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April 2, 2017, will witness Qutub Minar in Delhi and places in Mumbai like Bandra-Worli Sea Link & Taj Mahal Hotel light up in blue. Not only these historical monuments of India but along with them, there will be 18,600 other monuments & significant buildings spread across 142 countries around the globe which will turn blue!
No way it is an April Fool’s Day joke but a significant step to shower support to autism patients of all age groups globally.
On the occasion of World Autism Awareness Day, Qutub Minar will lit up in blue color. This will be executed on April 2nd, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. by Dr. Archana Nayar, Founder, Autism Centre for Excellence (ACE) in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India & National Trust, Dept. of Empowerment of Persons with Disability.
What is ‘Autism’ and is it really that widespread?
Do you remember Priyanka Chopra’s character, ‘Jhilmil’, in the famous Bollywood movie ‘Barfi’? Yes, the character is an example of an autistic child. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability which is typically observed by a certain set of behaviors and affects different individuals to varying degrees. A person may display one symptom while another may display a number of symptoms.
As a matter of fact, every 1 child ou 68 children is an autistic one.
How to identify ‘Autism’ in a child?
In India, generally, the diagnosis of autism is made around the age of 5 years. However, the symptoms can start to show up from 6 months of childbirth itself. Some of the common symptoms are:
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No big smiles or other warm joyful expressions.
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Not reacting to loud noises.
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No babbling, laughing, or reactions to frequent stimuli.
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Little or no eye contact
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The child is not able to follow moving objects with his/her eyes.
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The child doesn’t respond to his or her name or try to attract attention through actions.
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Lack of or delay in spoken language.
What causes ‘Autism’:
There is no one cause of autism but scientists working on nailing down factors causing ‘autism’ by and large identify gene mutations to be its cause. Also sometimes environmental factors also influence early brain development.
How to Raise Up an Autistic Child:
For parents, discovering their little one and coming to terms with this fact can be quite a depressing and emotional challenge. Apart from raising the child, there is another mighty problem that they have to tackle, namely the society. Facing society and making your child a part of it like any other normal child is a mighty task too.
For sure a lot more love & attention needs to be given to the ‘special’ child as compared to other normal children. The first step to deal with the same more beautifully rather than blaming God & themselves or feeling ashamed is to accept the little one with all his or her shortcomings. Next step could be to gather as much information about positively raising an autistic child. This will definitely help the parents to train their child for facing the society and give a definite purpose to their lives.
Is ‘Autism’ equal to lifetime dependency or can an Autistic Child be an achiever too?
Well, most people would say it is a lifetime thing and the child would be dependent forever on parents & siblings but this is a misconception. ‘Autism’ being a spectrum disorder, can show up in a variable permutation & combination of symptoms. So not all autistic children are dependent for their entire lifetime on family members.Some famous personalities that displayed signs of autism include:
To end the post on an inspirational note here’s a bit of trivia. Listed below are the names of some famous personalities from around the globe that displayed signs of autism:
Albert Einstein
The best & most gifted mind of the earth and the most famous scientiist.
Amadeus Mozart
The famous musican.
Michelangelo
The famous painter.
Daryl Hannah
The actress got diagnosed with autism as a child.
Tito Mukhopadhyay
Author, poet, and philosopher.
So if you are in Delhi, then you wouldn’t want to miss this spectacular sight on 2nd April 2017, 6.30PM at Qutub Minar.
