Autism Centers in Shanghai
A lack of schools for autistic children; a lack of funding for those schools; parents giving up everything to move close to and pay for an education that will help a child achieve as much as he or she can.
This is the situation for autistic children and their families in China as reported in today’s ChinaDaily.com in an article entitled NGOs [non-governmental organizations] take lead in providing shelter to ‘rain men’.
Chen Jie said the amount of effort needed to treat an autistic child was at least 100 times that needed to educate a normal child.
“The reason we carry on with our work is that we cannot let down these parents, who we believe are the greatest parents in the world,” Chen said.
“They have refused to abandon their children, and some even quit their jobs to look after them full time. They never give up and keep trying. Their presence in the centre is the best proof of that.”
One Jiangsu Province native surnamed Lu requested leave from her job for three months to travel to Shanghai last month to seek treatment for her autistic son.
She rents a tiny room without a private bathroom or any electrical appliances. She jokes that she lives in a time warp left behind by the city’s booming economic success.
Lu’s son attends Shanghai Qingcongquan Autistic Children Training Centre, which provides only a half-day of school for its students, due to a lack of funding. Jiang Limin, also the parent of an autistic child, founded Shanghai Xingyu Autistic Children Training Centre, the first NGO autism center in Shanghai, in 2003.
Jiang said she was saddened by the fact that the country does not yet define autistic youngsters as disabled.
“The funds needed to train an autistic child are far beyond the cost of caring for many other kinds of disabled people,” she said, adding that despite the cost, every cent used to train an autistic child was money well spent.
That is indeed something that we all know—-that and Lu’s saying “‘I am pleased with every single step up he takes.’”
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POSTED IN: China, Diagnosis, Education, Money, Parenting, Treatment
3 opinions for Autism Centers in Shanghai
Daisy
Oct 18, 2006 at 12:17 pm
“…every cent used to (educate) a …child is money well spent.” That’s a simple yet profound truth. It is true for disabled and nondisabled children. Disabled children cost a few more “cents” than the others.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 18, 2006 at 2:24 pm
And what good “sense” it is to spend those cents, whether they be in ren min bi, euros, dollars….
Michael BOll
Aug 8, 2008 at 2:08 am
My son attends a wonderful school for kids with autism. http://www.specialedchina.com It is an English school; mostly for foreign kids.
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