Article Photos

Article Links

» Video

Manuel was not your typical 2-year-old. After developing normally for a year and a half, the toddler's speech disappeared and he withdrew into himself. He threw tantrums lasting sometimes an hour long. He had intestinal problems and didn't sleep a wink at night, catching only brief naps during the day. He lined up everything in his sight - toys, books, pillows, you name it.

His mother recognized the signs of autism, a development disorder that impairs a child's social, communication and behavior skills. Jessica Stradwick of Wheeling had learned about the disease - which affects one in 150 U.S. children -in a child development class at Belmont Technical College.

During the long process of getting Manuel diagnosed, Stradwick graduated and took a therapist job with the brand new Augusta Levy Learning Center, an intensive autism treatment school in Wheeling opened by Kathy Shapell in 2005.

As soon as Manuel was diagnosed, his mother enrolled him at the school. He was 3.

Today, Manuel is not your typical first-grader - he's above average. The first graduate of the Augusta Levy program, Manuel attends Wheeling Catholic Elementary School, where he has been on the Principal's List for receiving straight A's every nine weeks since he entered kindergarten. Manuel's spelling test hangs on the wall beside a few classmates' in Stefanie King's room. It is emblazoned with a blue "A++" for getting all eight words right plus the bonus word.

What's more, Manuel is pleasant, helpful and always smiling "from ear to ear," said Wheeling Catholic Principal Judy Stechly. "You would never, ever, know" he had autism, she said.

King said she was "blown away" when told Manuel had autism. She said if she had to pick out a child in her classroom with the disease, she wouldn't even consider Manuel.

Manuel's mom credits the Augusta Levy Learning Center with "saving" Manuel from autism, a developmental disorder that the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says has no cure.

The intensive, one-on-one, highly individualized therapy using the research-based, Lovaas model of applied behavioral analysis at the Levy Center turned what seemed a hopeless situation into one filled with promise.

"I'm thankful for them giving my son a chance at a better life, that they helped save my child," Jessica Stradwick said.

Documenting Success

The Levy Center's success has not gone unnoticed.

The school - along with interviews with Stradwick, Shapell and others - was featured last week in a 10-minute documentary, "Heroes of Hope," which aired on public television stations around the country. It can be viewed in its entirety on You Tube. (Readers may access a link to the video by going to this article on www.news-register.net.)

The "Heroes of Hope" series, hosted by Hugh Downs, raises awareness about a range of industries around the globe that affect the human condition. Shapell said the show's producers contacted her during a search for grassroots organizations that are making an educational impact in small and/or underserved areas of the world. They focused on autism because of its prevalence.

One reason the center was featured is because it is the only school in the country to receive Lovaas certification outside of the Lovaas Institute at University of California-Los Angeles.

"One thing that makes the Augusta Levy Center stand out is their consistent demonstration and their phenomenal commitment and passion for delivering high quality treatment for children and their families," Rose Hoffer, assistant director of the Lovaas Institute, told "Heroes of Hope."

Until recently, she said, Lovaas certification has been available only at the institute.

"But due to our ongoing and very positive and successful relationship with the Augusta Levy Learning Center, we are working with them to become the first school program to be certified in our method," Hoffer said.

Shapell, who has a master's degree in special education and is the center's executive director, said the certification means Levy Center therapists - who already are trained by Lovaas representatives - will receive additional behavioral analysis training that will give the therapists more control over their students' educational plans. Instead of having a behavior analyst come from California to analyze a students' progress and make recommendations, the local therapists will be able to make some of those decisions, Shapell said.

"It will provide, I think, better, more efficient services to our students," Shapell said.

The documentary opens with a shot of the bustling sidewalks of a big city, with a voiceover narrator saying educational opportunities abound for people in the big cities. It then cuts to a shot of Main Street, Wheeling, looking north, and he says opportunities are harder to come by in America's small towns. Stradwick is shown walking with Manuel, followed by a wide shot of the Ohio River looking north from the Ohio side.

Throughout the video, Shapell is interviewed about the school and the struggles facing families of children with autism.

The biggest struggle, she said, is funding. The Levy Center is a fee-based program. While several local school districts have paid for students to attend, many still do not. Health insurance also does not cover the treatment, which Shapell feels "makes no sense."

"There is a dramatic difference, dramatic difference, between how much it costs upfront, which is about $40,000 a year for two or three years, compared to an enormous amount of money, $3 million in lifetime care that we would have to pay for kids if they don't get that early intensive intervention," Shapell said in the documentary. "Autism is a pay now or pay later kind of condition."

The school holds a variety of fundraisers throughout the year to provide scholarships for students, Shapell said. The school is at its capacity of 10 students and has an "enormous" waiting list, said Shapell. Last year's move from cramped quarters at Zion Lutheran Church in Bethlehem to the ground floor of the former Wheeling Health Right location on North Main Street helped, but Shapell said the school already has outgrown its new space.

"The biggest challenge is having to turn families away because of a lack of space and funding, and that's just heartbreaking, especially because of what we know about early intervention for these kids," Shapell said. The earlier a child begins receiving the necessary 40 hours a week of therapy, the more likely he will be able to make the transition to a typical classroom.

"There is a window of opportunity. If (children with autism) haven't learned to communicate by the time they are 7 or 8, that window will close and their chances of making significant progress and acquiring language are greatly decreased," Shapell said.

Partnerships

On the early diagnosis front, the Levy Center has joined forces with the West Virginia University School of Medicine to help its pediatric residents learn about autism and what to look for in patients.

"They can see what autism looks like, but they also can see what a research-based program looks like," Shapell said, noting she is working with the university to open a center in Morgantown modeled on the Levy Center.

The center also partners with Wheeling Jesuit University, Bethany College and West Liberty University to give their special education students hands-on experience.

"The center provides our students with top-notch experience with the educational methods that they use and gives our students a chance to see the impact of autism on children and their families," said Debra Hull, chair of WJU's psychology department, in the documentary.'

"On the other hand, we can give the center an ongoing supply of really enthusiastic and skilled college students coming from the Jesuit tradition," she said.

The center also works with the Centers for Excellence in Disabilities at WVU and is a member of West Virginia Team Autism, a coalition of educators, parents and higher education professionals with the purpose of providing research-based, seamless services to individuals on the autism spectrum from birth through their lifetimes.

Shapell also has been busy lobbying state legislators to pass a bill that would require health insurance companies to cover autism treatment.

Bright future

Of the Levy Center's students, about 40 percent "are in the process of transitioning" out of the center program and into other schools, "which is our goal," Shapell said. In addition to Manuel, three others have "graduated" since the center opened in June 2005.

The transition period includes time spent in a classroom setting at the Levy Center, followed by an increasing amount of time starting with one hour a day at the new school with a "shadow therapist," until the child is fully transitioned and attending school full time. The process takes three to eight months, Shapell said.

When asked if the Levy Center is a dream come true, Shapell, the mother of two school-aged children, said she never wanted to open such a facility.

"I had no intention of starting this school. I think it would be great if there would be no need for the Augusta Levy Learning Center," said Shapell, who named the school after a mentor in Washington, D.C., who taught "unteachable" children to read, write and do "anything a typical child would do."

"Moreso than a dream, it is a responsibility. The center came about because of a lack of research-based programs in the region. People would call me for support after reading about autism in my columns for the newspaper," said Shapell, who continues to write for the School Bells column on the Arts & Living education page in The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register.

"I'm doing the work I feel I need to do," she said.

Stradwick said her son's progress is indeed a dream come true.

"He's amazing. It's amazing you can take a child where he was and for him to be the way he is now ..." she said. "I don't know where he would be today if there wasn't Augusta Levy."