AUTISM DIAGNOSES LOW IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES – CLINIC GROUP CEO

MBABANE – The Clinic Group CEO, Doctor Khotso Ramphele, has raised concerns about the low level of autism diagnoses in the country.  

Ramphele was making his remarks during the commemoration of the Autism Day, yesterday morning at the Mbabane Clinic. He revealed that even though they do have children in local communities that had been diagnosed with this condition, the numbers were still not at the required level.  

“Today marks the day where we commemorate and take time to pause and think about autism. This is an international occasion because the whole month of April has been dedicated to raising awareness about this condition, which is becoming very common over the world.

Stage

“We do have children in our community who have been diagnosed but at this stage, the level of diagnoses is very low because a lot of people are not aware of it,” the doctor said. He pointed out that children with autism were special, because they struggle interacting with other people socially and may also struggle with other things. He said they were also special because they were very intelligent and could contribute significantly to society.

“It is important for us to make people aware of their children, who at a young age, prefer to be on their own and do not interact so much with other children. They appear to be compliant and do not cause too much trouble, but those are the children we worry about. We know that part of the child’s growth is to interact with other children, along with other members of the family. This whole thing we are doing today is to raise awareness so that we can pick them up early. We know that if we can pick them up early, they can be helped and eventually contribute well to society,” the CEO said.

Doctor Charity Newton, a Paediatrician at the Mbabane Clinic, explained that this month was the period when they raise awareness about autism.“We dedicated today to raise awareness about autism. Even before symptoms of autism show themselves, we encourage parents to adopt what we call wellness visits.

Symptoms

This is where a doctor assesses the child to check if autism symptoms are showing. When a child has come here for injection, we check if there are signs of autism,” she said. Newton also encouraged those that had symptoms of the condition to come to the clinic as a matter of urgency. “Experts advise that it is better to diagnose autism early so that the help can be better and quicker. Signs of autism from a child are late communication, slow speech, avoid looking at people, does not play with other children and develops strange habits,” she said.

The event, which lasted less than an hour was attended by the Clinic Group employees and the different media houses in the country.  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviours or interests.

People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. Research has shown that autism is mostly common with young children and some of the symptoms include avoiding eye contact, not smiling when you smile at them, getting very upset if they do not like a certain taste, smell or sound, repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, flicking their fingers or rocking their body.

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