Lack of Arab autism specialists blamed on no such speciality at UAE varsities
Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific
Research, visits the Autism Centre and tours classes.
“We want to raise awareness about the importance of having bilingual
Arab speakers who are specialised in the field of autism. There is a
lack of bilingual autism specialists because we do not have universities
that offer courses in autism,” Sara Ahmad Baker, Community Service Unit
Head at Dubai Autism Centre, said.
Baker explained that Arabic-speaking autism specialists are greatly
needed during speech therapy. “We need bilingual specialists in the
field who speak Arabic, specifically the local dialect, because it is
important that the same dialect that is used at home is used at the
centre as well because even though the child might be non-verbal he
needs to understand what he is told. So, if he hears different languages
at home and at the centre it won’t work as efficiently,” she added
Baker also stated that international statistics have shown that the
number of children diagnosed with autism has been increasing. In 2011,
statistics showed that one in every 88 children has autism and they
expect the number to be one in every household in 2015.
Since the numbers are increasing the centre is currently in the process
of constructing a new building that has a capacity for 200 students as
opposed to the centre’s current 44 students. “Numbers are definitely
increasing, If you take the centre as an example, we used to diagnose
around 40 children a year, however, last year we diagnosed over a
hundred. One of the reasons for this increase is that people are now
more aware and the condition is being diagnosed correctly and not going
under other diagnosis,” she concluded.
Following Baker’s presentation Shaikh Nahyan toured the centre and
thanked the staff for their efforts in supporting a noble cause.
Noor Nazzal is a trainee at Gulf News
Source : Gulf News
Source : Gulf News
No comments:
Post a Comment