The Jeddah Center of Autism for Girls received more than 64 boxes of educational material and modules from the Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Foundation as part of its social outreach program.

The Jeddah Autism Center received more than 64 boxes of educational material and modules called “education entertainment” as experiment to teach the autistic children of the center from the Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Foundation as their social responsibility toward the society and children.

Omaima Sudairi, director of the center, thanked and expressed her appreciation to Ibrahim Sharbatly, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for serving the community.

She said the books and material they received is the best learning and latest modules and material for teaching through entertainment and activities, and will help children in learning and becoming useful members of the society.

She added that the Jeddah Center for Autism is a leading center in the Arab world, with interesting training programs to help autistic children learn and lead a normal life.

She said that the center is one of the most important social institutions that offers the best educational programs, rehabilitation and family support for children with autistic problems.

Sharbatly said this support to the center falls under the charitable work of the foundation where they have more than 22 charitable programs to serve the community.

He added that they closely watched the center and then decided to give them the educational material for their children because they found them very active and best in giving training and education to the children with disabilities.

The quality of the books which were delivered are the best and latest educational and learning material for the children with disabilities.

The incidence of autism among Saudi children is on the rise, and autism occurs in one out of every 100 individuals in the Kingdom.

Abdullatif Nukaly, general supervisor of the center said that the number of autistic children in the Kingdom is estimated to be around 322,459 of the 29,195,895 general population of the country.

He added that the Kingdom needs to work more for the welfare of autistic children. They need attention and care especially since there is an increase in the number of such children.
There are almost 67 million people with autism worldwide.

Autism is a disorder of the nervous system, one of the most common diseases that affects the evolutionary system of a child and symptoms appear in the first three years of a child’s life.

Dr. Fawaz Al-Anzi, consultant and head of the Department of Medicine, speaking on the growth of children’s behavior in King Fahd Medical City said that autism delays the child’s development in three main aspects — interaction, communication, lack of concentration and interest.

Parents can notice signs of autism at the beginning of the sixth month of the child’s age, but 10 percent to 15 percent of parents notice it in a later stage.