Autism gains voice in China
- Source: The Global Times
- [21:57 May 19 2009]
- Comments
Incurable
Autistic children receive treatment for their communication problems at the China Rehabilitation Research Center. Photos: Chen Yawei
“It’s impossible to cure autism, but patients can progress with timely treatment, the earlier the better,” said Yang Xiaoling, a doctor at Peking University Sixth Hospital. “The first signs of autism usually appear younger than 3, which is the best time for treatment. If the parents miss this moment, hopes of improvement quickly fade.”
As an autism expert, Yang said she had met lots of parents who keep their autistic children at home. “Families become like a small rehabilitation center, and take on all the responsibility which should be taken on partly by the government.”
Worried parents always ask her the same question, she said: “Who will look after my child after I die?”
After learning how to diagnose autism in the United States in 1983, she founded the NGO Beijing Association of Rehabilitation for Children with Autism (BARCA) in December 1993.
BARCA did not start out with the same idea as Stars and Rain. BARCA provided desperate parents with simple, professional advice.
On November 20, 2007, more than 20 years after the first diagnosis of autism in China, China Disabled Persons’ Federation founded the first official health facility for autistic children in Beijing.