June 14, 2023, Healthworld.com: Society needs to be more inclusive of neurodivergent children: Ravi Shekhar Sing .. https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/society-needs-to-be-more-inclusive-of-neurodivergent-children-ravi-shekhar-singh/100949862
Parents of neurodivergent individuals confront numerous difficulties. The first one is ignorance. Parents, society, and medical experts are just a few of the groups lacking awareness. As a result, there are numerous cases of delayed and incorrect diagnoses, which hinders the development of the child. Add to this unexpected expenses that pile up for medical care and therapies.
There are a lot of challenges faced by neurodivergent children and their parents. The first is a lack of awareness. Lack of awareness among various stakeholders, including parents, society, and medical professionals. Because of that, there is a lot of delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, which hampers the child's growth. The second is stigma and discrimination. There is a lot of discrimination faced by the children and their families because society doesn't accept them.
Society is not very inclusive at this moment. Though it is improving, there is still a long way to go. Then it comes to the lack of infrastructure: if you go and find out in India specifically, there are very few centres or special schools, and the quality is somewhere not up to par. The fourth problem I see is a shortage of professionals, which is actually creating a lot of difficulty. The last is the financial burden. The parents of neurodivergent children have to factor in unexpected expenses. It’s not just therapy; medical expenses and education costs should also be considered. Everything is, by far, not very affordable. So that is something that, again, I see as a big problem. Mom's Belief
Mom’s Belief right now has 300+ professionals working in these 65+ learning centres in India. We are fighting that problem. We are training freshmen and relevant professionals through Mom’s Belief Academy to make them professionally equipped to do the therapies…. Family Support Programme In the journey of a neurodivergent child, there are three key stages in their life. First, they are an infant and growing, so there might be a lack of skills. It might be speech or cognitive. So to combat that problem, we have more than 65 therapy centres across India. The second thing is a lack of formal education. We just opened our second school "Autism School of Learning and Excellence". Third are the vocational and professional courses for children. For neurodivergent children, we also have vocational courses for them so that they can have a stable career moving forward. So we try to cover their entire journey. First is improving their skills; second is formal education; and third are professional courses for them. This is how we handhold a family and the child through their life journey.
We have entered into a global partnership with the LEGO Foundation. The company has received an investment of $685K in the first phase. This investment will be used to enhance and co-brand existing products, starting with India, the USA, and Dubai. The LEGO Foundation shares the mission of the LEGO Group: to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We are a very strong fit in terms of the partnership. Under this partnership, we have been trained by global professionals from the industry. At present, we are planning to support 10,000 families across the globe, including in India and the USA. The motive is to provide equitable and inclusive access to quality education for neurodivergent children.
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