California speech pathologists take autism expertise to Bosnia

From the Contra Costa Times in California. In the picture, speech language pathologist Tricia Dausses works with student Jose Ornelas, 4, at the Lynn Center in Pittsburg, Calif.

In just two weeks, autism experts from the East Bay and California have helped transform the way medical professionals, educators and parents in Bosnia view children with special needs.

Before their summer visit, little was known in that country about autism or how to treat it, said Anna Taggart, a speech pathologist who helped open Bosnia's first classroom, in Sarajevo, for 3- to 5-year-olds with the disorder. She also coordinated a five-day seminar for parents and professionals about the diagnosis and treatment of autism.

"What happened there was so profound," Taggart said. "The kids blew us away with how much they could learn. Some of them said their first word. Some of them were learning to communicate with pictures — and before, they were banging their heads and screaming."

Now, Taggart and other local professionals who helped make it happen are raising money for another trip next summer. Taggart got the idea for the project after helping hearing-impaired kids in Bosnia as part of a church volunteer group.

While there with the church group in 2008, she interviewed parents and communications specialists about their greatest needs.

"Basically, everyone said, 'We need help with autism. We don't know anything about it,' " Taggart recalls. "They said, 'Right now, the doctors say the parents should put the children in an institution and forget about them.' "

Since toilet training is often delayed for autistic children, they were not eligible to attend a school for mentally disabled children, she said.

"Many kids were just hidden in the homes, put in an institution and never had a chance to go to school," Taggart said. "One mom said she hadn't left her home to have coffee with her friends in four years because her son was 13 years old and too big to take out."

Responding to the needs she saw in Bosnia and elsewhere, Taggart helped establish the nonprofit Speech Pathology Group: Children's Services International last year. The group teamed up with the Bosnian government and the University of Tuzla to bring about 14 professionals from the East Bay, Fresno State University and other parts of the United States to Bosnia in June and July.

They presented a weeklong seminar about diagnosis and treatment for those on the autism spectrum and dispelled myths about experimental remedies. Closer to their hearts, the volunteers spent their second week working with eight children, their parents and teachers to overcome communication barriers and give students with special needs a chance to be educated on a neighborhood campus. The mother of one child who learned to express herself by using pictures was overcome with emotion.

"The mom just started crying," Taggart said. "For the first time, she had hope for her child."

Volunteers Tricia Dausses and Christyfaye Jimenez, who teach children with severe language and social delays at the Lynn Center in Pittsburg, said they were inspired by the children's progress in Bosnia.

"To see how we impacted their lives," Dausses said, "it just magnified that we really do make a difference."

The vice president of Bosnia has asked the group to come back in the hope of opening a second autism classroom, this one in Tuzla.

Since leaving, Taggart has learned that the Bosnian families have made strides with the help of the those the Californians trained.

Bojan Radic wrote, "I was so happy. I hope that this is great news for you (to) tell everyone. And if you come next year I want you to know that you can count on me."