Parents’ empowerment a must to combat autism

"When my son, Rony, was only 20-month old, we noticed some differences from other children of his ages. He had attention and repeated body movement problems as well as lack of eye contact," said the mother of whose child was suffering from neuro-developmental disorder, reports BSS.
"Gradually, he was growing up and we used to notice his problem to point at objects, interest in peers, disruptive, aggressive or self-injurious behaviour. We consulted with a doctor and he referred us to take him at a training centre for autistic children."
"When we were taking care of my son specially, we realised we, the parents, also need special training to serve our children the best," said the mother of the four-year-old special child. Experts echoed the observation of this mother, saying that parents and other caregivers will have proper empowerment in combating the neuro-developmental disorder among children.
"Every parent or caregiver, particularly mothers of children having ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders), should be empowered through training to support their children in leading a normal life," according to Saima Hossain, a member of Advisory Panel of Mental Health of World Health Organisation (WHO) and the chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism in Bangladesh.
Dr Aliya Naheed, interim head of chronic Non-communicable Diseases Unit of ICDDR,B, pointed out that the parents and close relatives, who need to serve as caregivers to the autistic children, should be provided with the particular knowledge and skills to administer them the occupational, speech and behavioural therapy including educational and social service requirements.
According to a research titled "Research for Autism: Assessment of mental health status among caregivers of children with autism and feasibility of creating a community based support system in Bangladesh", one out of every four mothers of autistic children suffers from depression and out of five, four ASD children are males.
However, 79 per cent of the mothers, who were quizzed under the study, said they received supportive attitude from other family members while 45 per cent said they faced bitter experiences.