Today, the Ministry of Social Development and Family organized a panel discussion on communication tools with people with autism, in cooperation with the Shafallah Center for Persons with Disabilities, the Qatar Society for Rehabilitation of Special Needs and the Qatar Autism Society, on the occasion of International Autism Day, which falls on the second of April of each year. The panel discussion, which was held at the Social Development Center in the Pearl and attended by experts in this field, focused on promoting awareness and education about autism, exchanging expertise and experiences between parents, counselors and psychologists about the disease, in addition to promoting awareness about effective communication tools with autistic people. The episode dealt with a number of axes, including signs and symptoms of autism, programs that help empower families with autism spectrum disorder, educational and therapeutic rehabilitation for children with the disease, symptoms that appear in the early development period, as well as those that appear in the social and professional fields, in addition to communication disorders. Communication with people with autism, different and alternative means of alternative communication with patients, as well as total communication skills. It also included tips and instructions for parents of autistic children, answering their inquiries and providing them with practical, successful solutions to the problems they face while dealing with people with autism. Mrs. Reem Al-Ajmi, Acting Director of the Community Care Department at the Ministry of Social Development and Family, stressed the importance of this panel discussion in exchanging expertise and experiences between specialists, consultants and parents on ways to communicate with autistic patients, given the importance of this in enhancing their social interaction strategies. She added that such activities come to activate the competence of the Ministry’s Community Care Department to implement national strategies, plans and policies related to persons with disabilities, and to increase community awareness of family and social challenges and issues, and their effects and ways to prevent them. She pointed out that the Ministry of Social Development and the Family is also keen to organize many conferences, seminars and workshops to discuss all issues related to persons with disabilities, within the framework of its interest in this important group of society.
