that think something's off but figure it’s not a big deal, catching those things and giving the kids the tools to be successful before they hit the school system is crucial.”

A generous gift awarded to Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida will soon allow more children like Brooklynn to have similar opportunities. The $3 million award from MacKenzie Scott, author and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will help the nonprofit increase autism testing in Volusia and Flagler counties.

For those children suspected of having autism, Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida offers a comprehensive autism diagnostic evaluation, which includes an evaluation for physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The nonprofit also offers the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, an evidence-based test that confirms whether or not a child has autism.

While parents and child autism advocates recognize the importance of autism testing, most insurance companies fail to cover those costs.

"We actually raise funds all year long to cover those costs, so that our parents don't have to pay a significant amount of money out of pocket for that," said Bev Johnson, chief executive officer of Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida. "We only have so much money to give away, so there are children that we have to put on a wait list basically to say, 'Well, we've got to continue raising money. We just don't have the funds to diagnose right now.' We won't have to do that now."

With the receipt of such a significant award, Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida also seeks to fill a few other gaps that have long affected children with autism. One of them would allow parents to have a safe place to leave their autistic teens after the last school bell rings.

For Shari MacFarland, that need has remained unmet for far too long. There has never existed an after-school program that could care for Colin and Kylie, her two teens with autism.

"Even as young children, with the level of need that they had, nobody would take them," MacFarland said. "Now that they're older, a 13- and a 14-year-old aren't supposed to need babysitters, so those programs flat out don't exist. It's not that there’s a bad program out there, there isn't a program out there at all.”

There are few words Brooklynn can say out loud, but her mother knows more words will be added to that list. There are some things like crayons and pencils that slip out of her physical grasp, but her mother knows the muscles in her small hands will become stronger. And there are several tasks that fail to capture her attention for long, but her mother knows her concentration will improve.

"It's getting better, but that's only because she's been given the tools to work on those things at home," Moscowitz said. "As a parent, knowing the struggles that she may have going into the school system, I'm going to relay that to the teachers and the therapists and make sure that she has everything she needs to be successful."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: With a $3 million award, Easterseals plans to increase autism testing in Volusia, Flagler

___

(c)2021 The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla.

Visit The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla. at www.news-journalonline.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.