Instructor's Notes

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Shannon Kintner

Photo Essay and Article

This photo essay provides a glimpse into the life of Charlie, a five-year-old boy diagnosed with non-severe autism. Click through the slideshow to view all of the pictures, read the accompanying student newspaper article, and then respond to the critical reading questions that follow.

1

“You go bye-bye?” says Charlie Minto, 5, to Kari Hughes, a behavioral therapist. Charlie was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (in lay terms, non-severe autism) in October of this past year. He receives in-home behavior therapy five days a week. When he’s finished with it and ready for playtime, he doesn’t keep it to himself.

2

“No, Charlie, it’s not time for me to go yet,” Hughes responds. In one year, however, Charlie might be saying “bye-bye” to his therapists forever.

3

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the guidelines used to diagnose different types of disorders, will be released in its fifth edition in May 2013 with its first set of revisions in seventeen years. While the changes are not yet complete, the proposed new definition of autism may be more rigorous than the current one. Many families are worried that, due to the revised wording of the definition, their loved ones will lose the diagnosis, and with it, their services through state, school, and insurance companies.

4

Mindy Minto, Charlie’s mother, worries that the costs for the behavioral, occupational, and speech therapies that Charlie needs will be prohibitive. “My fear is that he won’t get the help he needs and that he won’t…be the Charlie that he can be, he won’t rise to his full potential. And that’s concerning.”

Meaning