Speaking about Autism

A concert dedicated to the World Autism Awareness Day has taken place at Astrakhan State University.

Who but we would talk about the most crucial themes – about kids, about our future? This is the question raised by students and faculty of the Department of Pedagogics, Social Work, and Psychical Training of ASU, who arranged this event.

Every single year millions of specialists and parents get an opportunity to tell the society about autism as a global problem, which is so serious that many people are unaware of its scale. Before starting to tackle it, it ought to be presented to the public to make parents and teachers aware of it.

The event was supervised by Dr. Regina Smirnova, Head of ASU’s Chair of Social Pedagogics & Psychology, and by Ms. Albina Sadykova, Director of the Blue Bird Kids’ Rehabilitation Center. In the Concert Hall of ASU, adults and kids welcomed everyone to the world of goodwill, mutual aid, and trust.

In a sincere and cosy atmosphere, the guests could both enjoy the concert program and learn something new for them. Autism is a widely spread disease; if affects mostly children whatever their race, home region, or their parents’ social or material status were. Causes of autism have not still been researched completely. Yet, a kid’s ability to socialize suffers because of this disease. Limited or repeating models of behavior are quite typical for kids suffering from autism. At that, a kid’s IQ is not affected; it is sometimes even much higher than that of their peers. The most crucial thing is to start correcting autism at an early age.

The traditional event “Blue Highlight” took place on the World Autism Awareness Day in Russian cities and towns: many buildings were highlighted in blue. The guests of our concert enjoyed taking part in this colorful event.

The concert participants highly appreciated the real chance to learn more about problems of autistic kids at our University, as well as obtain useful information from volunteers and receive souvenirs.