Outside the Child Development Center in Evergreen, 300 pinwheels glint in the sun for the month of April.

According to Karlyn Gibbs, treatment supervisor, one in 68 children will have a diagnosis on the autism spectrum.

In the Flathead, this means about 300 children who will have trouble relating to peers, difficulty in communicating or picking up context from peers and family members.

Those 300 children are represented by the pinwheels on the Child Development Center lawn during Autism Awareness Month.

“If we can get in there when they are little, we can change outcomes,” Gibbs said. “It’s somewhat like a bad habit: If we can teach replacement skills, we can help them get along.”

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Brandon’s Bill, a Montana law that guarantees autism treatments for those insured with Montana insurance companies.

Jenny Vickhammer, a family support specialist at the center, said the bill has helped many parents who might otherwise have nowhere to turn.

“It is about $45,000 a year for a young child and half that for an older child,” she said. “Good intervention when they are little makes it more likely to have positive outcomes later in life.”

The average age is 4 for a child to be diagnosed on the spectrum, but Gibbs said the earlier the better. Prospects for adults suffering from severe autism are bleak.

“People with autism typically go on to be unemployed,” she said. “They tend not to have a strong social life and are often in poverty.”

Justin Nelson is an child autism trainer at the center — one of 26. Last October, his son Isaiah was diagnosed with autism.

“He has a lot of scattered skills,” Nelson said. “He is very, very smart. He essentially taught himself to read and write. But to try and get him out the door in the morning? It was difficult.”

Isaiah, 5, showed many signs of autism, so his father got him tested. He is currently on the lottery-style wait list for Montana’s Children’s Autism Waiver.

“There are only 50 slots, giving $45,000 for three years for intensive treatments,” Vickhammer said. “And lots of insurance companies are not based in Montana, so they don’t have to pay for treatment. Imagine if you had to see a physical therapist and you couldn’t afford to pay for it.”

According to the Child Development Center, intensive treatments can be 25 hours or more a week and seek to teach toddlers through high-schoolers skills that will create successful adults.

“Our program, ‘Incredible Flexible You,’ lets little kids learn about perspective-taking,” Vickhammer said. “That people think about things differently. Typically they can’t put themselves in others’ shoes, can’t follow a person’s gaze. Things like that.”

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (commonly called the DSM by psychiatric professionals) underwent a change last year, changing the way autism had been diagnosed for nearly 20 years.

These included the elimination of Asperger’s Syndrome from the manual, which many health professionals say might curb the apparent growth of autism rates.

In 2000, the reported rate of autism was just one in 150. In 2012 the rate was 1 in 88. Some doctors say the growing knowledge about the disorder may account for rising rates, but no concrete answer yet exists, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

White boys are, by far, the subgroup that is most often diagnosed. Children of color and girls are diagnosed far less often.

Despite the new appreciation for the disorder, the somewhat strange behavior autistic people engage in can be alarming.

“We had one former patient who was fascinated by hood ornaments,” Gibbs said. “We had taken him to the fair and he lost his guardian. He found a truck with a hood ornament and wouldn’t respond to calls from workers who told him to get away. By the time he was found, he was in handcuffs. They often get into precarious predicaments.”

People with autism can often ignore orders from police officers, a risky proposition for anybody, including officers who might not know what they are dealing with.

For this reason, the Child Development Center has done outreach to local police departments describing how patients with autism or Alzheimer’s will act.

Despite all the possibilities leading to unfavorable outcomes, parents such as Nelson are hopeful.

“I did a lot of research into autism,” he said. “Because of early intervention, Isaiah can have a normal life. It made me feel better. But autism treatment isn’t just for little kids.”

For more information on autism, treatments and options for parents and children, call the Child Development Center at 755-2425.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.