Looking after an autistic child may cost around HK$8,000 a month.
While some parents can afford this, many cannot. So the Heep Hong Society is urging the government to subsidise such families by up to HK$4,000 a month.
Department of Health figures show the number of children suffering from autism has doubled from 800 in 2007 to 1,600 in 2011.
However, the society said as many as 6,400 autistic children are in the queue for places at special schools.
On the eve of today’s World Autism Day, the society said 40 percent of the 434 families with autistic children, aged six or below, who were interviewed in January said it cost at least HK$8,000 a month to enrol their kids in special training classes offered by nongovernment training centers.
“Autistic people tend to have poor social skills,” said Heep Hong Society educational psychologist Eva Mak. “They often mumble to themselves and speak in a loud voice.”
She said training can help them better cope with life as adults.
But there is little assistance for autistic kids as governmental pre- school training classes are scarce, with 6,400 queuing for enrolment.
“Many parents send their autistic children for private speech and vocational therapy because the governmental recovery training places are limited,” Heep Hong assistant director Peter Au-Yeung Wai-hong said. Many have to wait more than two years.
Raymond Kwong has two children, with the youngest, aged five, autistic. He was diagnosed when he was two but has been able to receive speech and vocational therapy only every one or two months because places are limited and there is a queue.
Suki Lai, whose six-year-old son is autistic, said she suffered from insomnia as she grappled with the fact private training did not help her son’s situation but cost her more than HK$8,000 a month. “Money was not really a big issue,” she said. “What upset me was my son’s condition did not improve after three years of therapy.”
But his condition improved after admission to Heep Hong’s training session in 2009, she said, adding that “he can call me mother now and is able to interact with people.”
Heep Hong hopes the government will improve services to shorten the waiting list from two years to less than half a year.