According to statistics from the psychological clinic of Can Tho Children’s Hospital, from September 2019 to date, 1.161 children between the ages of 0.5-16 received screening assessments, of which 112 children were diagnosed with autism, whereby 93 out of the 112 are between the ages of 0.5-6.
On the morning of May 5th, 2022, at Thang Long English and vocational training school, Saigon Children’s Charity, in collaboration with HCMC Central College of Education, and Can Tho Center for Social Work, held an opening ceremony for a new short-term training course on Early Intervention for children with autism.
This activity is part of a 3-year project supporting Early Intervention for children with autism in Can Tho. The project was implemented with a budget of 1,255,000,000 VND in the first year, with aims to raise awareness of autism, build professional skills of early intervention staff, and support organisations operating free early intervention clinics for children with autism in the area.
At the opening ceremony, Mr. Damien Robert – Director of saigonchildren – states that this is one of the most important activities that saigonchildren is carrying out: “I am personally passionate about supporting the Autism community in Vietnam, and this training course for Early intervention is one of the most effective methods to help children with developmental disorders learn to communicate – thereby increasing their ability to access education and grow up happily.”
“Currently, Can Tho does not have any public agencies dedicated to early intervention. Meanwhile, the cost of early intervention is very high, so families with children with autism and strained financial circumstances find it very difficult to access this service.” – Mr. Ho Thanh Hai, representative of Can Tho Center for Social Work, shares.
“As someone with a personal interest in Early intervention for children with autism, I am extremely pleased to participate in this training course. I will participate wholeheartedly in order to gain the most knowledge and bring positive support to the local children.” – Mr. Hau, a student at Can Tho Center for Social Work, shares.
Ms. Tran Thi Hien, manager of VTCare Can Tho Healthcare and Education Center, is also a participant in the training course and hopes to acquire knowledge and skills specifically in guiding parental support as this is also an important aspect of promoting development in children with autism.
The training course, implemented by the Central College of Pedagogy of HCMC with funding supported by Saigon Children’s Charity, will take place over 11 weeks, and involves 300 lessons on Education for children with autism. The lessons focus on topics such as child psychology, children with autism psychology, early intervention and teaching methods, etc., and are accompanied by opportunities to practice on children. After the training course, participants can begin to practice early intervention on children in the area.