Date:14/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/14/stories/2008071450670200.htm
Kerala - Kochi Helping autistic children enhance their abilities Staff Reporter Photo: H. Vibhu Novel initiative: The newly opened sensory integration unit at the Kusumagiri Hospital at Kakkanad. - KOCHI: Usually clubbed with other disabilities, autistic children have few places that provide them with programmes suited for enhancing their abilities. It is with an aim to provide such a programme that Navajyothi Autism Centre under the Navajyothi Centre for Child Behavioural Sciences was stared at the Kusumagiri Mental Health Centre at Kakkanad. The autism centre has started implementing a daily school programme in which a team of special educators will focus on language and communication skills, social skills, activities of daily living, behaviour and academics. Most children with autism are intelligent and they have to be groomed early on, said the experts at the centre. Sister Serena, who has specialised in special education for autistic children, said early intervention is important to identify their specific skills and provide them a goal. If they are not afflicted by certain other disabilities, autistic children can be taught social skills like table manners and so on. The school functions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and presently has seven students in the 3-10 years age group. Since the need is to have 1:1 attention for these children, the school is not able to take in more students because of lack of human resources, said Sister Serena. Usually, 3:1 ratio is acceptable, but more experience is needed to handle more than one autistic child at a time. With a newly introduced programme under Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children (TEACCH), Snoezelen's Young and Young at Heart for management of children with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the centre would be able to provide a better solution to calm the nerves of a hyperactive child. The audio-visual room provides soothing music of choice combined with a starry visual effect and a projector showing beautiful pictures. An aromiser in the room enhances the olfactory senses of the child. Describing the effect of the room, occupational therapist, Sarah Joseph, said children can choose the smell they want along with the music they want. "We have a selection of classical music-western and Indian. We introduce them various music, like Mozart, whose music is said to have a good effect on these children. There are also optical fibres that children would like to touch and feel." The Occupational Therapy room has a number of items to help autistic children touch and feel and do many things without fearing a fall as the floor is padded up. According to chief psychiatrist at the centre, Kuruvila Thomas, more children are nowadays being diagnosed with autism because of tools available and awareness in the society. While earlier the detection of autism was about one in 1,000 children, nowadays it is one in 250. Parents need to be more aware about it and should look and recognise the soft signals of their baby. If the baby does not make eye contact after six months or does not have a "social smile" for the mother, these may be construed as some of the earliest soft signals. Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
