Working with autism is and remains a big challenge. This concerns not only education and therapy for persons suffering from ASD but in a similar manner creating awareness and understanding about autism among parents, relatives and guardians of autistic persons. The task becomes much bigger in a developing country with a general low level of education and underdeveloped social services. Add to this a quite unique language with its own script. This is Laos.
We try to tackle with this huge challenge. As a very first result we would like to offer an information about autism in Lao language. It can be downloaded as .pdf here
ຂ່າວສານ ເປັນພາສາລາວ
Autism in Laos
Autism in Laos is as widespread as it is in other countries. But it is by far less known and diagnosed as for example in neighboring Thailand. Even doctors do not know much about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), how could one assume that farmers in rural or mountainous areas can do? For most people their kids just "learn to speak a bit later" or " are a bit introverted". So it comes with no surprise that a parents group of children with ASD came into contact with each other with support of a specialised department of a well-known hospital in Thailand.
A quick survey (response to a newspaper article about autism) brought up about 40 to 50 kids mostly suspected to fall into the autism spectrum in the Lao capital Vientiane alone. Our parents group currently comprises 25 of them. The Vientiane Autism Center opened mid 2009 to provide education and therapy to those kids.
#1 by Chelona B.Zabala on 7. November 2012 - 02:27
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Dear Sir\Madam;
Your prgram for special children are truly remarkable. I just want to ask , are you accepting children with cerebral palsy? I want to know where is this Vientiane Autism located? how much is the full year tuition fee? and what are the requirements for registration? THank you very much and hope to receive an answer from you soon..
#2 by info on 11. November 2012 - 07:37
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Dear Chelona,
no, we do not accept children with CP. But in Vientiane exist a center specialising on cerebral palsy. It is called Ban Senesouk. I will try to get you their contact details in the next couple of days.
Best regards,
Michael