Autism is fairly new to the medical field. There is a lot of misinformation about autism and many cases are misdiagnosed and sometimes completely overlooked.

Usually appearing during infancy and early childhood, autism impairs social interactions and communication and causes repetitive behavior. The first cases of autism were reported in the 1940s and were falsely attributed to genetic mistakes of upper-class populations due to the parents of the autistic children being highly educated.

Treatment of autism has always consisted of therapy to lessen the associated deficits and problems related to the family, but has never shown many positive results. Success rates have been low or almost nonexistent.

The Central California Autism Center at Fresno State is trying to turn this statistic around through the use of a new program the center bought, known as Skills.

Many programs in the past have been similar to the Skills system. However, none are as extensive or have as much research invested in them. More than 10 years of research and planning went into the program. Each child in the center is given an individual education plan based on a battery of separate assessments including social skills and language assessments to understand how to help the child learn and develop.

Instead of a home-based program, CCAC is a center-based program in the Kremen Educational building on campus, which uses Applied Behavior Analysis and the recently added Skills program to work with children with autism.

Amanda Adams, an associate professor in the psychology department and the director for CCAC on campus, has been with the center from the beginning. Adams, who is an ABA expert, helps to train Fresno State students so they are ready for when they graduate.

“The goal is to advance the children’s learning skills as much as possible,” Adams said. “They are capable of learning. It just requires more practice in different ways.”

Seven children have graduated from the center and moved on to typical education, Adams said.

Children come to the center five days a week, some for as many as eight hours a day to be put through the intensive ABA and Skills programs.

Adel Najdowski of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders in Fresno teaches the instructors and aids how to use the Skills program.

“We’re out there in the community and meeting people and families with autism and hear many of the same stories from all over the world,” Najdowski said.

Reaching more families and making professionals more efficient so they can focus on teaching the children who need it the most is the hope of the center, she said.

While the ABA program seems to be the most effective way of treating autism, it is not available in many parts of the world.

“Everyone I talk to seems to know someone who is affected with autism, Najdowski said. “The Skills program is the best way to help educate the children. If a child needs to learn x, y, z, then the child will be given a curriculum to learn x, y, z.”

There are more than 6,000 people using the program developed by the autism center. Skills covers subjects that may seem unimportant or unnecessary, but delivers a more in-depth set of information to help the child’s education.

“No family should have to go without this,” Najdowski said. “We want to get the child in the door and then get a specific program for the child.”

Melissa Altamirano, assistant clinical director of the CCAC, got involved when a professor from the psychology department approached her after finishing her undergraduate courses. Chris White asked Altamirano if she would like to apply what she had learned in his class with a family and its autistic child.

Originally just a way to make some extra gas money, Altamirano became attached.

“I cried with the parents when he attended his first day of kindergarten,” Altamirano said. “I have been hooked ever since.”

Therapists that take part in the one-on-one therapy with the children enter the data daily. The supervisors, who are graduate students, analyze the data to prepare themselves for after graduation.

“To have an actual protocol all ready for us from which we can just pull certain lessons from that section, I think that is where we are going to start filling in all of those gaps,” Altamirano said.

Parents can log in online to check up on their children’s progress in the programs.

The Skills program is new to the CCAC at Fresno State, but the officials with the center remain positive that it will help advance the education of the children.

“I love that you get to celebrate each little baby step a child makes,” Altamirano said. “It’s not one of those jobs where you say, ‘They didn’t do this’ or ‘They didn’t do that.’ We get to leave every day saying, ‘Yay’ and every step is celebrated. It is really exciting and makes for a great environment.”