Community Awareness on Children with Autism - Paper Example

Abstract

Autism refers to a serious developmental disorder or a mental condition that is present from childhood which impairs one's ability to interact, communicate and abstract concepts (Shimaya, Yoshikawa, Matsumoto, Kumazaki, Ishiguro, Mismura, &Miyao, 2016). Besides, the condition is associated with restricted, repetitive behavior, and it begins at early childhood and lasts throughout an individual lifetime if no proper medical attention is given to the child. Since there is not enough awareness in Chatham community of children with Autism age eighteen and under, the Chatham County community identified Chatham-Kent Children's services as an agency for youth and child mental health to help and educate parents or guardians about autism at an early age in their children. Also, communities in the school of Chatham have been on the forefront for creating awareness of this condition by seeking necessary guidance and support for their children who are vulnerable to this condition. This move has assisted many families in early recognition of the disorder and seeking required medical attention and support.

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Chatham County community through its school systems and agencies has always taken part in world Autism awareness day which is on every April 2 every year. The community has used this platform to create international awareness of this condition and going extra mile to encourage members' states of the United Nations program to take different initiatives as well to raise awareness about people suffering from this condition. Indeed, adequate international awareness on the issue has been created that is beyond the creation of a specific day to create awareness of this condition.

Strengths

Children who are autistic often bring enormous creativity as their minds are wired differently. Their imaginations are also extreme such that they can solve difficult problems without knowing. However, since they fear socializing with other kids, their ideas go to waste because there is no person to exploit the skills and ideas. Also, the passion of autistic children leads to productivity as they have intense and specific interests that lead to the organization's success (Vorstman, Parr, Moreno-De-Luca, Anney, Nurnberger Jr, & Hallmayer,2017). They implement important ideas that are used by the community. Their passion assures one of a win-win situation as they focus on productivity, even if they are distracted. Also, autistic children are self-driven as they do their things when nobody is watching. They often focus in making their selves busy to create something unique and helpful as their intense focus is naturally driven, making them handle one task at hand perfectly (Rescorla, Winder-Patel, Paterson, Pandey, Wolff, Schultz, &Piven,2017).

Gap

The gap that Chatham community encounters is that knowing an autistic child is quite difficult because at times it might be mistaken with certain mental disorders. Thus, the community does not do a survey in identifying children with autism at an early age.

Challenges

Nevertheless, the community faces challenges on the autistic children. Chatham County community finds it difficult to give the autistic children Medicaid coverage as the applied behavior analysis therapy is costly. When these children are not given the Medicaid, they end up being discriminated or rejected when they grow up to look for jobs (O'Roak, & State, 2008). Also, the community finds it difficult to expand the abilities of children with autism as their abilities are limited. The kids have learning disabilities that might have a negative impact in them as some might not study completely or attend regular schools, making them discriminated in most cases. Finding the exact interest of an autistic child is also very difficult because he or she does not associate with other children (Shimaya, Yoshikawa, Matsumoto, Kumazaki, Ishiguro, Mimura, &Miyao, 2016). Even if the community tries, the child might show different interests as their mind is always focused on one activity until completed. Also, their minds cannot be changed as they are always stuck on repetitive schedules for mind's satisfaction.

Opportunities

The opportunities that can be followed up to address the gaps and challenges are that improved outcomes for autistic individuals have opened wide pathways that are potential during the adulthood transition. These include entering the force of labor, attending colleges and achieving independent living degrees. The individuals that are less cognitive might be eligible for benefits of the state and might be absorbed in employment programs because of their unique characters and ideas (O'Roak, & State,2008). There might also be opportunities that enhance their epidemiologic studies as autistic people often fight for productivity.

Conclusion

To impact change in the community, members need to be educated frequently on the problems, signs and symptoms and possible outcomes of an autistic child at an early age. Parents and guardians having autistic children should also make their children explore so that their abilities can be exploited for better outcomes as the disorder is often associated with genius. They can do impossible things that might help the community in large areas

References

Rescorla, L. A., Winder-Patel, B. M., Paterson, S. J., Pandey, J., Wolff, J. J., Schultz, R. T., &Piven, J. (2017). Autism spectrum disorder screening with the CBCL/1-5: Findings for young children at high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 1362361317718482.

O'Roak, B. J., & State, M. W. (2008). Autism genetics: strategies, challenges, and opportunities. Autism Research, 1(1), 4-17.

Shimaya, J., Yoshikawa, Y., Matsumoto, Y., Kumazaki, H., Ishiguro, H., Mimura, M., &Miyao, M. (2016, August). Advantages of indirect conversation via a desktop humanoid robot: a case study on daily life guidance for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. In Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2016 25th IEEE International Symposium on (pp. 831-836). IEEE.

Vorstman, J. A., Parr, J. R., Moreno-De-Luca, D., Anney, R. J., Nurnberger Jr, J. I., &Hallmayer, J. F. (2017). Autism genetics: opportunities and challenges for clinical translation. Nature Reviews Genetics, 18(6), 362.