Many children with autism are not getting the care and attention they need from the state and the obstacles have to do with bureaucratic and legal recognition of them as being disabled.
Children with autism try ‘autistic application’ computer software which helps them perform daily routines and improve their communication skills. THANARAK KHOONTON
Thailand currently has about 370,000 autistic children, 55,000 of them living in Bangkok. The Social Development and Human Security Ministry decreed autism a disability in July last year.
Parents are to register their autistic children with the ministry which issues them with a card identifying them as persons of disability, said Chusak Chanthayanon, chairman of the Autistic Thai Foundation.
The card entitles the children to welfare and state services provided to the disabled in general.
However, fewer than 4,000 autistic children have registered nationwide. No more than 500 of them hold the disabled ID cards in Bangkok.
Mr Chusak said the disappointingly large number who do not have the cards can have only limited access to state welfare.
The reason for so few parents seeking the cards is three-fold. First, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry defines autism broadly as either a disorder of the emotions or behaviour.
The equivocal definition is open to interpretation, which gets in the way of proper state assistance being offered to the children.
He said parents or caretakers often do not know the autistic children's rights and entitlements.
Some parents see the definition of disability as stigmatising their children and are reluctant to register the children with the ministry.
Mr Chusak said doctors who must confirm a child's condition before the ministry can issue them with a card do not pinpoint exactly what disabilities the children have.
If the children register, they would be able to enter the state-financed early intervention programme which would be helpful in the children's neural and emotional rehabilitation in the long run, he said.
Mr Chusak, who has a 28-year-old son with autism, said this compelled him to establish the foundation.
His son, Vee, was diagnosed with autism when he was three.
He was enrolled in a kindergarten school his family owned until he was four.
He then attended a primary school and mingled with other children.
When he was in third grade, Vee began to harm himself, prompting the family to take him out of normal class and home-school him.
Mr Chusak said the family arranged for his son and other autistic children to be home-schooled together. The class, which follows a special curriculum, was taught by parents of the children.
After the foundation came into inception, the curriculum was upgraded to that of vocational development accredited by the non-formal education office.
The Autistic Thai Foundation is currently running 20 centres to increase autistic children's social skills. It has joined with True Corporation to develop computer software called "Autistic Application".
Similar autism-assisted software, which is popular in many countries, trains children to perform daily routines and chores on their own and improve their basic communication and social interaction.
Kitchaphon Chuenbun, who is the mother of a 13-year-old autistic son named Krit, said it was an uphill battle at times coping with the autistic condition of her son.
She was thrown into the deep end and almost gave up helping her son to speak.
But the application, which has stimulated Krit to speak even a few short words, has made life far easier for her and her son.
"This application has given him a voice and lets him speak to his mother," Ms Kitchaphon said.
"The first word that I heard him say was 'mum'," she said.
Deputy Public Health Minister Cholanan Srikaew said the government has made sure all autistic children receive appropriate rehabilitation from an early age.
If the condition is detected as early as two years of age in children, rehabilitation will be more effective, Dr Cholanan said. This year, the ministry aims to open clinics for autistic children and those with mental retardation in all 833 hospitals countrywide.
In Thailand, 40% of autistic children need special care because they have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of less than 50 and some of them are aggressive in their behaviour, Mental Health Department chief Wachira Phengchan said.