Impact of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Awareness Program among Teachers and Parents in Qatari Schools

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) defined as persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts with restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities with varieties in presetting symptoms. early recognition is crucial for inversion.

Objective: The goal was to educate the parents and teachers about ASD (definitions, symptoms and sings and diagnostic criteria) and educate the primary school teachers and social workers about importance of diagnosing ASD and its impact on children’s education and when to seek medical advice.

Method: Collaborative work was done between Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Healthcare Institution and Ministry of Education in April 2019(international autism awareness month). The program was organized targeting the primary and intermediate Qatari governmental schools; most of them have a special needs program for children with autism and learning disabilities (integrated education program at school).

Eight schools enrolled in this workshop with 170 attendee. The program was consist of interactive session, Pre and post session survey concerning ASD information was distribute to the attendee. It includes wide range of questions to explore their knowledge in autisms, its sign and symptoms, how to deal with autistic child in school and home.

Results: Results showed that 90% of the attendees reflected positively on this workshop. There was significant increase in knowledge about children with Autistic spectrum disorder and how to deal with them as well as proper referral for diagnose and intervention (full result in the tables)

Conclusion: This workshop shed the light on important yet underdiagnosed disease among school children, the teachers and school personnel felt comfortable in detecting those children and work with them. Future goal is to establish national ASD program among parents and teachers in all schools in Qatar aiming to address need of early identification of ASD for intervention.