Ciudad Juarez.- Selena Haide Saénz, who has two children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attended the Autism Seminar for Parents to learn the necessary tools to help her children become independent in the future. “It hit me like a heat stroke, but oh well, here we are,” she said when she learned that her four-year-old son was diagnosed with ASD, and that her six-year-old son has similar characteristics. Like her, dozens of parents attended the Autism Seminar for parents of children with Autism, organized yesterday by the Integra Foundation, AC “I came to learn a little about what care to take both for myself and for my son, and how to help him adapt to society and be able to get ahead in the future, progress in what he needs to learn; for example, my son has problems when speaking, he doesn’t communicate; so, I want him to be self-sufficient in the future,” said Sáenz. For her part, Gabriela Rodríguez, psychologist and sub-coordinator of the Luminar program in Villa Integra, said that this is the seventh seminar, where all the strategies for parents and caregivers are worked on so that they can follow up on the therapies at home that the association provides with the purpose of helping the children continue to progress. “In autism there are many needs, depending on each child, because even though it is called autism, the needs are not the same for all; so, our job as caregivers is to know what it is, the degree and their needs in order to develop strategies for learning,” she said. She explained that in the seminar they help them so that their children learn autonomy, integration into school, help them in the sensory area –when noises bother them–, the behavioral area, feeding and sleeping, since they are affected in these aspects. Autism is not a disease because it cannot be cured, but rather it is a neurodevelopmental disorder, she indicated. “We also work on the feelings of all parents, it affects the entire family, since as soon as there is a diagnosis, parents have shared with us in these seminars that life and dynamics change, and now they dedicate themselves to taking and giving therapies and working, since the learning and development process is different for a neurodiverse child.
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