Award-winning videos advocate for special-needs children
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer

SARAH McCOLGAN Grace Hanlon works with her son Jack, 5, in her Edvantage Media home office where she develops videos to educate parents about their rights and the rights of their special-needs children, as well as the conditions their children are living with.

A local video production company advocates for special-needs children through a series of videos meant to inform and inspire their parents.

Soon-to-be-released, Autism and the New Law, Resources for Treatment, Hope for a Cure, is the latest in a series of videos on parenting children with special needs produced by Fair Haven-based Edvantage Media Inc.

Founded in 1996 by special-needs educator Grace Hanlon, Edvantage has produced award-winning videos praised by reviewers and endorsed by national organizations like the Council for Exceptional Children.

The 30-minute video, produced in collaboration with Cure Autism Now (CAN), is hosted by Anthony Edwards, of TV’s ER, and features cinema producer Jon Shestack, founder of CAN, whose son is autistic.

SARAH McCOLGAN Edvantage Media recently added to its collection of videos, producing Autism and the New Law, hosted by Anthony Edwards.

"The new video discusses a law passed last year because of a grassroots effort by CAN," explained Hanlon, who traveled to Los Angeles in the spring to film the video.

The video addresses the Pediatric Autism Research Act, a new law designed to develop resources for families of children with autism. Importantly, the law provides funding to advance and support scientific research toward finding a cure.

"Right now, we don’t have the treatments or a cure for autism," Hanlon explained. "There hasn’t been continuity on how to properly treat or medicate due to a lack of research. We’re not where we should be as far as treatment of these children is concerned."

Previous videos for special-needs children produced by Edvantage include: The Three R’s for Special Education, Rights, Resources and Results, a practical guide through the special education system for parents and educators; New IDEA for Special Education, Understanding the System and the New Law (filmed partly at Fair Haven’s Sickles School), a guide to the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act; Successfully Parenting Your Baby With Special Needs — A Guide to Early Intervention for Ages Birth to Three.

Hanlon set out to be a special education teacher and became focused on autism early in her career.

After earning a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, she began working with children with autism at the Princeton-based Child Development Institute.

She was subsequently recruited to establish a program for autistic children in Chatham. The Developmental Learning Center served school districts in Morris and Union counties.

"I implemented an educational program for children with autism between the ages of 4 and 9. I was there two years, and we went from four students to 30," said Hanlon.

"It was there I realized parents weren’t knowledgeable about their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). Parents had fought hard for this; they are active participants and need to advocate for their children with special needs," she explained. Hanlon left teaching to have her first child, continuing to conduct parent-advocacy workshops and train teachers and aides in different school districts around the state.

Her experience as an advocate for parents who were having difficulty getting their children’s educational needs met led to the idea of making educational videos.

"I wanted to educate and inspire parents to help develop the best educational plan for their child," said Hanlon, stressing that intensive intervention must begin as early as possible. "I was concerned that years could be lost and the child could have been in the right placement at the right time." "Early intervention is amazing," she continued. "If they get services right away, it can make the difference between starting kindergarten on time with language and possibly not needing any support services — physical, speech and/or occupational therapy. Without this, a child definitely will not thrive in that way."

According to Hanlon, autism is a neurological disorder that is genetic, and may have an environmental component. While children (more boys than girls) are born with autism, typically the condition does not manifest itself until around age 3 when children may show signs of losing speech, becoming antisocial and exhibiting ritualistic behavior, she explained.

There has been little research on the disorder due primarily to the fact that until recently, parents were blamed for the occurrence of autism in their children, Hanlon explained.

"Pediatricians used to blame it on poor parenting. It was horrific; nothing could be further from the truth," she said. "When I was teaching, I was told by a parent that the pediatrician told her it wouldn’t have happened if she had breast-fed.

"Because of this, we are years behind in research and treatment," she said.

Awareness of autism is growing, according to Hanlon, because studies show the incidence of autism is rising dramatically.

"Autism is much more prevalent today than it was," she said, citing a 500-percent increase in cases of autism in Florida over the past decade and a 233 percent rise in cases in California during the same period. The National Institutes of Health estimates that as many as one in 500 children are affected by autistic-spectrum disorder — higher than the incidence of Down syndrome.

Since school districts are legally responsible for providing educational services to special-needs children, they are becoming increasingly burdened by the rise, Hanlon noted.

"Autism is an epidemic and school districts are overwhelmed," she said. "By law, if a 3-year-old child is diagnosed with autism, it’s the school district’s responsibility to educate the child under IDEA.

"Autistic children need highly structured programs to help them develop skills and show progress. It takes an intensive educational program to help them progress," added Hanlon.

"The goal is to make them independent, able to socialize and get mainstreamed into the classroom."

Producing the videos is only one facet of Hanlon’s business — getting them distributed is another.

Hanlon quickly learned the way to get distribution is to get reviewed. Favorable reviews would mean catalogs that go out to schools and universities that would pick up the videos.

"When you start to get into catalogs, that’s when you start to have a business," remarked Hanlon, who has increased the list to 45 companies that distribute Edvantage videos to school districts, administrators, teachers, psychologists, medical professionals and therapists.

She also reached out to agencies like the Council for Exceptional Children, the largest organization in the world for professionals in special education.

"Now, because I have credibility in the field, they’re waiting for my next product."

According to Hanlon, videos cost $15,000-$20,000 to produce and must bring in two-and-a-half times production costs to be considered successful, which hers, selling at $50 per video, have done.

Edvantage reached another plateau three years ago when the publisher of a college special education textbook decided to use an Edvantage video as a companion to the text.

Hanlon spends evenings working on her Web site — www.edvantagemedia.com — and getting it listed on as many search engines as possible.

"I would like every parent to have access to my video series," she said. "so they don’t waste another day not being knowledgeable about their rights and their role in their child’s education.

"I made the videos to make them knowledgeable about their rights and to inspire them and give them hope," Hanlon said, "because it’s not easy; it can be heart-wrenching. This video series is knowledge and hope, and that’s my dream."