Think you know autism? 🤔 It’s time to separate the myths from the facts! Join Dr. P Sumitha Hemavathy as she breaks down common misconceptions about autism and shares evidence-based insights in this eye-opening series – Part 1. 💙
🎥 Watch, learn, and share to spread awareness. Together, we can create an inclusive world for everyone on the spectrum. 🌈 🔔 Don’t forget to Like, Share & Subscribe for more informative videos from CAPAAR. Please Visit our website : https://capaar4autism.com/ or else call this number : 9845273273
00:00One out of 65 Indian children between the age group of 2 and 9 are affected by Autism Spectrum
00:15Disorder, ASC. Starts between the age, usually the diagnosis of the spectrum symptoms starts
00:21between the age of 18 months. There is a genetical history in the family. So is there is any kind of
00:27a test to recognize autism before the child is born or during the pregnancy? Father or both because
00:33already they will be undergoing a turmoil in there as a young parent. If autism is really
00:38neuro disorder then how come some extraordinary brains like Einstein, Newton? That's a mental
00:45hospital you want me to drop over there you know I was totally shocked you know. These kids have
00:51cognitive abilities you know that is where Einstein has come. There are high functional kids we are
00:57having you know with the high IQ level we are having above average IQ people we are having many
01:02kids who are there and they should be streamlined appropriately during their developmental process.
01:07I have many kids who have been extraordinarily like you know performing really you know they are amazing
01:14they need a you know regular guidance and a structured program. They generally keep their
01:20child secluded at home or they do home tuition. You're right because they are either scared of
01:26that social stigma and what the people around them are going to think about. Educate our kids who
01:32have to grow along with them having their future into the question in that if the social setup is not
01:38supporting you know especially as a child is growing up in the play area if the child is not accepted in
01:43the school if the child is not accepted and we have to understand we have to extend our support.
01:48After like listening to you I understood that they are definitely not mentally retarded kids.
01:55Yes they are very special. Crying with emotional outbursts people start like you know gathering or
02:00looking at them in a very strange way just you know ignore it and accept them. Hi this is your host
02:07Ankara Gupta from Shisquad Tejaswini. Today we have with us Dr. P. Sumita Hemavati, founder and director of KAPAR Center for Advanced Pediatric and Adult Rehabilitation.
02:24Her enriching 20 years plus experience in neurotherapy led her to create KAPAR Special School,
02:32a space where children with special needs thrive under her expert guidance. Dr. Sumita is also the
02:42proud recipient of eight prestigious awards in her field and the most recent being the best physio
02:50entrepreneur award 2025. Hi Dr. Sumita, welcome to Shisquad Tejaswini. Could you please tell our audience a
02:59bit more about yourself? Thank you Mrs. Ankur and thank you so much for the invite and I really
03:06appreciate the awareness which you are creating for the common people and as you know I am a
03:12physiotherapist with 25 years of experience and my journey at KAPAR or the thought of KAPAR started
03:20uh to bring and to serve the kids who are in need uh under one roof. This was uh I started KAPAR 10 years
03:29before where uh when I was working uh you know I noticed that people were uh the parents were running
03:36around pillar to poles for different types of therapies so the thought came all the therapies should
03:41be given under one roof so I started KAPAR 10 years before bringing all the therapies together under one
03:47group which is called uh which we call it as an integrated therapy and especially we started
03:53addressing uh neurodevelopmental disorder kids and under the category of autism ADHD and also the
04:00developmental delayed. Oh wonderful. And uh to tell about uh more about me so apart from KAPAR the journey
04:09at KAPAR uh I came I come from uh suburbs so uh I thought uh no the struggles when we move into as a
04:19therapist when we move into you know the city or a metropolitan city the struggle was larger so
04:25in my clinic I have 100 plus therapists which is dominated by female therapists who are from like
04:32you know moving from villages and not mostly from the cities so I'm a female entrepreneur. Wonderful
04:39Wonderful doctor. Wonderful. This is the journey about KAPAR for the past 10 years. Yeah so uh doctor uh we are going
04:46to discuss today specifically about autism and what are the myths and misconceptions related to it. So
04:54let's begin with our first question uh one out of 65 Indian children between the age group of two and nine
05:02are affected by autism spectrum disorder AST. So if I go by this data this means about 2 million children
05:10in India have AST. So could you tell our audience in simple words what exactly autism is? See as you stated
05:19it is autism spectrum disorder when we use the word spectrum it is not one disorder it is a multiple
05:26disorder. So a general scenario we say that it's a neurodevelopmental disorder which is also associated
05:32with uh communication and you know behavior delays uh but it's not only that it's more than that it's
05:40like you know a motor challenge is there or cognitive challenges will be there or there's activities of
05:46daily living that challenge will be there apart from that there are emotional challenges when I say a
05:50motor challenge it is very easy for a child we believe that you know the milestones achieves or a grown-up
05:57three or four year old child it becomes very challenging for the child to even write or a
06:02normal ball throw and catch for that appropriate age or even a cycling. So these are the challenges
06:08which has been ignored it generally states that you know a communication and a behavior or a social
06:14challenges which we see it's not only that this is also the hindrance which most of the kids who are
06:20falling under the spectrum they fall under okay so apart from the social and the communication challenges
06:27we should also concentrate more on their motor and also on their cognitive behavior challenges
06:34when I say a cognitive behavior you know the child has to go sit in the class the child has to learn
06:40you know and their tolerance all these things their attention span all these things will fall under
06:46or this big word called autism spectrum disorder okay so uh if we talk about the early signs and
06:54symptoms what are these symptoms which are which as per you are missed or misunderstood by the concerned
07:03parents this is uh like you know as I said this is a neurodevelopmental disorder so it affects all the
07:09developmental aspects uh especially like you know what all we parents as a parent what I
07:15understand when I interact with parents when they come for the diagnosis is uh many times the child
07:22will slowly deteriorate in name call response or there will not be eye contact you know the babblings
07:28might be would have been reduced and also like you know they will be sitting and playing in one corner
07:34they will not uh know who is around they slowly start they will not address amma or mama papa you know all
07:42this will be slowly it would have deteriorated there will be a regression notice but many times what
07:48happens as you know that autism affects mostly the male child it is a common myth in india we say like
07:54you know boys they talk late yeah so what happens is uh or you know my your uncle would have talked late
08:00or aunt would have talked late or my neighbor would have talked late you know so these are the things where
08:05they get postponed in their diagnosis with the early intervention so when we notice as a young
08:12parent when we notice when these symptoms has been reduced it has to be addressed to the pediatrician
08:18or a developmental pediatrician so that they can guide us appropriately for the early diagnosis okay
08:24got it so one should not delay it by just thinking what the other family members thinking it's fine
08:31if he's speaking late or she's speaking late or walking late it happens because every child has a
08:38different way of responding so one should not exactly wait for this kind of a thing and immediately come
08:45to the doctor immediately they have to report it to the developmental pediatrician or to their family
08:50pediatrician or the family physicians okay that will be more advisable that is more advisable right
08:56that's what the early the better yeah yeah so this is the message we should be giving to the parents
09:02the early the better exactly early the better even the small small symptoms has to be addressed
09:08yes so this is about the child development when if a parent is approaching early i'm sure even for
09:15the family also it's a good thing if they approach the doctor at the right time because they themselves
09:22are impacted a lot so what do you have to say about it
Be the first to comment