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{"id":40,"date":"2012-03-02T03:08:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T03:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hopeinautism.com\/?p=40"},"modified":"2015-02-03T14:35:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T14:35:52","slug":"long-awaited-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopeinautism.com\/long-awaited-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Awaited Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Samuel was first diagnosed and I immersed myself in autism research, I came across\u00a0a particular aid for kids with autism – autism assistance dogs. I’d heard of seeing eye dogs and guide dogs, but this was a first. Excited that there was something that seemed to promising, I eagerly dove into the land of Google. There were actually several organizations across the country that trained dogs (more specifically golden retrievers and labs) for autism assistance. Reading all the benefits was thrilling to me. Here was something that seemed to be a great possibility for us. And then I read the FAQ’s. Cost of dog: $13,000. Another website, $10,000. Another, $20,000! I know that breeding purebreds is expensive. Add to that the year’s worth of training going into these dogs by professionals and it’s easy to see why it’s so expensive. I get it. But when families of kids with autism face upwards of $20,000\u00a0 – $100,000 a year for specific therapies that is not covered by insurance, an additional<\/em> cost of this magnitude seems hopeless. <\/p>\n
Granted, these organizations don’t expect families to have this kind of money on hand. They give ideas for fundraising. Some communities may come together to help one particular family for such special aid. But usually, those kinds of things happen more for severely affected kids. At least, that’s how it seems to me. Our son is higher functioning. He is verbal and can communicate his needs. He has behavioral difficulties, scripting, rigidity of routine, social deficits and more, but because he does speak and can\u00a0communicate, it could be a bit more difficult to persuade people to contribute to our cause when there are so many others who appear to be better deserving because they are more severely affected than Sam.<\/p>\n