Dhara - Building Sustainable Communication

When a child has been diagnosed with Autism the most worrying question a parent has is "what will happen to my child after me? Will he/she be able to survive independently?” As a Speech Pathologist, I have been asked this question many times. It's my responsibility to guide parents to help their child to live independently. Based on my knowledge it is possible to train children with Autism and other developmental disabilities to find their perfect job and live independently.  Organizations today have created an ecosystem where Autistic people can be employed in a conducive environment to build an independent living. The ecosystem is getting developed and we should see more autistic associates joining the work force, but is the skill development program tuned to meet the need? Let us briefly look into how parents and professionals can work together to build a better living. The first thing we should notice is if their child is visual thinker or non-visual thin...

Posted by: Ms. Sai Harika Boppana,                   Consultant Speech Pathologist,                   Dhara Speech Therapy Clinic.                         There's been lot of discussions and research articles on effect of gadgets on children, where one group says it hinders child development and the other group says it enhances child development. Now parents are skeptical about it!! and I get a lot of questions around the same. Let me share my thoughts around the same.                         The questions that arise during speech and language intervention process of a child with special needs, 1) How to get the attention of a child with Autism to listen what is being said? 2) A child who has no interest in any of the toys around how can one stimulate language learning...