MADISON, Wis. -- The autism rates continue to skyrocket. Thirty years ago, two to four children out of 10,000 were diagnosed with autism. Today, an alarming one child in 150 will be diagnosed with the disorder. But stories of autism tend to focus on young children. What about the long-term future of autistic children?

"We still had to provide some support for him so that he knew where to sit, and how to get there, and what to do, but he pulled it off without a hitch," said Nancy Alar, whose son Matt, is an adult living with autism.

The Wisconsin Early Autism Project, research being done at the Waisman Center, and increasing state funding for services, are all working together to put Wisconsin in the forefront of the nation for helping parents and their autistic children.

The work is leaving families more hopeful for the future of their children. But new challenges await as these children transition into adulthood.

Matt Ward is a man who's done what just about everyone struggles in some capacity to do: Grow up, from graduating school, to working, to living on his own.

And, like most young people making that transition, Matt Ward's success is, in many ways, a reflection of the people around him. But Matt Ward's story is not like most people's.

With crisp folds and careful creases, Ward sits constructing a new creation out of origami, creating poetry from parchment.

"This is the, well, and eventually, it'll be, it's a compound. Ticohedron docacedron, Dodecahedron." Ward chooses his words slowly and carefully.

But phrases like "compound dodecahedrons" don't come without a muse.

Matt's mother Nancy interjects, "So all this will be a polyhedron when you're done?" she asks.

A simple "yes" is Matt's reply.

Nancy Alar, the mother of Matt Ward, a thirty-year-old living with autism, has been with her son for every piece of paper and every milestone in his life.

Nancy remembers learning of Matt's struggles through his daycare.

Alar remembers, "They started making a list about his unusual behaviors. Things like, he didn't know his own name, or he didn't like to be read to."

But Nancy says that “autism" was a foreign concept in the early eighties and something that most parents didn't know about.

"It was like we were launching ourselves on a new journey, and for me it was like a breaking point. Because I knew he was not the person I thought he was, but he was still Matthew," says Alar.

But, just as she prepared to deal with the unknowns of autism, Nancy noticed Matt was excelling in math.

"He would do trigonometry and calculus for fun. That was the kind of stuff that he would do," recalls Alar.

Matt's interest in numbers was what led Matt's family to consider what they thought was virtually impossible.

"No one knew how to approach getting an autistic person into a four-year college," says Alar. "They had some hints, but no one knew how to get Matt Ward into a four-year college."

With the help of his high school teachers, Matt was accepted into UW-Madison, where he majored in mathematics.

Alar recalls, "He did the calculus, he did the physics, he did the other stuff that he was good at. And we did the communication with the teaching staff that needed to be prepped so that they could understand what it was like to have a person like Matt in the classroom."

Matt graduated from UW-Madison in the spring of 2005.

And soon mother and son found themselves with a piece of paper even more meaningful than his origami.

But Nancy is now figuring out where she fits in the puzzle of her son's life.

"I'm sure lots of people have mothers who do things for them that they wish they didn't," says Alar. "And I'm sure that Matthew wishes many times that I was not quite so involved in his life. But it's hard to let go when you're a parent of someone with a disability."

In addition to living on his own, Matt also cooks for himself, shops for himself, and works at the Madison Public Library.

But what about social opportunities for adults with autism in southwest Wisconsin?

Alar says there isn't much, and there hasn't been much over the years.

So she started her own social group. The "Ausome Social Group for Teens and Young People" started in 1997 with just four teens, including Matt, with autism.

It has since grown to nearly 150 members with ages ranging from 12 to 30.

The group meets the first Saturday of every month, and parents say it's one of the few places they feel at home.

Hassan Sreenath, a parent of an adult with autism, says, "We come to this group because we are free here. And my son moves around very freely. We don't have to control him, as we do with other groups, where the people are not aware of the situation."

The demand for similar social settings looks to be on the rise, especially considering recent statistics in Wisconsin.

The number of autistic students receiving special education tripled from 1994 to 1999, and increased tenfold between 1994 and 2004, with more than 4,000 students currently enrolled in schools statewide.

Stay tuned to Channel 3000 for further installments in our special "adults with autism" series.