The US military and its autistic kids

According to Pentagon data, there are 13,243 autistic children among the 1.2 million dependents of active duty personnel. This incidence, just over one in ninety, is vastly higher than the conventional wisdom that only one in every 150 children is affected. This apparent increase is almost certainly due to rigorous military record keeping rather than any difference in environment. Many critics say it is unfortunate that the military does such a poor job of providing long term care after identifying so many in need.

While every military family has access to health care via the TRICARE system, only one in ten of the identified autistic children in the system are served with applied behavioral analysis therapy. Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA, a long term, intensive approach to handling the needs of autistic children, can fill nearly all of a school day in the beginning years of treatment. Most experts feel it is well worth the time spent, as it can result in a child becoming functional enough to complete high school, attend college, and have a chance at a successful career. While this doesn't work for everyone, for many it means freedom from a lifetime of complete dependence on others.

The military lifestyle, one of biennial moves to new posts during peacetime and repeated deployments during wartime, also presents a tremendous hurdle for military families. The lack of uniform, high quality service across military bases costs the government as well as the individual families. A man who entered service as a lieutenant via ROTC has a college degree and, by the time he makes major, he and the military have a sizable mutual investment in both time and training. A child born a decade into his career and found to have autism in preschool is often cause to exit the service for a more lucrative private sector job just to remain close to a program that is working.

Rather than seeing the 1.1 percent of military dependents with autism as a burden, many suggest that the military should look at improvements in this area as the foundation for another type of service to the country. A large cohort of children on the autistic spectrum coupled with the discipline that allowed the detection and documentation of a higher incidence than is generally recognized could be an excellent study group for researchers. Some observers believe that the research that could emerge would benefit about fifty percent of the afflicted children; they would see dramatic gains, cutting their lifetime care cost from over three million dollars to a third that number.

Autism is inevitably a societal expense. Hence, many feel it makes good economic sense as well to spend $100,000 to $200,000 now to avoid ten to twenty times the treatment and adjustment cost later. As part of the bargain, the individual dignity of thousands would be lifted.

Neal Rauhauser writes for The Cutting Edge News and is an analyst and consultant on energy and telecommunications. He is a member of the Stranded Wind Initiative and can be found at www.strandedwind.org.