The Autis­tic So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ASTT) has des­ig­nat­ed April autism aware­ness month, and is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to place more em­pha­sis on pro­vid­ing for chil­dren with the hid­den dis­abil­i­ty of autism.Ac­cord­ing to ASTT, the Gov­ern­ment and so­ci­ety as a whole must un­der­stand that chil­dren and adults with autism may not be in a wheel­chair, or may not need a life-sav­ing op­er­a­tion. How­ev­er, they face dis­crim­i­na­tion and stig­ma. Autism Spec­trum Dis­or­ders are neu­ro­log­i­cal in na­ture, and can be con­sid­ered hid­den dis­abil­i­ties.Peo­ple with autism must have the right to full par­tic­i­pa­tion in so­ci­ety, and they must be re­spect­ed for their dif­fer­ences. Be­hav­iour­al signs and symp­toms are used for di­ag­no­sis. It is im­por­tant for every­one to be aware of the ear­ly signs so that treat­ment can be sought as soon as pos­si­ble.

Ear­ly signs which may in­di­cate that a child is at risk for autism:

At six months:

• Rarely makes eye con­tact when in­ter­act­ing with oth­ers.

At nine months:

• No back-and-forth shar­ing of sounds, smiles or oth­er fa­cial ex­pres­sions.

• No re­sponse to peek-a-boo games.

• Lit­tle bab­bling.

At 12 months:

• No back-and-forth ges­tures eg point­ing, show­ing, reach­ing or wav­ing.

• Repet­i­tive body mo­tions such as rock­ing or hand flap­ping.

• No re­sponse when name is called.

At 16 months:

• Few words

At 24 months:

• No two-word mean­ing­ful phras­es.

• Avoids or ig­nores oth­er chil­dren when they ap­proach.

• No so­cial skills

Peo­ple with autism who can speak may al­so have com­mu­ni­ca­tion prob­lems. They need help get­ting suit­able as­sis­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion de­vices. They all have so­cial­is­ing prob­lems, and have great dif­fi­cul­ty un­der­stand­ing peo­ple and the world around them. They have vary­ing de­grees of sen­so­ry prob­lems and be­hav­iour­al is­sues.Autism treat­ment is very cost­ly as spe­cif­ic ther­a­pies and ed­u­ca­tion­al strate­gies must be used con­sis­tent­ly.

Chil­dren with autism need ac­cess to af­ford­able:

• Ear­ly, ex­pert screen­ing/as­sess­ment

• Ap­pro­pri­ate ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties

• ­Spe­cial ther­a­pies eg oc­cu­pa­tion­al, speech, mu­sic, art, dra­ma

• Life skill train­ing/vo­ca­tion­al train­ing

• Ter­tiary lev­el ed­u­ca­tion op­por­tu­ni­ties

• Ap­pro­pri­ate job op­por­tu­ni­ties

Unit­ed Na­tion's Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al'sMes­sage for 2011

The num­ber of chil­dren and peo­ple with autis­tic con­di­tions con­tin­ues to rise-in every na­tion and in every racial, eth­nic and so­cial group. Al­though the recog­ni­tion of autis­tic con­di­tions among the sci­en­tif­ic, health and care com­mu­ni­ties is im­prov­ing, pub­lic aware­ness re­mains low. The an­nu­al ob­ser­vance of World Autism Aware­ness Day thus takes on ever greater im­por­tance as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to mo­bilise for ac­tion and as­sis­tance.Chil­dren and peo­ple with autis­tic con­di­tions face ma­jor chal­lenges as­so­ci­at­ed with stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion, as well as a lack of ac­cess to sup­port. Many strug­gle with mul­ti­ple bar­ri­ers in their dai­ly lives. Far too many suf­fer ter­ri­ble dis­crim­i­na­tion, abuse and iso­la­tion in vi­o­la­tion of their fun­da­men­tal hu­man rights.

Autism is a com­plex dis­or­der. But in many cas­es the right treat­ment ear­ly on can bring im­prove­ments. That is why it is so im­por­tant to raise aware­ness about the signs of autism and pro­vide ser­vices as soon as pos­si­ble.It is al­so crit­i­cal to sup­port par­ents, cre­ate jobs for in­di­vid­u­als with autism based on their skills and strengths, and im­prove pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion to bet­ter meet the needs of stu­dents with autism.Tak­ing these steps will ben­e­fit so­ci­ety as a whole, en­rich­ing peo­ple with autism, their loved ones and oth­ers alike. As the moth­er of one child with autism said, "Al­though my daugh­ter has walked a long way, I have walked a longer way."To­geth­er, let us trav­el this road to­ward a more car­ing and in­clu­sive world.

For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact Teresina Sie­u­nar­ine, pres­i­dent, ASTT, at 646-5506, or e-mail: autismtt@gmail.com