The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Skilled therapy holds promise for autistic children

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Saturday, Jul 26, 2008
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Skilled therapy holds promise for autistic children

Staff Reporter

The workshop teaches techniques to parents and therapists to deal with autistic children
Videos of work-sessions between parents and their autistic children were used

Bangalore: Dealing with speech and communication disorders is Samvaad Institute of Speech and Hearing, which has been conducting workshops on different types of speech and hearing disabilities every year.

This time it is dealing with autism, a little understood spectrum disorder at a five-day workshop which concludes on July 26 at Hotel Harsha, with resource person Smita Awasthi, an expert in the field of autism for over 23 years now.

The workshop is aimed at teaching the right kind of techniques to parents and therapists to deal with autistic children. In the same vein, 10 parents of autistic children and 10 therapists who study at the institute, are interacting with each other.

The therapists will then go on to work with the children and eventually ease the parents into the process of therapy.

“With this sort of a behavioural disorder, a one-hour therapy session would not suffice. It is an ongoing process, which is why parents have to be involved,” says Ms. Awasthi, who runs Autism Awareness and Action, a non-governmental organisation, in Uttar Pradesh.

The participants of the workshop were exposed to theoretical concepts regarding autism as well as practical exercises involving reinforcers or incentives among other things.

Also used were videos of work-sessions between parents and their autistic children to understand what parents and therapists must and must not do while trying to teach these children.

Radhika Poovayya, Director of the Samvaad Institute of Speech and Hearing, said: “Another thing we want to focus on is to tell young people that being in therapy is a viable career option.”

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