Dubai UAE
Sallam Sallam
Dubai Autism Center (DAC) unveiled its plan for a smart digital transformation of its services provided to parents of children with autism. The plan aims at providing the rehabilitation and special educational services in parallel with preserving the students’ health and safety, amid expectations that a different kind of smart educational system will emerge instead of the traditional system, which will gradually disappear in the future.
Mohammed Al Emadi, Director General and Board Member of Dubai Autism Center, said, “The year 2020 was a distinguished experience and a qualitative leap in the path of the Dubai Autism Center in light of the “Covid-19” pandemic, as it was a push for the adoption of a number of smart digital systems and programs in order to provide the opportunity for students’ parents to obtain services by innovative means in a safe educational environment to ensure the achievement of the desired goals,”
On the other hand, Al Emadi said that the DAC training programs did not stop despite the pandemic’s circumstances, indicating that the training lectures were organized “remotely” through social media and smart applications and had achieved positive results from which many parents and professionals benefited from them, indicating that the total number of views for these lectures reached nearly 50 thousand views during the year 2020.
Al Emadi stressed that the smart digital transformation plan also aims to enhance the flexibility of services provided to parents of children with autism to obtain them in an organized and integrated manner. Al Emadi explained that the purpose of applying the smart digital transformation plan to the DAC services is to meet the different needs of parents of children with autism, which will contribute to providing more accurate and efficient services within flexible and comprehensive procedures.
Founded by a decree of the ruler of Dubai in 2001, Dubai Autism Center is a non-profit organization that aims to provide specialized services to take care for children with autism and provide support for their families and their caregivers. The financial resources of the center consists of subsidies, donations and any charitable endowments for the welfare of the center.
In 2017, the Dubai Autism Center moved to its new headquarters located on an area of 90,000 square feet, covering a total built-up area of 166,000 square feet in Al Garhoud, thereby increasing its capacity from 54 children to 180 children who are received in facilities that have been fully equipped to suit their needs. It contains 34 classrooms, 22 motor therapy clinics, 18 speech and speech therapy clinics, 3 rooms specialized in sensory therapy, and a number of laboratories, facilities and medical clinics, all designed according to the latest specialized international standards, providing the appropriate educational environment for children with autism.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that begins early in childhood and lasts throughout a person’s life. ASD can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges. According to recent studies, one in 54 children is affected by ASD.
