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Autism – Autism Spectrum Disorder in medical language- is a complex developmental condition which brings about challenges in social interaction, speeching, nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors.[1] It is generally diagnosed in childhood around 2-3 years old but some of them grow up normally until toddlerhood and diagnosed when they stop gaining new skills or losing previously gained skills. The effects and severity of the symptoms are different in each person and severity of symptoms can change in time.
According to CDC – Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 59 children is estimated to have autism. It is also three or four times more common in boys than girls and many girls with ASD show less familiar signs compared to boys. Hong Kong has the highest prevalence rates all over the world.[2] South Korea, the United States and Japan are the countries which are supervening in prevalence of the condition. In Europe, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Estonia and Finland have the highest rates respectively. Unfortunately, there is no test to diagnose autism. It can be recognized only by observing the behaviors.
When we consider the causes of ASD, we face environmental, biological and genetic factors. Having a sibling with ASD, having certain genetic conditions like fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome, taking prescription drugs like valproic acid and thalidomide during pregnancy, having older parents are the well known causes of ASD.
As we look at the treatment, there is also no certain treatment. Research shows that early intervention services can improve a child’s development. Early intervention services help children from birth to 3 years old to gain important skills. It can also help children to talk, walk and interact with others. Childhood is a very important phase in the lifetime of children with ASD.
In March 2018, Ireland officially ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).[3] Signatory states are obligated to promote, protect and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they have full equality under the law. Since it is difficult to find the picture of the situation with reliable data, there is a real challenge in measuring how many cases are in the society. We can learn the situation if it is reflected on the records.
That’s why policy makers need an informed picture of reliable data regarding ASD to devise effective policies to fill these gaps. To ensure that in Irish context, the government has legislative attempts like delivering Autism Strategy, Deputy Michael McCarthy’s Autism Bill and Senator Dr. James Reilly’s Autism Spectrum Disorder Bill to make Ireland truly an autism friendly and understanding country.
The Tohum Autism Early Diagnosis and Education Foundation in Turkey is a well known association to ensure the early diagnosis of children with ASD, access to health and education, the acquisition of a profession, employment, independent life and integration of children with ASD to social life.[4] There are plenty of attempts to integrate those children into a social life with foundations facilities in almost every country. They are trying to research[5] on developing children’s life quality. They also organize events to support autism society[6] become an element of oppression on the governments to put the legislation into action.
While traditional methods are on going, technological applications are also very useful. In the last 10 years, people have gotten a tendency to do everything on smartphones by applications and games. There are plenty of applications for the children with autism. Dinle Anla (Listen and Understand) developed by The Tohum Autism Early Diagnosis and Education Foundation in Turkey, Proloquo2Go created by Samuel Sennott, Otsimo developed by Zafer Elcik are famous applications for the children with special needs like autism. The basics of those applications is being developed with a symbol based alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) with a touch screen, to provide voice output and to help to communicate effectively.
When we look at the more developed technologies like virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI), we see few examples. Autism Glass developing by Stanford University and Google Glass[7] are glasses to read facial expressions and to recognize people’s emotions by AI technology and voice out to people with ASD.
Those applications mentioned above are only helping kids to learn basic things and to gain basic skills with restricted perspectives. It means that the purpose of the applications is to teach children with ASD animals, feelings, things which surround them. For example the kid puts her/his finger to the animal symbol on the application, later the application talks back ‘it is an elephant’ and then it is a point and allows the kid to pass another level or section without forcing or convincing the kid to say the same sentence. By this, yes, kids learn basic things but it is restricted.
In that sense, MobSmile in Turkey is developing an application and planning a character which would be a friend to those kids by AI technology. The company is planning to create a cartoon character specific to the countries in which the application will be licensed and this cartoon character will act like a friend of the kids. The character will talk to the kids and the kids will talk back to the cartoon character. In this way, the application will create a chance to talk to the kids. In time, cartoon characters will learn about the kid and use it in communication next time. It will be an interactive process for both sides.
While these studies are ongoing all around the world, there are tv series about people with autism. A Good Doctor released in the USA and its adaptation Mucize Doktor in Turkey, those series are helping to raise awareness in the society.
Yes, autism is a condition with many difficulties. However, with the help of well educated families, well developed policies by the governments, social awareness, and with the help of technology, it wouldn’t be that difficult.
[1] Definiton of Autism Spectrum Disorder by American Psychiatric Association https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/autism/what-is-autism-spectrum-disorder
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/676354/autism-rate-among-children-select-countries-worldwide/
[3] https://asiam.ie/autism-strategy-sinn-fein-motion/
[4] https://www.tohumotizm.org.tr/en/about-us/who-we-are/
[5] Effects of Workplace Design on People with Autism https://autism.ie/2020/07/20/research-study-examining-workplace-design/
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