Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008

Autistic Modesto youngster a success story

Child has been 'mainstreamed' in school

Six years ago, a crew from the British Broadcasting Corp. came to Modesto and turned its cameras on Effie Linares, a 5-year-old with autism.

The crew had crossed the Atlantic to do a report on autism, coming to Modesto on the recommendation of O. Ovar Lovaas, a retired child psychologist. He had done breakthrough work on autism at UCLA, and one of his protégés, Mila Amerine-Dickens, had founded the Central Valley Autism Project here in 1991.

Effie's parents, Lydia and Efren Linares, enrolled their son in the local program when he was 3. Lovaas enjoyed great successes through intensive tutoring and supervising in the home and at school. The process enables many autistic children to be placed into regular classrooms where they can learn math and language skills, previously assumed to be beyond their reach.

Effie Linares is one of those success stories. Mainstreamed since kindergarten, the 11-year-old is a fifth-grader at Lakewood Elementary School in Modesto.

Gone are the days when he'd go ballistic if anyone touched his Disney videos.

"He was very rigid," Lydia Linares said. "It's what the people from CVAP worked on since he was 3 years old. They've pretty much eliminated that."

While some autistic children are withdrawn, Effie defies the stereotype, his mother said.

"Fortunately, he shows affection," she said. "He desires to be social."

There is no one reason for his progress, Lydia Linares said. A combination of efforts have been effective.

First, his level of autism is such that the program can work. Many autistic children have severe behavioral issues and cannot function in regular classes. Some exhibit "savant" characteristics that enable them to absorb information in one or two specific areas of interest.

"The first autistic kid I taught read dictionaries," said Mike Doornewaard, who teaches third grade at Lakewood and had Effie in his class two years ago. "The other kids loved it. Every time they needed to spell a word, they'd just ask him."

Effie's autism surfaces in a different way, Doornewaard said.

"He'd daydream and sort of get lost in his own little world, is how they explained it to me," Doornewaard said. "The task was to keep him on focus."

But savants often are susceptible to emotional outbursts that Effie hasn't had in years.

Because his behavior is not an issue, his parents, teachers, and the program workers get a much clearer picture of his intellectual strengths and weaknesses.

"He is not the norm, the standard bearer (among autistic kids)," Lakewood Principal Doug Fraser said. "Yes, he's had huge challenges to overcome. There's been a great relationship with CVAP and the Valley Mountain Regional Center (which serves the developmentally disabled). The parental involvement is huge. You look what they've done with Effie at home and school, and it's been outstanding."

Effie's dad, Efren, works the swing shift at International Paper in Modesto so that he could spend two hours each day volunteering as a yard duty supervisor at Lakewood. His presence provides a calming influence for Effie. One hour is dedicated to being with Effie, the other with his other son, third-grader Aaron.

"I'd like to have a normal life, going to work in the morning and going home to dinner with the family," Efren Linares said. "But then, I wouldn't be able to be here."

He and his wife balance the attention given to Effie by spending their weekends with Aaron. Effie goes to visit his grandparents, Fidel and Lydia Martinez, in Modesto.