Autism has increased worldwide by 172% in the 1990s. Why? This disorder that impairs language and impedes social skills is becoming a rising phenomena that is affecting thousands of children, mainly males, in the Western World.
The autistic child is characterised by repetitive movements, obsessive desires, lack of eye contact, and socially impaired or unacceptable behaviour. Even though the autistic child may not show these signs at birth, the symptoms will appear at about the age of a year and a half, and the child will slowly lose what speech or communication they had gained previously.
To date there is no cause or cure that can be determined. Though research has speculated genetic disorders or vaccine related incidents being responsible, there is still no concrete evidence that autism derives from any of these theories. There has been foundations set up to gather data about autism. The start was slow and the patience of parents with autistic children is wearing thin.
The physical and mental exhaustion of raising an autistic child is beginning to show on parents, teachers, and medical personnel. The parents of these children are spending thousands in special classes that deal with speech, social skills, and behaviour and their money is not returning the yield of research that is needed to help this epidemic problem.
Parents have spent hours scanning the web hoping for a glimmer of hope from a researcher or parent that has observed a breakthrough. The education and treatment of autistic children has reached monumental records while the government has not put in a full effort of research or money into the investigations.
In the early 1990’s only a dozen or so doctors or scientists were totally devoted to the study of autism. Society is just seeing the need for more research but the parents of autistic children have seen and have needed help for almost two decades. It has been estimated that the care for an autistic child will reach around two million pounds per child during their lifetime. This includes the special educational services that are draining the funds from local councils.
An autistic child who attends school normally has a full time teacher, a single paraprofessional
assigned to them, along with speech therapist,s occupational therapists, behaviour specialist, and psychologists.
The money comes from your taxes, but the government is doing too little to facilitate research that could bring down public cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment