As part of April’s autism awareness month, kids have recorded special boarding and safety messages that transit agencies are playing to raise awareness.
As a toddler, Eli Russell needed to hold something in his hand, and was fixated on wheels and the way cars and trucks moved. It was his mom’s first clue that her son might be autistic.
Car rides soothed him, and Shaun Russell built on her son’s fascination, driving him an hour south from their home in Monkton, Md., to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Now 9, Eli can’t fully express himself verbally, but Shaun said she knows her son loves watching, riding and learning about trains because of the calmness that falls over him.
When Shaun Russell learned that a New York-based autism treatment provider was recruiting children to make special boarding and safety announcements for transit agencies, including the Washington region’s Metro system, she saw a way for Eli to take part in the operations of his favorite track-clinging vehicles.
“I saw it as just another opportunity for him to participate in something that he can be included in,” Shaun Russell said.
The transit announcement project took place in April as part of autism awareness month at Metro and transit systems in Atlanta, New York, New Jersey and the San Francisco area, connecting children with complex developmental conditions to trains that fascinate many kids. In its second year, 113 children have recorded messages for the project, nearly four times as many as last year, according to its organizer.
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The annual campaign was started by Jonathan Trichter, founder of children’s autism treatment centers and specialized schools that include the Foundry Learning Center in New York and the Hubbard Day School in Connecticut.
Trichter, who spent three decades working in communications, investment banking and venture capital, has spent the past four years creating programs to help meet demand for a growing population of children being diagnosed with neurological differences. He said he made the career change after being “personally touched” by autism.
One in 36 8-year-olds are diagnosed with autism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated this year, up from one in 44 in 2018.
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By Justin George,
Washington Post | April 29, 2023