Brittney's Interview

Deanna McGinness  - Early Childhood Educator in the town of Billerica.

-Do you think this problem is important?

                - It could be a positive in some aspects because there are so many children that have been diagnosed and put under the spectrum that may not need the help they are receiving. With that, the students who actually need the help will then be given more attention. This could also be a negative to because certain students that need the help may suffer since they no longer fall under the correct category. This situation is really a catch twenty-two because either way it is going to negatively affect a student.

- Do you think others in the community will find it important?

                -Yes, I believe a lot of the community will find it important because it will have a large impact on lots of families with children.

- What policy, if any, does government now have to deal with this problem?

                - They will now need to reevaluate all people who are now covered under the spectrum to see if they fit the criteria of the new definition.

-What are the positives and negatives of this policy?

                - The positives will be that those who need the help that were not getting it will now but the negatives are that some children may not be considered in the spectrum anymore and lose their help when they actually need it. Also reevaluating everyone in the spectrum will take up a lot of time since there seems to be many people diagnosed in our world today.

-How might this policy be improved?

                - The policy can be improved by giving more to the families that are being affected, such as insurance coverage for certain needs for the student or the ability for the families to have different options when dealing with the Autism Spectrum. Giving the family and the child options will help to maybe alleviate the stress and shock that the child needs help and with options they can handle it in different ways.

- Are you concerned by the new definition personally or on a social level?

                - Personally I am not concerned because no one in my family is considered under the spectrum. But as for society I am concerned because it may negatively affect many families with the loss of coverage and help they may need for their child. 

After talking with my mom, I got an insight of what she thought as a parent for this new definition. As she said, she is not personally affected by this change because none of her children are under the spectrum, but she feels that many disadvantages may come from this that will affect other families. She has worked with children for many years and has seen all different types of students so this can hit close to home for her. She has connected with these students and parents which gets her on a personal level, so if one of the students had some sort of disorder she was directly related in helping with it. She sees that students need all the help they can get on a basic level but then when they have a disorder they need that much more so with the possible loss of it for some students it may result negatively for the student's future and family.