8th Autism Carnival to celebrate ‘World Autism Awareness Day’

New Delhi: On April 2, 2023, the Centre for Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (CCAW) will return with its 8th Autism Carnival, which is a much-awaited and needed space for the community to come together for numerous fun-filled activities.

CCAW, New Delhi, a multi-speciality centre working to enhance emotional and mental well-being for children and adolescents, is set to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day in New Delhi.

The centre has been operational for 18 years and does ground-breaking work in mental and emotional health domains for children and adolescents. Having worked with over 5,000 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the past two decades, the team of specialists and trained mental health professionals of CCAW will be available in an open forum to celebrate Autism and share insights on evolving management techniques.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, Health Minister of the Delhi Government, will be the Chief Guest. This event is projected to witness a massive footfall of families and children from the Autism community in India. Using Autism Carnival by CCAW as a platform to connect for strength, support and understanding, the objective of this flagship is community cohesiveness.

Dr Deepak Gupta, child and adolescent psychiatrist and Founder Director of CCAW, says, “Autism is one of the most misunderstood neurodevelopmental conditions. A peculiar trait of children with Autism is their concern with social communication difficulties. This, however, does not mean that they lack abilities to perform daily functions in life. On the contrary, some of the children with Autism are brilliant and exhibit performance which is sometimes far superior to ones who are not on the Autism spectrum. With understanding and compassion for their special needs, we can surely induct them into the mainstream.”

In a world with lots of external stimuli like sounds and visual happenings, a child with Autism may want to seek a comfortable space. Still, because they are small children, they only express this through crying, staring, or showing signs of irritation. In addition, when people with Autism are sometimes challenged with communication skills, they might sometimes miss catching what others are saying, or others might not catch what they are trying to express. That is the world of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a condition characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication, alongside restrictive and repetitive behaviours.

From a world of parents, this condition can be strenuous to manage, understand and accept. Dr Shilpa Gupta, a premier parenting coach in India and the founder of EmoAid, the community mental health wing of CCAW, says, “I offer various modalities in the mental and emotional wellbeing domain to support parents of the Autism community. Through our EmoAid Self-Help Program, my techniques and methodologies have helped more than 1600 people with emotional and mental well-being challenges. When the doctors and psychologists announce the news that a child is on the Autism spectrum, parents often have questions like “Why my child” “How is my child?” “What do I do?” “Can I even help?” “Will they become normal and say hello, mumma?” With such queries, some parents have a sense of isolation and grief and must be empowered to accept and learn techniques to manage it gracefully.”

Ms Shreya Mago, a Child Psychologist and Special Educator working with CCAW, expresses, “The parent community of Autism children needs to be strengthened, and that’s precisely what we aim to do at the Autism carnival. When Autism families get to know each other, they build a support network and share challenges. A person with Autism requires more understanding and compassion from our community. We at CCAW have seen several examples wherein children or adults with Autism have gifted abilities like sharp focus, high-grade language proficiency, and beyond-par mathematical abilities. Autism is a condition which makes it difficult for the person to forge relationships through what we may tend to call ‘our everyday communication skills’. Their style and approach to communication differ from others and require acceptance and patience.”