Early detection and treatment of autism in children

(Baonghean) - Early detection of autism in children is an important issue that gives them many opportunities to become normal people and integrate into society. In Vietnam, early diagnosis and treatment for autistic children is difficult. Most children diagnosed with autism are over 2 years old. The number of autistic children tends to increase, while parents' knowledge about this issue is still quite modest...

According to the investigation and survey of the Project "Research to propose some solutions to prevent and treat autism in children under 6 years old in Nghe An" (Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital), the number of autistic children under 6 years old in Nghe An is 1.57%, equivalent to 1/64 children. The rate of mild autism is 0.69%, equivalent to 1/144 children. The rate of autistic boys is higher (73.6%) than girls (26.4%), the age group from 2 to 3 years old accounts for the highest rate of 42% and this number shows signs of increasing. However, according to Dr. BSCKII Cao Truong Sinh (Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital), up to now, the province has not had a specialized center to examine, detect and advise on the treatment of autism in children. Currently, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital is a unit supported by the National Children's Hospital to establish a rehabilitation room, with the task of examining and treating neurological and mental diseases and providing integrated education and psychological treatment for autistic children. Every day, on average, 3-5 children come for examination and regularly have 30 children practicing, receiving therapy and education to recover and develop their personalities.

Visiting pediatric patients at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: Mai Hoa

Currently, the team of the Department of Mental Health Treatment, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital has 13 staff, including 1 doctor, 2 masters in child neuropsychology, 1 master in psychology. This number is still very small compared to the requirements of the number of severely autistic children needing treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration in the province, about 2,070 children (out of more than 4,600 autistic children in general needing intervention). Educating autistic children is a difficult field, requiring a team of experts and teachers who are highly trained and experienced. The ratio of teachers per child also needs to be higher (at the Special School, 1 teacher is only in charge of 2-3 autistic children). With the current situation of the teaching staff, the education of autistic children in the province is facing many difficulties, especially in cases of severe autistic children, or cases of children with many unusual behaviors. Autistic children also grow up, along with the need for sex education, labor education and career guidance, while the ability to absorb this knowledge is very low...

The difficulties are even greater for teachers teaching autistic children in inclusive education environments, because most of them have not been trained in teaching autistic children, and the classes are crowded, so it is difficult for teachers to pay more attention to autistic children. Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Teacher at Hung Dung Kindergarten said: "Teaching autistic children in inclusive environments is very difficult, requiring teachers not only to have solid expertise and pedagogical skills, but also to truly love students like their own children." According to her, autistic children are very diverse. There are hyperactive children who can only concentrate for a short period of time, so teachers need to take advantage of that limited time to guide them to focus on the lesson. If teachers are not mentally prepared, they will easily get discouraged and find it difficult to help them integrate into the learning environment.

Early detection and treatment of autistic children is an urgent requirement that requires the cooperation of families and society. The research team of Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital has proposed a group of solutions to prevent and treat autistic children under 6 years old in the province. One of the key issues is to strengthen the connection between management levels, families, schools and society to be able to detect early, bring autistic children for examination, treatment and early integration into the community. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda work in many forms, improve knowledge about autism in children for the community. In particular, focus on equipping pregnant women or women preparing to become pregnant with knowledge on how to prevent and avoid obstetric complications, how to care for children after birth; focus on counseling and guiding parents with children under 6 years old to detect and intervene early, to reduce the burden on families and society.

At the same time, all levels and sectors need to train and improve the professional skills of teachers at kindergartens and nurses at district hospitals on how to detect and prevent diseases according to appropriate programs; update the networks for examining and detecting autistic children. For teachers who teach autistic children to integrate, there should be training programs for them to acquire basic skills. In that process, it is necessary to strengthen close coordination between the education and health sectors so that autistic children can be detected early and intervened, helping them to integrate better.

In the plan, the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital is building a personality rehabilitation treatment model for autistic children in the Department of Neurology and rehabilitation that can be capable of treating children with severe autism and gradually meet the current requirements for examination and treatment. In the process of treating autism, there are difficulties compared to other diseases. Therefore, many opinions say that there needs to be more research of different scales on approaches and interventions for autism to find new scientific directions for approaches to prevention and treatment for autistic children. At the same time, an urgent requirement is that families need to raise awareness of early detection of autism and coordinate with functional sectors to develop appropriate intervention programs...

Thanh Hoa

(Center for Science and Technology Information)