EH is a descriptive category or paradigm which gives us a way to look at a set of behaviors that are not
'typical' and how they may or may not impair an individual's ability to function successfully at school, work and in their lives in general. Different people define EH in different ways. As a psychologist and an educator, my task is to look at the series of 'symptoms' which have put under that label and to address them. The category called EH has increased my ability to design treatments for individuals based on how these different issues may appear as a group in an individual, how they can be related and how they present themselves across diffferent disorders.
For children with autism this paradigm can be very helpful because these children frequently show a cluster of EH traits. Unfortunately, many parents of children with autism approach school districts with legal threats which demand access to more educational services than most other children, typical or not, will ever have a chance to experience. Special supports and teaching are provided to students whose disability limits their ability to have an equal access to education. Some parents demands go beyond this and essentially they are asking us to 'cure' their children. The cost of these services and of the lawsuits, if we say that we don't feel a specific service is an appropriate use of school funds, is huge and growing.
Parents are beginning to ask the schools to 'cure' their children's executive functioning deficits. We have always addressed the issues which are now called EH. Programs are in place and continue to be studied and refined to teach children skills in areas defined as part of EH such as impulse control and attention deficits.
The difficulty is that we can't possibly 'cure' EH as a disorder because it isn't a specific thing that can be accurately measured. Testing for EH can give us a flavor of the mix of individual disabilities and how they may be impacting a student, so that we can more accurately treat children in these specific areas. Using EH as a specific disability which the schools must treat creates new fodder for the lawsuits demanding the excess services which are draining our educational systems.
I must add as a caveat that I am not demeaning the struggles of children with autism or their parents efforts to provide their child with a meaningful education and the best possible life scenario they can achieve, which is often very good indeed. I have led support groups for parents of children with autism, providing an environment where they can share their worries and frustrations, but also where I can support them in their efforts for their children through any information and insight that I have to offer, and most of all the expertise and support that they can give each other.
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