The Minister in charge of disabled people, Marie-Arlette Carlotti, presents her plan against autism. Among the flagship measures, the creation of specialized classes for autistic kindergarteners.
“For too long in France, parents of autistic children have been abandoned. This created immense despair. It is time for this situation of non-assistance to end ”. These are the remarks made by the Minister for Disabled People, Marie-Arlette Carlotti in an interview with Le Figaro on April 2, 2013, the day of the presentation of her plan against autism.
A 2013-17 autism plan that will focus on the application of recommendations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) for educational and behavioral care for people with autism, the ministry announced. “The objective of the plan is to ensure that the recommendations of the High Authority for Health are applied throughout the territory, so that all families have access to modern methods”, insisted on clarifying the minister.
Among these recommendations, the HAS recommended in particular the establishment of a personalized project of early, comprehensive and coordinated interventions and considered that psychoanalytic approaches and institutional psychotherapy constituted “non-consensual global interventions”.
The plan would therefore aim above all to “reshape all of the care provided to children with autism: identification from the age of 18 months, diagnosis, reinforced education and assistance with schooling”. “We will create specialized classes in kindergarten to accommodate them,” said the minister. And to improve the detection of children with autism as soon as the first warning signs are expressed, “a vast training program for early childhood personnel (nursery nurses, childminders, doctors, educators, teachers, etc.) will be implemented. foot and information on autism will be included in the health records ”. A diagnosis which only intervenes for the time being at the age of 6 years on average.
The Minister also announces the creation of a “large Internet portal dedicated to autism where knowledge will be presented, updated according to research advances, but also the monitoring of the plan and the offer of care” . Finally, the creation of respite centers, which number 40 today, will be continued. Centers that allow families and children with autism to participate in recreational and leisure activities adapted to their needs. The Minister Delegate also underlines that associations and autistic people will be closely involved in monitoring the plan through the National Autism Committee.
It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the psychoanalytic theory that autism was directly linked to maternal behavior was torn to pieces. Several studies carried out in the world have confirmed the genetic component of the disease. About a hundred genes have been implicated. The functional MRI revealed early abnormalities in the functioning of a part of the brain of the autistic child: the superior temporal sulcus. Despite these discoveries and this major conceptual development, France still remains today one of the last psychoanalytic strongholds in the field of autism. However, around 100,000 young people under the age of 20 are affected by autism in France.
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