Jalandhar April 8 (Jaswinder Singh Azad)- The Department of Psychology of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar observed the Autism Awareness Month and organsied one day workshop on topic – ‘Moving from Surviving to Thriving’ on this occasion. The Resource person of the workshop was Mr. Atul Madan who is a licensed clincial psychologist and is Managing Director and Operational Head of ‘Care for Autism’ at Ludhiana.
Expressing his views on the topic ‘Stand with Autism’, Mr. Atul Madan said that today, one child in 36 is suffering from Autism and in extremely rare cases if child suffering from Autism is detected on time, then with the help of therapy, it is possible that these children too can lead a regular life. In rest of the cases, people around the patient need to be considerate towards them and deal with them with patience. Also, the parents of such children should be councelled about the ways which can help them to understand how they have to adopt different ways of parenting for their kid with autism.
Ms. Kochhar shared her views on the role of a psychologist in Autism Spectrum Disorder
In this workshop, Ms. Sheenu Kochhar, an alumnus of the college, psychologist, expressive art therapist and Head of Center for Autism, Ludhiana, was also present as the Second resource speaker in this workshop. Ms. Kochhar shared her views on the role of a psychologist in Autism Spectrum Disorder. With the enthusiastic students of Psychology, she shared when therapy for autism begins on time, there is high probability that a person can lead almost normal life and can do their daily chores themselves.
Both the source speakers emphasized on therapy as a possible solution to autism. They also emphasized the need of speech therapy, occupation therapy and special schools for their education.
Principal Dr. Neerja Dhingra expressing her views said, ” Autism is a disease mostly occurring in childhood in which children have a learning disorder and their neural network is weak due to which they are not able to communicate properly. It is important for the students to learn about how to deal with the people suffering from autism and respect their choices and comfort zones.”
Dr. Dhingra appreciated the efforts of Ms. Niharika and Ms Harpreet Kaur of Department of Psychology for guiding the students about such an important topic.