The 3rd BMI international autism conference got underway at the Hitex convention centre in the city from today. The two day conference is organised by the Behaviour Momentum India Foundation in association with the Telangana Government and the National Institute for the empowerment of persons with intellectual disabilities.
The inaugural function was attended by Secretary government of India, department of empowerment of persons with disabilities Ms Shakuntala Gamlin, Principal Secretary Municipal Administration Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary Women and Child Welfare M Jagadeeshwar, Ms Anuradha Dalmia Director National Institute for the empowerment of persons with intellectual disabilities and trustees of BMI foundation Manoj Sharma, Dr Smitha Awasthi and Sridhar.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms Shakuntla Gamlin felt that though autism is an extremely complex neurological disorder, the treatment should be looked not in medical model but in the social model with the family members being involved more in the curative process.
She said the participation of renowned experts from the paediatricians, pediatric neurologists, developmental paediatricians, psychiatrists, behaviour analysts, speech pathologists and occupational therapists would help in creating a platform for the dissemination of reliable evidence based information for all parents and professionals. Mr Arvind Kumar observed that very little is known to the parents about the early symptoms relating to Autism spectrum disorder in the children. He hoped that the conference would help the governments come up with a strategy to firm up policies both at the state as well as national level.
