Love and share with autistic children

Treating autistic children with therapies and exercises such as dancing and singing. Photo: Thanh Chung

In Search of Childhood

At the Nghe An Province Children's Fund, every day, about 45 parents bring their children here to attend special educational intervention programs. These are children with autism - a disorder of behavioral development, language and social interaction. The majority of children are permanent residents of Vinh city, a few come from neighboring districts.

Although they all have autism, the children who come here are not all the same. Some children have mental retardation, some are hyperactive, have attention deficit, and many others are deaf or have language disorders. When the children come here, the teachers at the Foundation will have separate exercises to overcome their deficiencies and develop their strengths. These exercises can be physical games, drawing, singing, dancing, etc.

Ms. NTT, whose 4-year-old child has autism, said: At first, the family noticed that the child was always quiet, absent-minded, and unable to participate in normal conversations even though he was completely capable. Through examination, the family learned that the child had autism, so in addition to treating him with medication, the family took him to the Fund every day to attend classes. Each class lasted 1 hour... After two months of attending classes here, the child made a lot of progress, was able to read a few short poems, and was more flexible.

During class time, each child at the Fund has his or her own world. There is a quiet world where children do not make friends and prefer to play alone. There is a world where children are always on the move, where children never stop and are always busy playing.

Here, each teacher accompanies and helps a child practice skills in establishing and developing social relationships, communication skills or the ability to use imagination... This process of helping autistic children balance and develop is called "Finding Childhood Again".

Statistics 2016: In Vietnam, there are currently more than 200,000 autistic people out of a population of nearly 90 million and this number is still increasing every day at a very fast rate. On average, each year, 20,000 new autistic children are discovered. Of which, boys are 5 times more likely to have autism than girls.

Creative corner of autistic children at Small Steps Group.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lai - Deputy Director of the Nghe An Provincial Children's Fund said: In fact, helping autistic children balance and develop is a very difficult task, requiring a long process, perseverance from the family and great skills, enthusiasm, and love for children from the therapists. In 2018, the Special Education Therapy Intervention Program for Autistic Children received 111 children to participate. Through intervention, many children have made progress and integrated well into regular classes.

According to Ms. Lai, intervention programs only account for 30% of the improvement, skill learning, and social integration of autistic children. The remaining 70% comes from help from family, school... Currently, the number of children who have not received therapy is still very large.

According to the United Nations, autism has a rate of 1 in 100 newborns, which is much higher than the rate of children with Down syndrome, cancer or diabetes.

According to experts' calculations, early intervention for autistic children will save costs for society. If 100 children receive early intervention and 40 of them only make partial progress, the community can save up to 9.5 million dollars over the course of these children's schooling (from 3 to 22 years old).

To emphasize the seriousness and complexity of autism to the community, in 2007, the United Nations chose April 2 of each year as "World Autism Awareness Day".

“World Autism Awareness Day” 2019 has the theme “Working together for children with autism”.

Share and love

Master of Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology (University of Toulouse - France) Ton Thi Tri, working at the Nghe An Province Children's Fund, said: The exact cause of autism is still unknown. It can be due to genetic disorders and other factors, such as: Advanced age of parents giving birth; brain damage or underdeveloped brain (premature birth before 37 weeks, birth weight under 2.5 kg; neonatal brain injury...).

In addition, there are some children with a special type of autism who develop rare skills in a specialized field such as music, art, numbers... and show outstanding ability in that field even though no one has taught them.

Developing children's imagination. Photo: Thanh Chung

Currently, autism cannot be completely cured. However, we can completely improve children's development with early intervention therapies at school such as: Behavioral therapy (encouraging children to do positive actions and preventing negative behaviors); speech therapy and occupational therapy; helping autistic children adjust their feelings...

To improve children, the family plays a very important role, especially parents. At home, parents and everyone need to talk to children briefly and clearly; depending on the interests of the child, give appropriate choices for the child. Family members need to take turns playing with the child, helping to reduce the child's repetitive behavior; look for programs to support children and participate in those programs with the child.

Paper paintings of autistic children in the Small Steps Group.

Master Ton Thi Tri emphasized: Autistic children need early intervention to be able to integrate into society. Most autistic children show progress thanks to early intervention. If they are only detected at around 6 years old for intervention, it will not be possible to help the child integrate with normal people. For an autistic child to be detected early, intervened early and have the opportunity to integrate into society, it is very necessary to have the cooperation of family, school and society. For example, in kindergartens, teachers need to pay attention, not to let autistic children be discriminated against, isolated and the same is true at home.

In Vinh City, Nghe An, on April 1, the program "Autism - Understanding to Love" of the Small Steps group took place. This was the first program organized with the participation of more than 60 families of autistic children in Nghe An province.

This program is part of a series of activities towards April 2, World Autism Awareness Day. With the aim of raising awareness about autism, hoping that everyone will have a better understanding of autism and join hands for a safe, sustainable and developed society for autistic people.