SPS Apollo Hospitals Celebrated World Autism Day

Ludhiana, April 2, 2014: SPS Apollo Hospitals has celebrated seventh annual World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) on April 2, 2014. Public awareness program was conducted in the form of Painting competition for staff and lecture by specialists was delivered.

Dr. Gurpreet Singh Kochar, Senior Consultant & Peadiatric Neurologist had stressed that Public awareness is essential to understand the millions of people with autism who go to schools, shops, public offices and on public transport every day. It is also the first step towards greater support from governments to uphold their rights as citizens with a disability.

But still, majority of people are not aware about this complex disability. Autism is often missed and mislabelled as Mental retardation, hearing impairment or cerebral palsy due to lack of awareness. ASD is almost 5 times more common among boys (1 in 42) than among girls (1 in 189).

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are a collection of developmental disorders that are characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, as well as the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests.The typical symptoms of autism may be seen by the time the child is 24 to 30 months.

The children with autism have problems with social interaction, making friends, sharing the needs and joys and they live in their own world. The language/ speech is delayed and they have poor conversational skills like initiating a talk or asking questions. The children have restricted interests (example playing with same objects) repetitive movements (like hand flapping). They may also show under or hypersensitivity to sound, light or touch.

The diagnosis of Autism is clinical and there are no diagnostic tests for it. Presence of any of the warning symptoms mentioned above is an indication for screening of autism. “Screening” is the use of standardized tools at specific intervals to identify children at risk of Autism. Unfortunately, the tests required for comprehensive evaluation are costly and not available everywhere. The National Institute for Mentally Handicapped (NIMH) developed the Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) for diagnosing and measuring the severity of autism in 2009.

Dr. Kochar told that Autism is a condition, not a disease. While there is no treatment that can cure autism, children with autism improve significantly with appropriate intervention. The primary goals of treatment are to maximize the child’s ultimate functional independence and quality of life by minimizing the core autism spectrum disorder features, promoting socialization, reducing maladaptive behaviours, and educating and supporting families. Various therapies are used in Autism by applying principles of Applied Behavioural Analysis, Structured teaching, Speech and language therapy and sensory integration therapy. These therapies should be started early and as soon as diagnosis is made.

Dr. Kochar was also invited in a Live Talk Show at Doordarshan Jalandhar to bring awareness among the people about autism.