Walking together
Adam Tepas, 8, listens to Bob Burmood during a horse therapy session at S.A.M.S. Riders Inc., a therapeutic horseback riding program north of Kalispell. Tepas has autism. Garrett Cheen/Daily Inter Lake
Fundraiser to benefit support group for Flathead families with autistic children
The Daily Inter Lake
Most of the time, 8-year-old Adam Tepas appears normal.
But he'll only eat eight or 10 things. And he needed several years of speech therapy.
Sometimes, he just has a "meltdown" - something in his brain causes him to become upset, overwhelmingly so.
"Autistic children have no real control over their actions," said his father, Tim Tepas, of Kalispell.
Tepas and his wife Mary are among the founding members of the Northwest Montana Chapter of the Autism Society of America.
The chapter has scheduled its first "Autism Walk" for noon, Sept. 20 at Woodland Park.
Registration begins at 11 a.m. and is $12 per person. The chapter welcomes team entries.
The money will be used to help maintain a support group that routinely meets every few weeks, but hopes to settle into a steady monthly schedule.
The money will also be used to create a lending library of literature on autism and related subjects. And the money will be used to help parents of autistic children connect with the appropriate agencies and doctors.
"I feel really blessed to live in this area because there are really good services here," Tepas said.
Besides walkers, the chapter is looking for volunteers to help run the event. Interested people can call 257-8758 or go to www.MontanaASA.org.
Formed last November, the Northwest Montana Chapter averages about 25 people per meeting.
Autism is a hard-to-define and diagnose disability that typically shows up in a child's first three years.
A 2007 federal Centers for Disease Control report estimated that one out of 150 children suffer from some degree of autism. The disorder is much more likely to occur in boys than girls.
"It's becoming more and more prevalent," Tepas said.
The disorder is a brain malfunction that is not well understood. The exact cause isn't known, but genetics is the prime suspect.
Cases vary widely from mild to severe. Different symptoms show up in different people.
Symptoms might include prolonged silence, narrow interests, stilted speech, rocking, hand flapping, other repetitive behavior, and impaired social interactions and communications. Usually, an autistic child has multiple symptoms.
There are no specific medical tests for autism other than informed observation and tests to eliminate other potential disorders.
About half of parents with autistic children note unusual behaviors by the time their children are 18 months old, and about 80 percent of autistic children are identified by the age of two, according to a 2007 article in Nature: Clinical Practice Neurology.
A 2004 Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders article said that a child should be evaluated if he is silent or does not gesture by the time he is one year old.
Another sign would be no single words by 16 months, or no two-word phrases by two years old. Another red light would be any loss of language or social skills at any age.
Autism is not curable. However treatment - the earlier, the better - can lessen the effects and increase independence and quality of life.
Treatments are combinations of therapies, special classes and medication - which vary from patient to patient.