​​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.​