关爱自闭症儿童

The call for more awareness of autism in children comes as China prepares marks World Autism Awareness Day.

Autism is a developmental disorder which creates significant communication, social and behavioral challenges for children.

In some cases it can lead to incurable functional impairment.

The number of children suffering from autism in China hasn't been fully assessed.

Estimates range from 1.5 to 1.8-million.

However, only a small fraction of these children often receive professional help.

There are only 11-thousand autistic children registered in rehabilitation organisations nationwide.

One of the facilities which helps care for children with autism is the Yangyong Youyi Rehabilitation Center in Beijing.

There, autistic children at preschool age are given training to help prepare them for primary school.

But despite their efforts, many of them are rejected from entering primary schools.

Wei Qingyun helps care for the children at Yangyong Youyi.

"The children we receive here around September and October every year are mostly the ones rejected by primary schools. Their parents tell me that their children were rejected or asked to quit after admission. I think this is a very tough social problem now."

Being a parent with an autistic child has challenges beyond just education.

He Huiquan is a father of an autistic child.

"The older our children grow, the more worried we're becoming. We're worried about their education, job and their capacity for independent living. We can take care of them for now, but what about after we pass away?"

A number of rehabilitation centres and training schools have been set up across the country.

The Soong Ching Ling Foundation has launched a fund for autistic children, with 3-million yuan as initial capital.

However, the overall number of facilities to treat autistic children in China remains comparatively low.

There are only around 3-hundred autism rehabilitation centres in China.

Most of them are privately run.

For CRI, I'm Yu Yang.