“Awareness is still a problem. People don’t know how and where to refer the child. There is a shortage of clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, mental health professionals, advisors to assist in creating IEP’s.”
“I’ve done a lot of awareness programmes, wrote for The Star Newspaper, and did multiple interviews to get the awareness out there. I assisted the PDRM in writing their Standard Operating Procedure for Autism. I advocate for our kids to go into mainstream schools. I provide training for parents, phone consultations to help the child in that very moment. I take into account the need to cut cost. By equipping parents with the knowledge, they don’t have to come for so many sessions because they now know how to handle their child. But parents need to be willing to put in a lot of time. We need to educate the parents, to encourage them to be more active in their child’s learning, to sit into sessions to see what is carried out with the child.
Although there was a zero rejection policy, are we providing necessary support for the child? I worked with Karpal Singh’s law firm, being the first expert witness representing autism in the Malaysian High Court. One of the clients was suing because their autistic child was allegedly a victim of bullying in school. Although it’s nice to hear that every child can attend school, are we ready for the consequences of what could happen with the child? Do we have sufficient resources in place? Are our teachers equipped?
There are no referral centres where they can go to for screening. This is something I have been advocating strongly about. Screening is when we can determine what is going on with the child. For assessments here, they are often done by teachers instead of a mental health professional. As a result, the report is not as thorough. There are proper tools to test the child. Our OKU department are fluent in the certification of a disabled person, but how can they certify when they don’t have enough people or expertise to certify that?
There is no governing body in Malaysia for those practicing in special needs, so everyone is opening their own centres. People in Malaysia tend to think with their emotions more than qualifications. But we are not talking about babysitting here, we are talking about emotional support and providing proper treatment for the child. Professionals themselves are not given enough training. Yes you can have your qualifications, but how many universities are actually sending their students out to go and get training? How qualified are the lecturers, how much experience do they have in teaching students who take their courses?
Although there is more and more awareness in Malaysia, with autism-friendly spaces, we tend to overlook safety concerns. Ergonomical safety: are we ready to have this child in the mall? They may have a space, but what if the child is unable to be controlled? Do we have that kind of safety in place? Are there exit points? We need to be more equipped with such knowledge. There are not enough research teams for this line to know what exactly is needed to accommodate these children.”
Part 2/2
Photostory and edited by Win Li
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Sitra Panirsheeluam is the Director/Case Manager of Little Triangles
Website: littletriangleservices.com
Email address: info@littletriangleservices.com
Telephone number: +6012-9169672
– Humans of Kuala Lumpur