THE WAY I SEE AYN VAN DYK'S CASE

We are all waiting for her return, none more apprehensively than Amie Van Dyk and her ex husband Derek Hoare. They are the parents of Ayn Van Dyk, the twelve-year old autistic child who innocently meandered from her family back yard in 2011. Ayn was ten years old at that time. Even Ayn with imperfect cognitive capability would have reasoned to stay in her own back yard had she known that the consequence would be her removal from her family for over two years.

Amie and Derek have been informed some months ago that they can expect Ayn to be returned to them some time during the month of September 2013.

Ayn was ten years old when she scaled a fence that surrounded the back yard. She was not affecting a prison break. She was not violating a community standard. She was not disrupting anyone’s peace, although she did cost the taxpayer some money because of the urgently placed 911 call from her father summoning the help of RCMP who sent a helicopter into the Abbotsford skies to locate his child. Even Derek with his anxious parental response would have reasoned to summon friends instead of RCMP had he known that the outcome would be the agony of separation from his daughter for most of these past two years.

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs)

Autism – A Succinct Description

Autism is a complex developmental disability that causes problems with social interaction and communication.  Symptoms usually start before age three and can cause delays or problems in many different skills that develop from infancy to adulthood.

Autism – A Spectrum Disorder

Different people with autism can have very different symptoms.  Health care providers think of autism as a “spectrum” disorder, a group of disorders with similar features.  One person may have mild symptoms, while another may have serious symptoms.  But they both have an autism spectrum disorder. The autism spectrum disorder includes (1) the autistic disorder known as autism, (2) Asperger Syndrome, and (3) Pervasive Developmental Disorder or atypical autism. Sometimes health

Providers are using the broader term, pervasive developmental disorder, to describe autism. In that case this category (PDD) includes the autism spectrum disorders as well as something called Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Rett syndrome. In most material autism spectrum disorder and “autism” mean the same thing.