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Towson U. plans adult autism center
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TOWSON (Map, News) - Therese Erdman worries about the future of her autistic son, Ross. At 16, Ross is growing closer to adulthood and eventually will be too old for many of the school-age programs in place for autistic students, like the one he attends at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.
“I think there is a lot of research going into the younger population and therapies for them when they are young,” said Erdman, a mother of two teenage boys from Ellicott City.
“But once 21 rolls around, you have to look for programs yourself or sign up for government programs, which have long waiting lists.”
To help Ross and other young adults with the transition to higher education or the workplace, Therese and her husband, Douglas Erdman, a Towson alumnus, donated $50,000 to Towson University to start the Center for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Diagnoses of autism, a developmental disorder, have exploded in recent years: One in 150 children in America are affected, according to a 2007 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Whether the jump resulted from an increased awareness or an increase in actual prevalence, experts can’t agree.
They do agree, however, that much of the attention and research on autism has focused on young children and not on empowering adults during their switch from home life to independence.
“Whatever the cause and whatever the interventions done for infants, toddlers and children, we still have individuals approaching adulthood with significant needs as well,” said Charlotte Exner, dean of Towson’s College of Health Professions.
“This gift is really just phenomenal in allowing us to begin this office.”
The center, which will be housed within the university’s occupational therapy department, will need at least $300,000 more to fulfill its mission of conducting research on adults with autism, creating undergraduate and graduate classes on autism for students in health-related fields and providing outreach to families who need support.
The center will start offering services in September and courses in 2009.
kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com
