Team-BHP - The Autism Thread

Bangalore folks, if you are looking for a second opinion for child neurogical issues, I'd recommend visiting Dr. Vykunta Raju. Those who stay in West Bangalore can also visit his clinic (in Vijaynagar) for regular consultancy
https://www.vykuntarajuchildneurologist.com/

His credentials:

- Professor, Pediatric Neurology, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health
- DM in Pediatric Neurology from AIIMS

From linkedin:

Quote:

He has more than 500 publications in various national and international journals and abstracts in conferences (100 pub-med indexed, 100 others indexed, 300 abstracts). He has got more than 30 awards for various papers in conferences at state, national and international conferences. He is an author and editor of books cerebral palsy and early stimulation and cerebral palsy manual. He is an author of more than 25 chapters in other textbooks. He is a guest speaker in more than 200 state and national conferences.

Only minor issue is that he is available at his clinic only in the evening. The clinic is relatively small and is crowded all the time (even weekdays). Wait times can be up to an hour sometimes, even with an appointment.

For regular consultancy with pediatric neurologist and occupational/remedial therapy, you can also visit Parijma Neurodiagnostic & Rehabilitation Center
https://parijmaneurology.com/

They have centers all over Bangalore and one in Mangalore.

Here is proof that money doesn't solve autism.

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology...489-2023-03-14

The billionaire founder of Zoho Corporation revealed details of his autistic son.

Quote:

My personal life, in contrast to my business life, has been a long tragedy. Autism destroyed our lives and left me suicidally depressed... My wife Pramila and I were in this fight against autism for over 15 years. She is a super mom and her passionate cause is curing our son of autism. As our son got older (24 today) I felt the endless treatments he was under were not helping much and he would be better off in rural India, closer to loving people and helping to lift up people. She felt I was giving up. Our marriage collapsed under that stress...

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmartCat (Post 5443980)

As a parent of disabled kids myself, I have to admit that Dr. Vykunta was a blessing for us. We were without a diagnosis for about 3 years and after much testing and complete family genetic mapping were able to confirm a diagnosis, a very rare case condition. His prescribed treatment has helped a lot and came at such a time when we were running out of options after having visited almost all the specialists in Bangalore.
He practices in 3 places, his centre in VijayNagar, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (in the NIMHANs complex) and Sagar Apollo Hospitals at Tilak Nagar. The first two are usually crowded so we usually go for early morning visits to Sagar Apollo.

Hi All,

Went through all the replies and comments on this thread - this is very informative and helpful.

Our son is about to turn 5 and he is very mildly autistic/ ADHD (we have got him formally assessed and this is as per those behaviour tests). He has been getting behavior therapies and OT for the past year and has shown considerable improvement. He is very vocal now and can form complex sentences and communicate completely orally.

A few remaining issues/ problems are not understanding social norms completely, negative attention-seeking behaviour, and some tantrums/ stubbornness around mundane issues (which can be related or unrelated to him). As per our therapists, we should just explain the reason why something can't be done (on what he is fixated on) and then we should just ignore his behavior (crying and general tantrum-throwing). This seems to be working and we are hopeful of ironing this also out of his behaviour.

We have been based in NCR (and currently living in a joint family) and the schools here seem to have higher academic load vs. other places like Mumbai. He currently goes to DPS and we have not declared his mild autism/ ADHD to the school. DPS also has a special educator and awareness around Autism/ ADHD and they have been showing concerns that we should get him assessed and get his OT etc started.

We have the option to shift to Mumbai where the academic load is lower, and he has secured admission into Nahar International School which is IB with a lower student-to-teacher ratio and is also inclusive with OT, etc. available in the school itself.

Request members’ guidance for the following points:
1) Should we move to Mumbai at all or stay back in NCR? The primary challenge would be a change of environment with moving into an apartment (vs. a rowhouse) and a nuclear family (vs. a joint family) etc.

2) Would a change of teaching pedagogy with a lower academic load and inclusivity help him in his improvement journey as this is essentially the start of education and a longer focus on basics might help to build a stronger foundation?

3) Inclusive schools in NCR with lower student-to-teacher ratio?

4) Other good inclusive school options in Mumbai?

5) Do alternative schooling systems like Montessori and/ or Waldorf help in such cases?

Thanks in advance!