Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Dominic Jewell looks like a regular boy of four, smiling, active and curious about his surroundings.

However, after only a few moments in his presence, one is aware that he's a little different.

Nicole Jewell and her two children, four-year-old Dominic, on the left, and three-year-old Kiesha. - Amanda Vaughan/NNSL photo

He flits rapidly from stimulus to stimulus, reaching out to grab whatever interests him without hesitation, and communicates verbally while not quite ever saying a discernible word, even when directly spoken to.

Given the space of only a few seconds without direct attention, he can be found unlocking doors or climbing book shelves, and that is only the beginning.

"It's been very hard to get him ready for school," his mother, Nicole Jewell, explained in an interview.

Dominic has severe autism, but according to his mother, is high functioning. Diagnosed at age two, he has been working with doctors, speech therapists, an early intervention therapist and occupational therapists for the past two years.

Nicole said he has made immeasurable progress, though he still has no language, and still needs constant, attentive supervision. However, with the assistance of an aid, he is ready to attend preschool, and is just waiting for a special needs assistant to be hired.

"He is perfectly capable of learning," Nicole said of her son.

Dr. Marie-Claude Lebeau, a pediatrician at Stanton Hospital, and one of the many health professionals that have been seeing Dominic over the past two years, agreed that school would be good for him.

"It is important for Dominic to be socialized," the doctor said, touching on a key point of development for autistic kids, who often have trouble with socialization due to their condition.

Through the NWT's mandate of inclusive schooling, after the age of five, the Department of Health and Social Services would provide all the necessary resources for Dominic to learn in a regular classroom setting, however Nicole appealed to HSS to have his schooling funded a year early, something she felt was necessary for her son.

"By the time autistic kids are five, their chances of developing speech drop drastically," she said. Her appeal is just one of the many challenges of living in an area where there are no government services specifically dedicated to her son's illness.

Gregory Cummings, assistant deputy minister for Health and Social Services, explained how they assist parents of children with special needs.

"We don't have a critical mass of children in the territory with any one specific mental illness, so we provide individualized programs for each child," he said. He referred to the territory's approach as "interdisciplinary," whereby each case could involve the input of Health and Social Services, members of the education system, as well as the child's family, doctors and other health professionals that are working with the child. He said they also frequently work with the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities.

"In a larger jurisdiction down south, they might have a specific association that deals with people who have autism, and a parent might be referred to that institution, who would be funded to provide the necessary programs for their child," Cummings explained.

He said that the government will provide for specialized services, and the client will be asked to sign a VSA, or Voluntary Service Agreement.

"The VSA is a contract we enter into with the family to make sure certain standards are met," Cummings said. As an example, he said the department could not pay for a caretaker that the family had not performed the necessary background checks on.

"I think that the public would want to know, that if we are paying for a service with taxpayers' money, we are also making sure it's in the best interest of the children we are serving," he said.

While Nicole said that the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities has been a great help to her family, she would like to see parents of special needs children have easier access to public funds in the territory.

"We shouldn't be penalized for not being able to cover the costs of care. Nobody chooses to have a disabled kid," she said.