Early screen­ing, sup­port vital to address aut­ism

Published on 7 June 2026

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The ages of three to 12 are a crit­ical period for inter­ven­tion and skill devel­op­ment among chil­dren with aut­ism, mak­ing early screen­ing and sup­port essen­tial in help­ing them reach their full poten­tial, accord­ing to The National Aut­ism Soci­ety of Malay­sia (NASOM).

Grow­ing pub­lic aware­ness of aut­ism has led more par­ents to seek early screen­ing and pro­fes­sional assess­ments, enabling chil­dren to receive sup­port sooner.

Some par­ents may notice that their child is devel­op­ing dif­fer­ently but are hes­it­ant to seek help.

NASOM always encour­age early screen­ing because it helps identify the child’s needs and allows sup­port to begin as early as pos­sible.

Fact, aut­ism is not a dis­ease that can be cured, but a devel­op­mental con­di­tion that could be bet­ter sup­por­ted through timely inter­ven­tion.

With early inter­ven­tion, we could help chil­dren develop com­mu­nic­a­tion, social and beha­vi­oural skills that sup­port their inde­pend­ence and qual­ity of life.

The increased aware­ness through social media, online resources and par­ents shar­ing their exper­i­ences has con­trib­uted to more fam­il­ies recog­nising devel­op­mental signs and seek­ing assess­ments for their chil­dren.

Many people are aware of aut­ism today. The next step is accept­ance and under­stand­ing that every aut­istic indi­vidual is unique and deserves to be included in soci­ety, where NASOM cur­rently sup­ports about 500 chil­dren annu­ally through vari­ous

pro­grammes nation­wide.

The World Play Day event on June 6th, organ­ised by Taylor’s Col­lege in col­lab­or­a­tion with NASOM brought together chil­dren with and without spe­cial needs through a range of inclus­ive activ­it­ies.

Such pro­grammes help foster under­stand­ing among fam­il­ies and the wider com­munity by cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for mean­ing­ful inter­ac­tion.

The activ­it­ies were designed to encour­age com­mu­nic­a­tion, social inter­ac­tion and par­ti­cip­a­tion, while allow­ing chil­dren to learn and play together in an inclus­ive envir­on­ment.

Source: The Sun

https://www.pressreader.com/malaysia/the-sun-malaysia/20260607/281552297539400?srsltid=AfmBOoqoWoTTeV1x5dQPlVPRvdY5CGS8lq5r9qcWTN1kZOTsRVRHZmmq