Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention program report delayed

A report into wait times for an intensive program for autistic children to complete before school is delayed until early 2015.

In September, Nova Scotia's Department of Health announced a group of experts would review the Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention program offered to children up to five years old before they enter school.

At that time, the wait list included nearly 200 children. The Department of Health says there are 162 children on that list as of December.

"It took a little longer than we had anticipated, mostly to just make sure we got it right," said the chair of the Autism panel, Patricia Murray.

"I don't have a specific date or month, but I would say early in the new year, she said.

In September, the panel had estimated it would take two months to file its report with suggestions to the province.

Those suggestions would include ways to minimize the wait list for the program and to get children in before they age out. The province said as of October, there were 19 children who would age out of the program before starting school at age six.

For other families, it's often a decision of holding their child back a year to benefit from the EIBI program, or skip the program and start Grade Primary on time.

That choice is one Cindy Bain hopes she won't have to make. Her four-year-old son, Evan, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in January 2014 and has been on the waiting list since then.

Each child in the EIBI program takes part for a minimum of six months.

"It's hurting children and it's hurting my child"

"If he does not get it by March first, then he will not get it or I could put him into school anyway or I could give, keep him back a year," said Bain.

"It's hurting children and it's hurting my child."

Wait times for the program vary, depending on when a child is diagnosed. Because of the demand, if a child is diagnosed early on, he or she may get pushed back so that children with a later diagnosis can enter the program before they age out.

But for parents like Bain, waiting an extra year can come at a cost.

"On an education level I feel that it's very unfair [for] someone who wants to learn as much as he does to be held back, it's devastating," said Bain.

Bain said it would also affect her family's finances, with she or her partner possibly having to quit their job.

That, however, is the worst case scenario.

"We don't allow ourselves to think about the negative yet. If I did allow myself, I would not be, I don't think, able to do my everyday stuff," said Bain.

For now, she hopes Evan will be accepted into the EIBI program by March, and that the province will invest more money into the EIBI program, which the province has not committed to doing.