Volume 39, Number 08

Kids

The Pacific Learning Center
Autism awareness makes progress in Tokyo
by Ulara Nakagawa

Autism or autism spectrum disorder is on the rise. Over the past couple of decades, it has increased from approximately 1 out of 1000 children to an estimated 1 out of 150, or even 100, leading some experts to call it an “urgent global health crisis”. Despite this worldwide upsurge, autism is still a much stigmatized condition in most areas of the world. And as such, in Japan too it is often misunderstood. In Japanese autism is called jiheisho. The kanji for jiheisho when translated means “closed own syndrome”. So people tend to think that someone wih autism simply doesn’t like people or just wants to stay home. They also assume it is an illness that can’t be cured. Doctors are hesitant to diagnose and so parents are faced with the stress of finding their own answers and resources for support. There is a clear need for awareness and the Pacific Learning Center in Tokyo hopes to answer this call.

We hear of ‘awareness’ all the time. Environmental awareness, community awareness, breast cancer awareness, self-awareness. Unlike ‘knowledge’ which is composed of facts, information and data, awareness is infinitely more intuitive. Awareness is not the kind of consciousness that pervades the mind with facts and figures; rather, it is an understanding perhaps on a more emotional level. Where ignorance is bliss, awareness can be blissful compassion.

Several years ago, at the Pacific Autism Center in Hawaii, founder and president Laura Cook became aware of the needs of families dealing with autism in Japan. Cook, herself a parent of an autistic child, had opened the center there not to serve her own son, but to utilize her experiences to offer autistic children and their families the highest quality ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) based services. There were a few Japanese families that moved across seas to get treatment in Hawaii because there was nothing available back home. Cook had the notion that it would be easier for them to have a center based in Tokyo and thus opened the doors of Pacific Learning Center in the fall of 2006.

Awareness also brought Japanese native Kana Kitsukawa back to Tokyo from New York this past fall to take post as Program Supervisor at the Pacific Learning Center. In New York, Kitsukawa was a Clinical Supervisor at YAI/Lifestart, (National Institute for People with Disabilities) and also worked with ABA intervention where she oversaw 60 patients and their teachers. There she was in contact with a Japanese family support group and the lack of knowledge among members had her to wonder what it was like in Japan in general. Kitsukawa says she knew she “needed to go back and do something like this.”

Kitsukawa has always had a strong sense of what she was meant to do; “I graduated with a major in psychology and I wanted to work with kids with special needs.“ Along with her professional experience, she holds four master’s degrees related to the field, including Special Education, Speech Pathology, Early Childhood Education, and Foreign Language Education.

Kitsukawa hopes to use her experience and knowledge at the Pacific Learning Center to provide support and the appropriate services in intervention for children with autism. Kitsukawa explains that each child is unique and has his or her own pace of responding to treatment. But the greatest success stories often come from the perspective of an autistic child’s parents; “some kids who started with no words and no kinds of human reactions can start talking and using words within months even…it’s amazing. The parents who are originally coming to us saying ‘oh I wish my kid could say mommy’ sometimes shift to ‘oh do you think he could end up going to a prestigious school?’ The expectations start to soar!”

The Pacific Learning Center also extends their services beyond children diagnosed with autism. Children with all Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) can benefit from their services. One of the center’s major goals is to expand in Japan and they hope to move into an area which is more accessible for Japanese families by summer’s end. Furthermore, Kitsukawa’s ambitions also include a training program under her own supervision for those interested in pursuing a career in the field, and spreading autism awareness. Her carefully selected team of staff and instructors will aid in the process.

From all the way over in Hawaii, Laura Cook opened the Pacific Learning Center in Tokyo to reach out to families here in Japan. Kana Kitsukawa has left half of her family behind in New York to become an integral part of this mission. They have come together, driven by certain awareness from their very own personal and professional experiences, to respond to the specific and urgent needs of children with autism and their families around the world.