Oliver Mikula leaps into the air while acting out “angry” during an emotions charades game at the summerMAX program at the Institute for Autism Research at the University at Buffalo South Campus on July 21. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
When Jacob Cunningham started kindergarten, he hated going to school.
Jacob had run out of the classroom, shouted, hit and kicked. A child with autism, he struggled to regulate his emotions and communicate with his peers.
Three years after being involved in the Institute for Autism Research, Jacob — now 10 years old — told his father, Adam Cunningham, this year that he was sad school was ending.
Jacob talked about his friends along with what they liked and did.
“He’s constantly growing,” Cunningham said. “He’s constantly making himself available to the outside world to be able to give all the gifts that I know he intrinsically has.”
A $450,000 grant awarded by The Children’s Guild Foundation will help the IAR reach more families like the Cunninghams. With the grant’s assistance, its programs — dedicated to teaching social skills to 7- to 12-year-old children with autism and no intellectual disabilities — has been rehomed at the University at Buffalo’s South Campus after 23 years at Canisius University.
The institute’s five-week summerMAX program had its first run at the University at Buffalo from June 29 to July 31, and its afterschool MAXout program will start in the upcoming school year. If coming to UB isn’t an option, the child can learn at their school under the schoolMAX program — where the IAR staff works with their paraprofessionals to incorporate the lessons into the existing curriculum.
The IAR will also access a larger pool of mental health medical providers and researchers through its integration into The Children Guild’s Foundation Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.
“With this network that UB will provide us, we can get more people to understand things that we have shown to be very valid and effective to be used to maximize the performance of more autistic kids,” said co-founder Marcus Thomeer.
The grant came about organically, co-founder Christopher Lopata said. Canisius University informed Thomeer and Lopata that it could no longer fund the IAR’s programs after the 2025-26 year. Word spread in the community, and The Children’s Guild Foundation intervened.
“All of a sudden, it was a lot of folks that built its own momentum,” Lopata said. “It wasn’t intentional but we’re grateful and humbled.”
Cunningham says the program outgrew where it was.
“I don’t think it’s that, ‘This thing that needed to be rescued,’” Cunningham said. “It was wonderful on its own. It just outgrew Canisius University and landed at the University at Buffalo so it can continue to blossom.”
Josh Scaria, left, shares a fist bump with Tom Stewart during the summerMAX program at the Institute for Autism Research at UB. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
‘Growing together’
When Maxwell Dinelli was diagnosed with autism at 2 1/2 years old, his mother, Melissa, hoped to enroll him in the summerMAX program when he turned 7. A special education teacher, she had already heard about the program and its success from her community.
While Maxwell did not go to summerMAX when he turned 7 due to a different IAR program being piloted at the time, he participated in the schoolMAX program until the next summer.
Maxwell, now 9 and finished with his second run at summerMAX this year, has become more open. He started to elaborate more on what he did during his day, took a greater interest in others and identified sarcasm — figurative language that people with autism often struggle to understand.
“All of these social rules and cues that come innate or feel like they come innate to a lot of neurotypical people, they don’t to children with autism,” Dinelli said. “What the program does is explicitly teaching them these skills, making them aware of these skills, explaining to them why they’re important.”
Each day at summerMAX is split into five 75-minute blocks of instruction and practice: Children are taught a social skill and go on to model it in groups. Full-time staff members or student volunteers oversee the program. Each one must undergo intensive training, practice simulations and pass a final with 100% before entering the classroom.
It’s challenging but fun, Thomeer said.
“You’re doing things that make a difference, but you’re learning and becoming a better clinician or researcher in the process,” said Thomeer.
SummerMAX’s tuition is $2,500, which goes toward staff salaries, overhead costs and financial aid for families that can’t afford the full price.
“If a kid is not coming, it will never be because of tuition,” Lopata said.
Cunningham says Jacob “absolutely flourishes” at summerMAX.
“They struggle and they’re practicing together and they’re growing together,” said Cunningham. “At the same time, they’re developing friendships.”
The IAR is not here to cure autism, Thomeer said.
“Kids with autism are not damaged,” Thomeer said. “We work with kids that want to have friends but have significant difficulty in knowing what to do in social interactions.”
Dinelli says that learning these skills will help children with autism navigate a world that can be unkind, but the world needs to change, too.
“I would never change Max,” Dinelli said. “I would change the world for him.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.