Across China: Giving autistic patients life skills, guidance

Xinhua

17th April 2022

Across China: Giving autistic patients life skills, guidance

Huang Zhuan, a special-education teacher, finds nothing more pleasing than positive behavioral changes in her students.

Huang, 28, graduated with a major in special education from Anshun University, southwest China's Guizhou Province, and has worked for over five years at the Caring Home Special Education Rehabilitation Training Center, which is non-profit, in the provincial capital of Guiyang.

Huang still remembers a pair of autistic twins among the first batch of students she taught. Even accompanied by their mother, the brothers still spat and took off their shoes during class, she recalled.

After two years of training, the elder brother recovered and received a standard education in the kindergarten, while the younger one is receiving training in the development of life skills.

The two children still keep in touch with Huang via telephone. "I'm proud and pleased to see that what I learnt has helped people in need," said Huang.

Autism in China has an incidence rate of 0.7 percent, and more than 2 million children under the age of 12 are autistic. The figure is rising by about 200,000 each year, according to a report released in 2019.

https://english.news.cn/20220417/9b3cff4057b842f8aa130ea9f040c36a/c.html