diagnosis of condition is up, but state agencies have no...
TRANSCRIPT
How do parents decide what is best for their autistic child?
When the child is given a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, parents actually may have heard the word for the first time and ob-viously know very little about it is. It is usually the beginning of a search for options — that magical com-bination of therapies that is going to make the child ‘normal’.
The big question usually is one of special vs mainstream schools. When the child is two or three years old, the type of school doesn’t matter.
Whether the child goes to spe-cial school or a mainstream school, he should be learning some-thing — be it so-cial skills, play skills, peer interac-tion, communication or cognition. This should be the deter-mining factor at every point in time of the child’s life.
What are the other basic therapies that an autistic child requires?
On diagnosis, most doctors refer par-ents for occupational therapy, speech therapy and play school and sometimes for behavior analysis. Every therapy has its role but what an individual child needs completely depends on the problems he has. There are also diets, medication. Just because a child has autism, does not mean he goes through everything.
What is important at the early stag-es is language and more language and communication, because nothing can replace training. Some children may
have problems with sensory processing and planning. They may then benefit from occupational therapy. We have to work on parent empowerment and in-volvement and provision of unified ap-proaches to intervention.
Parents need to be aware of: What their child needs; if the person offering the services is qualified to do it (certified ABA professionals and centers are listed in aba-india.org and also in BACB.com); what are the child’s goals and programs in the center; what outcomes should they look for as a re-sult of any therapy
How equipped is Tamil Nadu in this field?
Tamil Nadu has a large number of services for chil-
dren with special needs, which often includes chil-dren with autism. Increas-ingly, there is the recogni-
tion of the need for special-ized services for kids in the autism spectrum, since
their needs are very dif-ferent. Services are
available in many places. In fact, chil-
dren do go to main-stream schools
far more suc-cessfully in smallertowns, as compared to a
city like Chen-nai.
How is ABA differ-ent from other inter-
ventions and what are its benefits?
The biggest advan-tage of ABA is the
use of positive reinforcement for teach-ing. Every decision in terms of goal setting, goal changing and skill teach-ing is data based. Any decision is guid-ed by data that back it up. A large part of the teacher’s job is data taking and analysis.
Besides, behaviour analysis recog-nises the importance of expressive lan-guage for the child. There is a huge emphasis on teaching communication and language. Without communica-tion, children with autism often end upwith maladaptive behaviours since they are unable to express themselves any better.
The parents are involved in the goal setting process and are an integral part of the intervention too.
South Pole: A Deep Dive Into Politics, Society And Culture6
‘Parents should check out training centres before enrolling their children’
THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAITHURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014
Lack of qualified trainers putsAUTISM SCHOOLS UNDER SCANNER
Diagnosis Of Condition Is Up, But State Agencies Have No Specific Standards For Special Schools
Gita Srikanth is the only certified instructor in Ap-plied Behaviour Analysis, a scientific teaching method for autistic children, in TN. Gita talks to Divya Chan-drababu about what parents of autistic kids should do.
When Shoba Kan-nan’s son, Sarvesh was two years old, she took him to a hospital in Nun-
gambakkam as she felt some-thing was ‘wrong’. The hospital told the parents that their child had a disability and required help but never revealed what the disability was. “For one year he was undergoing thera-py there but we didn’t know where we were heading as we saw no changes,” says Kannan. “So we took him to a clinical psychologist who told us he was autistic and we were devastat-ed to know that he was not nor-mal. But what is more distress-ing is that my child lost one crucial year.” Sarvesh was non- verbal then, he is ten now and still does not communicate. He went to a mainstream school where he dropped out from and is now studying in a special centre.
With cases of autism on the rise there aren’t enough trained professionals to handle autistic children. This mis-match has paved the way for several centres mushrooming across the country, offering spe-cialised services which they are not certified for. For in-stance, Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a scientific practice proven to be an effec-tive intervention for autism and cerebral palsy. It is certi-fied in the US.
In India, there are only 13 ABA centres including one in Tamil Nadu but educators say several centres are claiming false credentials and advertise-ments which parents need to be wary of. “We set up the first ABA centre in Hyderabad, only 15 days ago but we had parents telling us that their children are already going through ABA,” says Smitha Awasthi, who introduced ABA to India in 2004.
“Staff or educators do a two-day workshop and say they offer ABA. It is a huge problem for the vulnerable parent who requires these
services as it is suggested by their doctor so they ask no questions such as if the train-er is qualified or certified. And children do not receive the skills they should and the cru-cial years of the child is gone,” says Awasthi who is also ABA- India founder.
The decisive age to treat an autistic child is between two-and-half and three years where they can be given most inputs working for 20 hours per week. Early intervention helps individuals to make friends, develop appropriate habits, enhance motor move-
ments and decrease inappro-priate behaviour like temper tantrums, self- inflicted injuri-ous and aggression. “So par-ents need the ability to ques-tion what results they should be seeing at the end of thera-pies,” says Beena Prithiveeraj, senior therapist, We Can, Neelankarai.
Welfare of Differently Abled Persons and the social welfare departments who license spe-cial schools and centres use the same brush to assess their quality and credibility. So the prerequisites to start a school for the visually impaired are no
different from starting a school for autism.
Misuse of this situation is prevalent all across Tamil Nadu. “My centre is set up on a clinical model which does not fit under the government pat-tern for registration,” says C Nachiappan, founder, Autism Care, Coimbatore. “Since there aren’t enough professionals, several centres are guided by only one professional who trains non-qualified staff. This is fine if their intent is to work for autistic children but some run it as a commercial busi-ness.”
“The prevalence of autism is higher in Trichy compared to other districts such as Ma-durai and Ariyalur,” says Geeta Ramanujam, founder, Pravaag Transitional Centre and School for Children with Autism. “After Chennai, the most preferred location for par-ents in the state is Trichy but we do not have enough occupa-tional and speech therapists so they end up multitasking.”
Email your feedback with name and address to
HIGH FUNCTIONING: Pics from a Neelankarai school using Applied Behaviour Analysis technique certified to teach autistic kids in US
Pics: C Suresh Kumar
Autism Fact File Causes and CureThere is no definitive cause
of autism. A disputed theory in western countries says immunisation vaccines lead to autism
Current research indicates that the X syndrome is as-sociated with autism and several genes are involved to affect
Autism is not a disease and hence has no cure. Specialised teaching and behavioural intervention at an early age can help autisticindividuals lead a ‘normal’ life
Autism is a developmental disability that affects a child in its first three years and continues for a lifetimeimpacting normal function-ing of the brain
Those affected face difficultyin developing language,communica-tion, social skills
US reports
that as of March 2014 onein every 68 individuals is autistic
The Indian government has no specific data or study done as autism is not
considered as a separate disability under the Persons
with Disabilities Act, 1995. Indian
centres working for autism say that
cases of autism are on the rise
Diagnosis: In the absence of medicaltests, autism can be diagnosed by the presence or absence of certain behaviour
Symptoms: Lack of eye contact and re-sponse | speech delay | difficulty in peer group interaction | difficulty in communication
Therapies: Occupational therapy |speech therapy | play skills | sensoryintegration | pre-vocational training apart from basic academics
Principles of ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) can be used by educators, therapists, and doctors for the above. ABA can be used to teach the autistic individual to make friends and develop socially acceptable habits
Sources- National Centre for Autism India, We Can, Association for Behaviour Analysis India