Bhubaneswar, April 2: Autism experts believe that parents have a big role in discovering the condition of their kids so that the children get proper attention from therapists and are able to lead a better life.
Founder of Centre for Autism Therapy Counselling and Help (CATCH) Reeta Jena, who is also the mother of an autistic kid, said: "Awareness on the condition of autism is badly needed as many doctors are even not aware of it." She was speaking at an event today to mark the 8th World Autism Awareness Day.
Jena narrated incidents where specialist doctors taunting parents who had gone to them for certificates on physical disability saying the kids were normal and their parents were more interested rather in securing a disability certificate and not in the well being of the kids.
Autism is a disorder of neural development challenges in which an individual finds difficulty in communicating with the rest of the world. There is always a delayed language development, repetition of words and phrases, unusual attachments to particular objects.
Autistic children may hurt themselves (by biting their own arms and they are over or under active than normal children.
Gargi Bhattacharjee, a teacher-cum-autism activist, said: "The early sign of autism in babies and toddlers include no eye contact, lack of smile, voice response and no follow-up to common gestures."
"Parents should take their child for an evaluation by a development specialist if, by six months, the child has no big smile or warm and joyful expressions, no back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or facial expressions, by 12 months, lack of response to reference by name, by 16 months, no spoken words and by 24 months, no meaningful two-word phrases," she said.
CATCH, where both Reeta and Gargi work to help out parents with autistic kids, was formed in 2003.
"As parents with autistic kids at home, we have realised the problems. So we have formed this organisation to help such parents as helping a kid with autism from a middle-class background is a great challenge," said Jena.
On the treatment of an autistic child, Bhattacharjee said: "Early, individualised and intensive treatment by a paediatrician, speech and occupational therapist and special educator can work wonders. Still, a parent has to be all-attentive towards the child for better results."
G.B. Panda, a parent with a child whose autism was detected early, said: "In many cases, parents do not receive a suggestion to go and check the baby for a problem such as autism. At times, it also hurts their ego. One has to keep aside ego if he or she wants to see the child in a better position. I took a suggestion from one of my former colleagues and now my son is a bright kid."
Contrary to general perception, people with autism do not necessarily have less than average intelligence quotient (IQ) and if properly guided, can do very well in their respective fields.
The state commissioner on disability organised an awareness camp at the state headquarters of Bharat Scouts and Guides in the city. The organisers launched a signature campaign. Several educational institutions, social service organisations and central government undertakings took part in the event.