Helping the Underprivileged Community
Autism is a Gift
According to Autism Society of America (2016), Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others and also well define as “spectrum condition” that affects the person’s behavior. Normally, this disorder happens during childhood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDD) (2014) claim that, about 1 percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder. However, currently in Malaysia, there is no epidemiological data available on the prevalence of autism in Malaysia. But, a smaller scale study by the Ministry of Health on children between the ages 18 to 26 months showed a rate of 1.6 in 1000 children, or approximately 1 in 62512 (MOH,CPG: Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children and Adolescents, 2014). Thus, in order to improve the outcomes of this disorder, awareness among parents should be increased. Besides, early diagnosis/intervention and access to appropriate services/supports should be done (Autism Society of America, 2016).In this program, we would like to cooperate with occupational therapy’s (OT) students from UiTM Puncak Alam, a Non – Governmental Organization Akademi Autism Insani and Association of Muslim Intelctual Generation (AMILIN). The target group participation in this program is parents with autistic children whom registered under Akademi Autism Insani and UiTM students. There are about 15 students will be handling this program. Five facilitators from ‘Persatuan Islam Al-Falah’, five from AMILIN and another five facilitators from UiTM Puncak Alam students.