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| Swapna, Bangalore Ph: 080- 8391050, swapnatn@vsnl.com |
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Swapna, like many other parents, came to know that the problem affecting her son was autism, a cureless disorder of the brain, after a painfully long period of assumptions and diagnosis.
But that did not help things much as the special schools, where she sent her son to, did not have the understanding or patience to deal with tantrums and idiosyncrasies of such children. Nor did it help things much that her husband Arun Nair was a doctor with the Air Force. To this bleak scenario came the first ray of hope in the guise of Mery Barua, another mother with an autistic child, who had undergone training abroad.
She invited Swapna to join her newly formed school for autistic children, ‘Action for Autism’ where Kannu, her child, too joined. For a year she underwent training under Barua in bringing up autistic children.
Swapna, who had sacrificed a career as college lecturer to look after her child, decided that before specializing in caring for autistic children, she should learn the scientific method of bringing up normal children. She underwent a post graduate course in Child Development from Madras University and later underwent a 3½-month course in North Carolina, USA, in brining up autistic children. Another training at Ohio University, USA with scholarship from Tata in 1999 completed her academic pursuit to help her son.
Later she opened a school for autistic children at Mumbai, with 7 children including Kannu. As this school was in their residence, the instruction was completely free.
Another transfer to her husband brought Swapna and family to Bangalore, where she now runs ‘Movement For Autism’, a special school with 14 children.
After years of agonized groping in the dark, Swapna has recognized her destiny as the effort to bring up Kannu and autistic children like him. That is why she dreams of starting an institution for autistic adults even as she knows that the financial hurdles are many.
Courtesy: Bindu K.Prasad, Malayalam Weekly, November 8, 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
