JEDDAH, 15 October 2003 — In a small villa off Sary Street, the Jeddah Autism Center takes care of 32 children. Over 60 others are on a waiting list because the center is simply too small to accommodate any more children.
“We are limited here and we need to expand. Hopefully the new building will be completed soon: It can take up to 80 students,” said Amal Shaikh, the center’s deputy director.
Recently, Princess Fahda bint Saud ibn Abdul Aziz, the president of the Al-Faisaliah Women’s Welfare Society, opened the children’s playroom, which Philips has furnished for the new building.
The new center also includes an auditorium for conferences and workshops for older children. Some of the center’s current workshops include computer skills and art.
The Al-Faisaliah Women’s Welfare Society in Jeddah established the Autism Center in 1993 with three children and five teachers. The program expanded, and in 1996 the center moved to the current building in order to provide more services for the increasing number of students.
“There are many autistic children in Saudi Arabia, and we receive students from other cities and regions whose families had to move to Jeddah because they don’t have facilities there,” Shaikh told Arab News.
“It’s not that suddenly there is an increase in autism cases, but we didn’t have the right diagnostic tools in the past. People used to think that their children were possessed, the doctors thought that it was mental retardation or accused the mother of negligence or abuse. Now the doctors know what it is and they refer the children to us for behavioral and social training and developing their communication skills,” said Suad Al-Hibshi, one of the teachers at the center.
The center depends mainly on private donations for its operating costs.
Its goal is to provide a complete educational program for autistic children to help them develop their talents in order to be productive and integrate into society. The children are evaluated according to their level of autism and put on an individually tailored training plan which has to be coordinated with the home environment.
“Some of the children respond to the plan and improve in class, but the home environment and the family can hinder the children from developing their skills. Some families either spoil the child too much or treat them inappropriately because they are frustrated and don’t know how to react to the child’s behavior. Either way they’re not helping the child, so we have to educate the parents, too,” Al-Hibshi said.
“We also need to tell them what to expect from the training program, because some of them think that their child will be cured.”
The center only takes children with a mild to medium level of autism and the exit age is 16. “What will the children do after that? There are no workshops or real employment opportunities for them. We have to provide facilities and services for all autistic children and have compassion for their parents,” Shaikh said.
“There is a need to raise awareness among people that an autistic person is a complete human being who has many beautiful sides and can be a productive part of the community. The parents of an autistic child have no recreational outlet to take their child to and don’t feel comfortable taking them to public places because people stare or are afraid to let their children come near the autistic child,” Al-Hibshi said.
Unfortunately, researchers still don’t know what causes autism or how to treat it.