Dr.
Saleh bin Mohamed al-Salehi, Director or the Children’s Growth and Development
Center at the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz University Hospital, stated that the
rate of diagnosing children with autism is 1 out of each 68 children, according
to the statistics of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the
USA.
This
came as part of the press statements that came on the margins of the university
hospital’s celebration of the international day for autism. Dr. al-Salehi
stressed that training and developing manpower on how to deal with development
and behavior disorders has the greatest impact on how to deal with the patients
and their families; raising the level of the services provided for this
category. To that extent, four workshops have been organized:
1- Tools for diagnosing children with autism.
2-
Early intervention program for autistic children.
3-
Intervention of parents to support autistic child.
4-
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in autism.
On her part, the acting Training and Development Director at the University
Hospital, Nouf bint Mohamed al-Zamel, stated that the organized workshops were
presented by a number of experts and specialists from the King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz University Hospital and a number of external parties. She added that
the workshops witnessed the participation of a number of specialists in the
field of health care; physicians, nurses, rehabilitation specialists, special
education teachers, in addition to students. This participation aimed to create
a family-friendly environment based on the treating team’s understanding of the
needs of the child and the family.