The current trends and challenges among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A retrospective descriptive study in a neuro-developmental center.

Abstract

Purpose:
Awareness and seeking help for autism spectrum disorders is limited in this part of the world.
This preliminary data on initial clinical presentation, challenges faced by both the service
providers and recipients would help to understand the condition and for a better service
provision.

Methods:
A retrospective descriptive study based on data maintained at a neurodevelopment center was extracted from 123 clinical records of children with ASD, using a predesigned data extraction form, and analyzed with simple statistical interpretations.

Results:
The male: female ratio was found to be 2.5:1, and 77% were first born. The mean ages of
suspicion, diagnosis and seeking help from the center were found to be 2.7, 3.4 and 3.7 years respectively. During the initial assessment, the mean CARS score of these children was 31.9 (SD 4.2). The major clinical presentations were recorded as speech related complaints (100%), poor eye contact (95%), not responding to call (95%), poor socialization (96.7%), and stereotypic behaviors (81%). The major sensory issues were found to be in the vestibular (66%), touch (56%), visual (53%) and auditory (31%) domains.
At the time of birth, the mean age of the mothers and fathers were 29.7 (with a range of 19.0 – 43.0) and 37.7 (with a range of 23.0 – 49.0), respectively. When considering the education, 83% of the mothers and 79% of fathers had their Advanced Level completed. Occupation wise, 65% of mothers were housewives, whereas all the fathers were engaged in one job or another. It was the mothers (98%) who played the role of primary caregiver of their children.
Recorded communications of the parents and observations of the staff revealed that irregular attendance (46%), noncompliance (35%), and poor understanding (24%) among the parents were the major challenges faced by service providers, whereas stigma (79%), lack of family support (72%), time commitment (53%), travelling difficulties (46%) and the guilt of not being able to perform their expected role (37%) were the challenges faced by the recipients.

Conclusion:
This study illustrates the current trend of the clinical presentation of ASD, and the challenges
faced by the service providers and service recipients.