Let the action begin!!*
Dr.S.Subramanian
Autism has been recognized as a neurological condition characterized by difficulty in social skills of those afflicted. Autistic people do have emotions and empathy. They are not a class to be condemned. Many have good intelligence.
Autism as a condition has gained global attention in the recent past. With evolving research and ideologies focusing on causes, prevention and therapies the need of the hour is for us the general society to understand the context and concepts behind it. As with any evolving field, there are going to be new theories postulated and certain old thoughts thwarted. We have to be mature and dynamic enough to accept the ones with solid scientific base and reject the flawed ones.
More than lack of understanding, a major dissuader in autism awareness is the set of myths associated with it. It takes a very short time span for the myths to spread while it takes a painstaking effort to remove those. One of the popular misconceptions was linking childhood vaccines to be a trigger. This notion is still in the minds of many while it has been scientificallyproved and accepted by the medical fraternity that vaccinations do not contribute to autism.Another misconception was that parenting style is a contributor to autism, with autistic kids lacking the maternal warmth in their upbringing.
“Vasudaiva kutumbakam”, is a popular quote by many. It means the world is a family. Is it not time we extend this into action? If one among the family is different, we do our best toaccommodate their interests, we try to understand them. Same goes to our autistic brethren. While they take their strides towards progress, we the more mature and supposedly better endowed with social skills need to be accommodating them as part of our society. We need to facilitate the social life of autistic people. Try to be empathetic, teach young ones to accommodate such people in peer groups. Be it school or workplace or a public forum, let us welcome them. Please remember they do not need our sympathy, we need to understand and accommodate them.
While science strives to help the cause of autism, I strongly believe the society is the biggest contributor in empowering the autistic.
As a pediatrician, it is heartwarming to see many children cruise out of illness. But I do not want to stop at that. I want to see what we can do as a society to help the not too lucky among us. Chennaiites are known for their activism for a cause. Be it flood relief or jallikattu protest. I want the youth to use their power of viral uprising to understand, facilitate and fight for the cause of a dignified life for the autistic. Are you with me?
*This article is reproduced from the Autism awareness booklet by Nishta Neurodevelopment Centre
