By Mike Pound
news@joplinglobe.com
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Like most parents, Shaine Jordan was eager to introduce his 4-year-old daughter, Brielle, to a visitor at the Ozark Center for Autism.
Shaine and Brielle have come a long way in the year and a half that Brielle has been attending the preschool for children who have autism. For the first year or so of Brielle’s life, Shaine was just trying to introduce himself to his daughter.
Shaine said that as an infant, Brielle didn’t seem to recognize much of anything.
“She would lay on her back, hold her head and slap her hands,” Shaine said.
At 23 months, Brielle was diagnosed with autism. Shaine and Brielle’s mother, Christian, visited several doctors before autism was diagnosed. That finding, as devastating as it was, turned out to be a blessing in disguise because with it came a chance for Brielle to receive a critical autism therapy known as applied behavior analysis, or ABA. Experts say the therapy is the only therapy that has proved to be effective with children who have autism.
Brielle first began receiving ABA therapy at home, Shaine said. When she was old enough, she began attending the autism center where, like all of the 13 children who attend the preschool, she receives the intensive one-on-one treatment.
The results, Shaine said, have literally been life-changing. After almost two years of not being able to communicate with his daughter, Shaine now has a true relationship with Brielle.
“We’ve been incredibly blessed,” Shaine said. “The situation here is ideal.”
I’m somewhat biased here, but I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that the Ozark Center for Autism is truly one of the jewels of Joplin. With programs based on practices and treatments perfected at the famed Cleveland Clinic, the autism center is changing lives every day of the year.
But the thing is, the center could be changing even more lives if more money were available to make that possible. The key to ABA therapy is that one-on-one instruction the children must receive. That therapy is expensive, and at present, the center is really equipped to handle only 13 children at a time. But the folks behind the center — the same folks who, against all odds, were able to get the center off the ground — have bigger dreams. One of those dreams is to expand the preschool into a school that can also work with kids in kindergarten through the 12th grade.
But that move is a bit down the line. What the folks at the autism center want to concentrate on right now is making the preschool available to as many area children as possible. That’s why the upcoming third annual Walk for Autism Awareness is so important. The money raised via the one-mile walk, which will be held on Saturday, Aug. 28, at Northpark Mall, will go to the center’s scholarship fund.
Registration for the walk begins at 7 a.m. at the J.C. Penney court at the mall. The walk will get under way at 8 a.m. The fee is $10 per walker for those who register in advance and $15 for walkers who register on the day of the event. To register for the walk or to pick up pledge forms, you can dial up the nice folks at the Ozark Center at 417-347-7600.
By the way, Shaine has been pretty busy raising money for the walk. He told me that the center has given him a gift that he wasn’t sure he would ever get to unwrap, and he wants other families to receive that same gift.
If you can’t take part in the walk but would like to help, here’s a suggestion: Dial up the Ozark Center and make a donation in Brielle’s name.
It would, I think, be money well spent.
