If you have an autistic child, don’t feel helpless when planning a long vacation to India . Take advantage of the services provided by BMI in various cities within the country.
In recent years, cases of children being diagnosed with autism have increased tremendously worldwide. The awareness regarding autism, particularly in India, is comparatively higher than what it used to be and many support groups and foundations have been set up to help children on the spectrum in the last decade.
One of the largest and most recent foundations to have gained traction is ‘Behaviour Momentum India’ (BMI) founded by Dr. Smita Awasthi in 2010 at various locations in India, with its headquarters in Bangalore.
Smita Awasthi initially visited India as an NRI to assist parents in helping their children with autism and was invited by NGOs to hold workshops on the importance of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) at an early age. She was the first person in India to have all professional qualifications regarding ABA, and an immense practical experience in the application of ABA. She relocated to India and formed BMI.
The aim is to provide optimum learning opportunities to children and individuals with autism, to achieve self-sufficiency and an improved quality of life by implementing empirically tested methods of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
Customisation is key
The model followed at BMI is to have one trainer per child and include intensive training of 25 hours per week as per the international benchmark. This has been well received by parents and has shown results where the children on the spectrum have slowly adapted to the ways of ABA and started communicating and learning daily activities of self independence.
The facility is located within the premises of Fortis Hospital and is quite well maintained with an adequate group of well trained therapists who work on Saturdays, too.
There are individualized programs for all the kids. There is a big play area with a swing, a ball pit, a trampoline, a separate destress zone for kids to calm down and numerous seating arrangements with tables and chairs. The place offers interactive play sessions, occupational therapy and speech therapy to the kids.
My 5-year-old son Advay got accustomed to the ways of ABA within two weeks and then showed slow and steady progress, especially with regard to following short verbal commands, eye contact and learning new play activities with other kids as well.
Smitha Awasthi explains the importance of ABA, “Autism is a very complex disorder which does not show results with the general education procedures. There are very specific procedures that we have to use to teach these children and ABA as a subject has shown great results with the intervention of children with Autism. We are working towards advocacy of ABA in India.”
The therapy services abroad are very expensive and such foundations ensure that the services are available locally and priced reasonably. A range of services from mentoring to private consultations to hands-on ABA training for parents is provided here. For more information on the foundation, please refer to the link here – http://behaviormomentum.com/
So, as parent(s) of an autistic child if you would like to reach out for support during your stay in India then do take advantage of the services provided by BMI in various cities within the country.
“Wanting to be free. Wanting to be me. Trying to make people see. And accept the real me.“ ~Scott Lentine
This quote speaks volumes for an autistic child who is waiting to be understood and eager to convey a lot about what he or she absorbs every single day!
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