Minority Children with Autism Less Likely to Receive Specialty Care

Running Head: Quantitative Article Review 1

Quantitative Article Review
Minority Children with Autism Less Likely to Receive Specialty Care
Maria Aidelle De Leon – Sprouse
Liberty University
EDUC 518

Quantitative Article Review 2

The purpose of this quantitative article review is to explore multicultural issues in autism. This article focuses on two primary issues: autism within cultural groups and multiculturalism family adaptation within the dominant culture. There is plenty of evidence that individuals with autism are challenged on communication, social skills and behavioral patterns of interactions. However, hardly any research has been done on multicultural issues regarding autism spectrum disorder.
Autism is considered to be a severe disability because of the lifelong effects it has on the individual and his or her family. (National Research Council 2001). Families raising a child with autism have reported extreme difficulties in dealing with challenging behaviors, teaching their child to communicate, teaching basic life skills, guarding their child from danger, and preparing their child for adult life. (Randall & Parker, 1999).
Educating children from diverse family backgrounds and communities is becoming increasingly common in America’s schools. Diverse home values, family traditions, and social-cultural experiences are important issues teachers should consider when working with children with disabilities.
The Autism Society of America states that “Autism knows no racial, ethnic or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism’s occurrence” (ASA, 2000 p.3). Despite the universal nature of autism, the vast majority of research has largely ignored race. (Connors & Donnellan, 1998)
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Although most researchers ignore race, the literature that reports occurrences of autism among racial groups must be critically analyzed. One way to reduce this threat to validity is to conduct a comprehensive epidemiological study. Most of the epidemiological surveys provide a big picture of the reported incidence or prevalence of autism in a given community. The majority of these surveys indicate a higher proportion of children with autism from immigrant families compared with the non-immigrant population. There are methodological differences found in surveys reporting racial differences. The difference between immigration and racial status; the prevalence data should be analyzed considering rural and urban areas; and racial prevalence rates should be interpreted with consideration of the diagnostic criteria used. The rate of identification differs across racial categories; such as Hispanic, American Indian, White, Asian/ Pacific Islander, Black.
Two main issues were addressed in this article: the prevalence of autism across races, and how families of various cultures adapt to raising a child with autism. As a result, there are differences in prevalence rates across races for autism, but further investigation should be done to see how multicultural families adapt to raising a child with autism.

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For this reason, some critical questions surface regarding the discrepancies in numbers of minority students who are being served under the label of autism. Are these categories; for example, Hispanic, American Indian, White, Asian/ Pacific Islander, Black ethnically correct? Are there differences in the prevalence of autism across races, countries or culture? Are families aware of support groups in their communities that advocate for autism rather than mental retardation? Is there really a language barrier with families of some cultural groups?
This article raised more questions than answers. I was discouraged to find that not a lot of information related to how multicultural families adapt to raising a child with autism was available. Evidence indicates that multicultural students have more difficulty with academics and behavioral customs of the school environment. Educators that work with multicultural students with autism should be concerned about their families, and their culture. Ethnic diversity may affect the services available for students with autism. How can educators know what interventions work most effectively for multicultural students with autism if they are not properly classified?

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Reference

Dyches, T. T., Wilder, L. K., Sudweeks, R. R, Obiakor, F. E., & Algozzine, B. (2004)
Multicultural Issues in Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,
34, 211–222.