Social mainstreaming of autistic kids has to wait

TNN | Updated: Apr 24, 2020, 11:19 IST

Vaaruni (name changed) and her husband, who have a three-year-old autistic son, are a worried lot. The couple have been planning to mainstream him by putting him in a playschool in June as he has been showing considerable improvement following the applied behaviour analysis therapy for the past nine months. With the therapy coming to a grinding halt, the toddler has regressed in terms of behaviour and socializing. Now, they are planning to delay mainstreaming him till Vijayadashami.
This is not an isolated case. Hundreds of autistic children and their parents, who have been completely dependent on therapy for even smallest improvements, are struggling without help toady.
“It is heartbreaking to see them regress to socially unacceptable behaviour like spinning, random jumping and running around in circles. This will make many play schools reject them saying they are not sociable,” says Vaaruni.
Many parents and trainers are afraid that the 40-day lockdown will put the children back to square one with speech, social and behaviour regression, and that they will have to start from scratch, further delaying development or mainstreaming by a year.
Singanallur-based D Akhilesh, who has a four-year-old autistic son, says, “Handling an autistic child at home 24x7 can be traumatizing, because these children can’t communicate. You never know why they are crying, what is disturbing them or even how to calm the situation down when they resort to repetitive, aggressive behaviour like hitting, hand slapping, head spinning etc.”
Occupational therapists and trainers agree that autistic children are severely affected by the lockdown that began a month ago. Saranya Rengaraj, who runs Third Eye, says many autistic children are regressing without therapy.
“This is because parents find it hard to engage the children 24x7. In these circumstances, they can’t take the child out for a walk or to a park to get used to different atmospheres or expose them to other children to practice socializing. Parents also find it hard to go out to a shop and pick up new toys or material to engage them. While we do videocall sessions with parents once a week and give them activities and ways to engage their child and goals to achieve, it is difficult to engage a child 24x7, especially those with sensory issues,” she says.
Another city-based occupational therapist, Dr Karthik Rajaram, of Steps Groups, says all their trainers have begun fulltime online classes for parents and children. “We have begun demonstrating activities for parents to follow at home and conducting sessions for children in the evening so that they can see us and follow our commands. We also do videocalls to help parents interact with each other, discuss issues they face and share worries. Parents are equally traumatized.”
However, some parents say the lockdown has helped them understand their autistic children better. “Earlier, we used to drop our son at the therapy centre and go to our schools, where my wife and I teach. In the evenings, we just did the work my son was assigned to. But now, we solely concentrate on our son and it has helped us understand his cues and triggers better. And shockingly, he has begun pronouncing two-letter words clearly with a base voice. This is the first time we are hearing his voice,” says an overjoyed father of a five-year-old autistic boy.