Autism : Prevalence and current scenario
The month of April is celebrated as Autism Awareness Month. It is very important for us to know the prevalence of autism across the world. Autism in India is found to be somewhere about to about one in every 110 children, with it being four times more common in boys, as compared to girls. Across the globe, the prevalence is 1 to 2%. In America, they have published statistical data, in which they have found that the prevalence of autism is on the rise, rising to the count of 10 to 15%.
Autism: Challenges
Some of the challenges that the parents of children with autism spectrum disorders are facing is with all the interventions happening, to manage and treat the child and autism comes with financial burden. Apart from the regular education, schooling, the need to spend money on these interventions is huge. So, if we can have some insurance policies in place where they can have, may be, partial or complete support, on these interventions, it will be a huge respect for the parents and even it will help in reducing the taboo around these disorders.
Autism: Way forward
When we talk about autism spectrum disorders in India, the first and most important things are that there are already some policies which are in place and existing. We need to take adequate measures to implement these policies across the country. And the second step would be to raise more and more awareness and train people, especially the medical professionals in early identification of the autism spectrum. The doctors, social workers and other mental health professionals can be trained and there can be screening tools which can be used in local languages by the professionals to be able to screen children early.
Early identification is extremely important because it has been documented in research that if you diagnose and treat them early, the long term developmental outcomes of children are very good and they can functionally be much better and be a very inclusive and already satisfied in life. Now, coming to the school in the education system. If we have more and more special educators, trained teachers who can handle, and teach children on autism spectrum in the schools, itself, then we can have an inclusive school setup. We need to create more and more resource, and teachers who can participate and who can take care of children on autism spectrum in our schools. We also need to have more and more avenues and training centers for having various vocational training programs for the teenagers, adolescents and then the adults on autism spectrum so that they can earn their living, and they can have some way of self sustainable life. Vocational training programs need to be implemented on a larger scale.
Autism @ Continua Kids
As a paediatrician, I used to see children with various autism with ADHD and other difficulties, like learning disability Down Syndrome, intellectual disabilities. We faced this major problem of having to send the child to automations and readiness therapies because most of these diagnosis, when a child gets the intervention is a support system of multidisciplinary care. So that was the turning point when I decided that we should have a place in the city where all the multi disciplinary care and various interventions, all the interventions which are required to manage and treat children are available in one place, and under one roof.
With a neuro-developmental diagnosis like autism spectrum, the child has various challenges with his routine. So, if the child is running around from one corner to the other for various interventions, then their life becomes more challenging. So, looking at all these challenges, we decided to have one place for multidisciplinary therapies, interventions, treatments which are required to manage these neuro-developmental conditions. These are available in one place, and on top of that supervised by medical doctors like developmental paediatrician, paediatric neurologist, which is a rare entity to find in India so far.
We believe each and every child has abilities which can be harnessed and will grow. We can help them become more and more inclusive members of society and get equal status in the society. We at Continua Kids provide comprehensive care to children and also work towards raising a lot of awareness in the society. We train psychologists, have small team programs and even conduct professionals courses. We continue to work and provide our services live.