Autism Information & Resource Center

als of the Government of India to bring together all strategies, interventions and services available in our country. The dream became a reality and a commitment at the National Consultative Workshop on Autism Spectrum Disorders organised by the Directorate of Health Services, Ministry of Health and WHO Country Offices. A freely available, National Clearing-House/Intervention Resource Centre / website would be developed to serve as a pool of information of all interventions and assessment tools carried out across the country. The Autism Resource Centre has been developed with great passion and motivation by the most experienced team in our country. The Expert Committee, though comprising of very busy professionals, has generously given their time and expertise with great passion and motivation to fulfil this collective dream. The collective aspiration has been, to bring information to families and to try and lessen the confusion that parents have about what exactly to do for their child. We do hope we can achieve this. We hope that this common plattform, can be an interactive one, where there is great sharing of information and new developments in the field of Autism. The Resource Centre has several very important sections, each one has been developed after much debate and discussion. I would like to draw your attention to the Advisory, as this reflects many of the thoughts and experiences of the expert team. This is important for parents living in places where services are not available, or when they are waiting for a diagnosis or are not comfortable with what the doctor or teacher or therapist is recommending. And also when they are overwhelmed by many-many suggestions of remedies from friends and family. On a personal note, I also hope this online Resource Centre, which will soon be in regional languages too, helps parents accept their child- as a child first. It helps parents to move away from `Fixing’ the child from what is assumed to be `Normal’ to looking for the child’s potential, which needs to be supported and developed. I have watched many children with autism grow from infancy to adulthood and have been amazed with the learnings. Once given the opportunities, they have grown and blossomed. They have found their own style of living, but they do enrich our lives with their unique and astonishing thoughts and talents. From the National Trust, we all look forward to engaging in meaningful dialogue and creating a better world for our stakeholders. With warm wishes,