MOUNT VERNON — Monica Hunnicut tells the story of an autistic high school boy who was being teased by classmates. Because autistic children are often unable to develop socially appropriate behavior skills, the boy didn’t react with caution but instead laughed along with the bullies. Angered by what appeared to them to be arrogance, they beat him nearly to death.
With tears in her eyes, Hunnicut began to describe her mission, her obsession, her life goal.
“That’s not going to be my Logan,” she said fiercely. “Over my dead body. That’s why I need to start this center.”
Logan is her grandson, age 3, and he is autistic. The center is a proposed Mount Vernon branch of Piece by Piece Consulting Services, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) treatment center based in Columbus that is already operating successful centers in Mansfield and Mount Gilead.
The Piece by Piece mission is “to increase accessibility to successful treatments for individuals of all ages with autism spectrum disorders.” The organization establishes and manages Ohio programs in which Trained Behavior Technicians work with children by following the principals of Applied Behavior Analysis. The ABA model identifies a challenge, sets goals and objectives and implements procedures for reducing, increasing or teaching behaviors in austic children.
ASD is a complex developmental condition, notes “The Autism Sourcebook,” “in which there is a disturbance of some stage in a child’s typical physical and/or psychological development, often retarding development.”
The term ASD covers five different but similar diagnoses: Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Rett’s Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified. But most people use the term autism broadly to refer to the disorders, which occur in different degrees of severity and in varying combinations. There is no common cause, nor is there a cure, at this time.
“Autism is a brain injury,” said Hunnicut. “Logan developed it at 16 months. It starts when they get their vaccines, or that’s what I’ve noticed. He had some issues before, but it happened when he got his vaccines. But we can’t pinpoint anything.”
Most doctors, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics disagree that children’s vaccines cause autism. But a new book, “The Boy in the Window” by Barbara Coppo, tells the story of Coppo’s 29-year-old son who was healthy until, at 19 months, he “suffered irreversible brain damage from the D.P.T. [diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus] vaccination ... started having seizures and uncontrollable behaviors,” states the press release promoting the book. “The Centers for Disease Control’s most recent study estimates one out of every 150 children over the age of 8 is autistic or suffers from a related disorder. Today, 560,000 Americans under the age of 21 have autism. That number is hundreds of thousands higher than just 30 years ago.”
The cause of autism — which strikes children age 1 to 3 and affects four times as many boys as girls — has not been scientifically proven. But the uncontrollable behaviors of an autistic child often frighten people because those behaviors are considered bizarre: Repetition of movements or words, obsession with objects, out-of-control tantrums, not responding to others or to social cues, idiosyncratic behavior, poor motor coordination and a host of others.
Hunnicut and her husband, Mike, first noticed that baby Logan didn’t babble or talk, didn’t make eye contact with them and didn’t play or interact with other children.
“There were different little things he wasn’t picking up on,” she said.
The Hunnicuts sought help from a pediatrician, who insisted that Logan could not be diagnosed until he turned 2, and from the Children’s Hospital Nissinger Clinic in Columbus. The clinic is so busy that they are still on the waiting list. Finally, Step By Step Academy in Columbus diagnosed Logan as autistic, and Hunicut set out to learn all she could.
“Their bodies are very toxic to themselves,” she said. “Their bodies have high mineral and metal levels. They’re prone to kidney stones, yeast infections in the esophagus. Sometimes they won’t eat. Nutritional supplements seen to help, and we keep Logan’s diet gluten and casein free. It’s a lot more than I ever realized.”
But while an actual cure may not be possible, Hunnicut said there’s hope that children can recover from autism.
“The goal is to get them what they need so they can be mainstreamed, be indistinguishable [from typical children], show no symptoms, to give them quality of life and allow them to reach their potential. Autism can be overcome. If it’s caught early enough, you can rewire their brains. So if you can diagnose them, why wait until they’re 2 years old?”
Hunnicut learned this while attending a conference on autism. The founders of Piece By Piece, based in Columbus, were displaying their materials at the conference and when Hunicut read about the possibility that Logan could be better, she began to cry.
“I told them I want him to be able to go to kindergarten. I don’t want to move to Columbus. I need my family here. They said, ‘We will help you; we’ll get you a center in Knox County.’”
Hunnicut is in the process of finding a building to house the center, a building that would provide 2,000 square feet of space, a safe drop-off area and green space where children can play. She is also looking for teachers.
The center will offer all-day learning in a classroom setting, and Hunnicut’s goal is that it will open in August. She plans to hold fundraisers to fund scholarships, and to become certified in Applied Behavior Analysis so she can work with students; until then, she’ll direct the center.
Hunnicut said she works with Logan every day and although his progress is slow, he definitely is making progress. Formal, directed learning at a dedicated center, she believes, will speed his progress so Logan can one day overcome autism.
“This is to change lives,” said Hunnicut of the center, “the lives of children, parents, entire families. Because when a child has autism, everybody suffers.”
Enrollment in the center is in progress; call Hunnicut at 501-2876 for information.