Often we are at a loss to interact with autistic kids and adults. With World Autism Day around the corner, Team Viva tracks the progress chart with doctors
When Sahil Ahuja, a six-year-old was diagnosed with autism, his parents thought of moving him to a special school where he could be taught to cope. “This is a misconception which must be cleared. Rather than confining a child, they should be allowed to grow like any other kid,” said Dr Archana Nayar.
Talking about some methods, she elaborated, “We work in the field of what we call a Behavioural Therapy, which relates to the science called Applied Behaviourial Analysis. The parents are usually concerned about putting their kids under special observation for autism, which is not necessary. Rather they should be taught and taken care of while being with them. Therefore, we try to work as part of a team, alongside the family and other therapists. Another method is Task Analysis. It involves breaking tasks down into smaller, teachable steps. Here, the goals for each step are established, and task performance can then be taught according to these steps. Each subtask is taught and reinforced in sequence. In many cases, a child may have difficulty only with one step within the larger task, rather than with the task overall.”
“Early intervention is the key to improving the outcome in autism. We have data-driven programme, which is based on sound scientific principles. The educational plan relies on a well-researched curriculum based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA),” said Dr Archana Nayar, founder of Autism Centre for Excellence, an autism education centre. Nayar is actively working towards creating new systems that would help those dealing with mental health issues. “Data collection and analysis via customised software system allows us to analyse progress in our children and maintain the quality of our own intervention,” she added.
She analyses the link between the skills and actions (behaviour) of the learner and his/her environment. Then there is positive reinforcement, whereby behavioural attributes are likely to increase when followed by some sort of reward.
In India’s first ever survey that counted the number of autistic children, it was found that nearly 10 million children are diagnosed with autism. The study, conducted by International Clinical Epidemiology Network Trust (INClEN), stated that one in 66 children were autistic in India. Despite being an alarming issue, autism awareness is severely lacking though its incidence has increased over the last decade. “There are many myths about autism and all of them are completely baseless. The kids are rejected by the society tagged as ‘not one of us’, which is absurd. Kids with autism are in fact geniuses. There is a lack of awareness in not only the society but also among the parents. The disorder can be cured simply by love and care,” said Anuja Kapur, psychologist and social activist.
When the parent has just become aware that the child may be in the autism spectrum, lack of awareness, training and collaboration among professionals — from doctors to teachers and therapists — usually mean that families are running from pillar to post for correct diagnosis and understanding of their child. Further speaking about the issues which are not dealt properly with the autism kids, Anuja said, “The average diagnosis happens when the child is around five, but it should happen much earlier. And because schools take in children of a certain age, by the time a child is 11 or 12, he is already so set in his ways that training becomes tough. By sending autistic children to regular schools, parents live in denial for a couple of years, thinking that it somehow makes them ‘normal.’ What they don’t realise but is that because of this, the child is losing precious learning time.”
However, amidst all this, Dr Nayar has taken up the cause of bringing autistic children into the mainstream and she is committed to creating a broader awareness about the condition and giving a meaningful life to those affected.
“There is a lack of good quality school programmes in India for kids with special needs,” said Nayar. A mother of 15-year-old autistic son, her personal experience gave her the strength and fervour to set up a dedicated centre for kids with autism offering standardised programmes. Five years ago, she realised that there aren’t any good programs for autistic children that come at par with international standards. “So we started a single classroom for autistic children called Blue Room in the Vasant Valley School. However, the idea was to have a whole school for autistic kids/adults.”
Her institution does not only train its students but also aware teachers. “Teachers and therapists are well-intentioned but not competent enough. So we have a teacher training programme that provides a specialisation in autism and also works towards the professional growth of the teachers,” shared Nayar, who is also a co-sponsor of Children First, India’s first fully-integrated institute for child and adolescent mental health.
She added that the problem with mental disability in India is that it is still considered a taboo. “We are living in a society that doesn’t understand mental disorders and we have professionals who do not know what to do.”
Nayar’s institution initially started with three classrooms with about eight children in each class. “The goal is to gradually increase the number of classrooms to 12 with student strength of about a hundred over a period of two years. The interventions will have a 1:1 student to teacher ratio and will work towards inclusion as well as maximum independence for each child,” she said. They also aim to have at least 25 per cent of children from economically weaker sections (EWS) and provide scholarships for their education.
She is also organising a sensory-friendly screening for individuals with autism. “This is one small yet imperative step towards increasing awareness and encouraging acceptance. After all, they are one of us,” Nayar concluded.