China is in dire
need of professionals to diagnose and train an increasing number of autistic
children, experts said.
"Autistic children who receive early treatment tend to relate
better to others and assimilate well with society. However, due to a lack of
professionals, many children miss the best time for treatment and lose their
chances of recovery forever," said Zhang Haidi, chairwoman of the China
Disabled Persons' Federation.
The government must increase funding and policy support for autism
service organisations, train more professionals and grasp the best treatment
period for autistic children, she said.
Around the world, the number of children diagnosed with autism is
increasing rapidly. National data is not yet available, but Wen Hong,
secretary-general of the China Association of Persons with Psychiatric
Disability and Their Relatives, estimated that the number is at least 1.5
million to 2 million.
However, experts say the number could be significantly greater due to
poor diagnostic skills and lack of diagnosis.
The number of trained professionals to serve those with autism is still
significantly limited - nationally there are only 100 professionals qualified
to conduct official diagnoses.
"China has only about 400 autism service organisations, among
which small, private ones account for more than 70 per cent," Wen said.
The large organisations have 30 or 40 teachers at most, and in small
ones seven or eight teachers are common.
The majority of those organisations advertise year-round for teachers.
Even within such a small group, the quality of teaching is also
worrying, as only a small number of teachers have special education
certificates, according to Guo Dehua, director of the Jiangxi Provincial
Autistic Children Rehabilitation Centre.
Only a handful of universities and colleges in China train teachers to
deal with autistic students.
"It's time for the government to speed up the pace to establish
more classes about autism in colleges and medical universities to cultivate
more professionals," said Han Xiaoyan, director of the Autistic Children
Rehabilitation Training and Research Base of the Sixth Hospital of Peking
University.
"Autistic children's rehabilitation cannot fully depend on autism
service organisations. They need the cooperation of the entire society,"
said Han Jibin, an official with the China Disabled Persons' Federation.
"Cultivating professionals is a systematic project, it cannot be
done overnight. Our first move is to train 2,500 professionals to conduct
official diagnoses within three years," he said.
In addition, teachers of autistic students are not well paid, so many
of them seek jobs in other industries after working as teachers for some time.
"The best way to retain them is to increase their salaries and
welfare, and we hope the government could give some financial support to
us," said Lan Xiaosong, deputy director of the Qingdao Shengzhiai
Rehabilitation Centre.
He Na
China Daily
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