Parents of children affiliated with the Dubai Autism Center have identified 10 challenges that need solutions from the government, charities and the center, stressing that they hinder the rehabilitation and integration of their children into society.
The challenges topped by the high cost for children with autism, amounting to 60 thousand dirhams annually at the center, pointing to the need for government support to secure this amount, in addition to providing an integrated curriculum for students, and taking into account the global protocol with four students in a row, to get the best results Rehabilitation and empowerment of students over the age of 18 years through the provision of professional activities and workshops, and activate the website and communication channels to suit the level of the center, and provide appropriate buses to transport students at reasonable fees, especially as some of them are employees and have difficulty in transporting their children themselves, and provide specialists in the center G After reasonable official fees, in order to ensure the child's development and development, to teach children with autism professions commensurate with their abilities and contribute to their development, and to raise awareness of the autistic community, and to determine the child's ability to attend regular schools and his ability to move to this stage.
This came in a survey conducted by the Center, recently, to find out the opinion of parents of children affiliated to the Center, and their suggestions on the development of the mechanism of work at the Center.
The questionnaire, which the Emirates Today received a copy of, included 13 questions, which focused on the factors of success of the center, the participation of parents of children in the individual educational plan designed for them, the most prominent services provided, the effectiveness of the facilities of the center in the development of the level of children, and aspects of improvement in each child. The extent of interaction of technical and supervisory staff with children and their understanding of their situations, as well as the digital transformation of the center, and the transparency of dealing with the management of the center and technical staff, in addition to the difficulties faced by children with parents to pay fees.
More than 50% of the respondents said that the main difficulties they face in paying tuition fees are the high value of these fees, the difficulty of providing them, in addition to the need to provide free study in the center for the children of citizens, as well as the difficulty of providing fees from Government and charity.
The survey showed that all those who participated in it were satisfied with the move from the old villa to the new building of the center, because of its facilities compared to what it was before, while more than 80% of them stressed the importance of the services provided by the center, and the improvement shown by children since they joined it In addition, the center is geared towards smart applications, and includes many services that help in the process of rehabilitation and integration in the community, including entertainment, such as cinema, swimming pool, barber shop, photography studio and the use of robot.
Mohammed Al Emadi, Director General of the Center, told Emirates Today that the questionnaire was aimed at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the work within the Center and knowing the views of the students' families about the services provided to their children, so that they would be an integral part of the Center's work and development, in addition to the definition of society, especially The center provides services to rehabilitate children with autism.
He added: «Based on the results of the questionnaire, there will be a new rehabilitation and educational plan for children, at higher levels than currently provided, implemented by different staff, qualifying and training, and include attracting global programs have a cost-effective and more effective results, pointing out that« the most important focus The parents of the students are that the fees are too high, and that their employers do not cover these fees ».
Al-Emadi called on the concerned authorities to allocate a budget to educate and rehabilitate children with autism, as well as ordinary students, regardless of the social status of the family of the injured child, stressing the need to adopt a unified curriculum for the rehabilitation and education of children with autism at the state level in government and private centers.
National autistic children face many challenges, including the fact that their families are paying for their rehabilitation and education, while their regular counterparts receive free education in the schools of the Ministry of Education.This requires reconsideration to allocate a specific budget for the rehabilitation and education of these children.