“Schools for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Capital city of Bangladesh: perspective of available facilities”

Abstract

Executive Summary Introduction Childhood related condition and autism is a developmental disorder. They are characterized by severe language impairments, poor quality of social interaction, and repetitive stereotyped activities in place of the imaginative and social pursuits of normal children. Autism is a focusing condition and it has no curable treatment to overcome this. That’s why it is a major problem in our country. But there are some therapeutic interventions to maximize their social interactions, language skills, communication skills, etc. The Special Needs School (SNS) for children with autism is the best place to get these facilities beside of education for improving communication skills, social interaction, etc. There are many special schools, but they are not available with available facilities. That’s why the investigator was done this study on “Schools for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Capital city of Bangladesh: perspective of available facilities” and this report may get as an advocacy tool to ensure better facilities. Aim & Objectives The aim of the study is to find out the facilities are available in SNS for children with autism spectrum disorder. The aim was fulfilled under two specific objectives as, to find out what educational resources and therapy materials are available in SNS and to find out the availability of human resources for children with ASD in SNS. Method Survey methodology is selected as study method. Here, 7 schools were selected from 15 schools by following simple random sampling. Checklist was the data collection tool. The interview and observation were the data collection methods under this study. Result The investigator found that all participatory schools were concerned about occupational therapist whereby only 28.60% schools had speech & language therapist and 57.10% schools had psychologist. Then 63.29% schools had available TLMs as educational resources. Also 55.14% schools had available therapy materials as therapy resources. Conclusion These results suggest that most of the schools need to improve their facilities. Because they had limited facilities. Keywords Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Special Needs School (SNS), Facilities.