Abstract
The diagnosis of communication and behavioral difficulties in Saudi Arabia is currently still an emerging field and there are few governmental schools in the field of speech therapy in Saudi Arabia. These schools offer a bachelor degree in speech hearing rehabilitation, which started only a few years ago. For this reason, the number of Saudis certified as speech and language therapists is very limited, which has led to several issues regarding diagnosis, therapy and speech services in the kingdom being raised. First hand reports from trained speech and language practitioners suggest that it is common for children with a range of communication difficulties to receive a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, with other internationally recognized diagnostic labels (e.g. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; ADHD) being far less commonly used. Due to limitation of number of certified professional speech language therapists in Saudi Arabia, a number of teachers, psychologists and even some religious individuals claim to be speech therapists. They provide unauthorized speech therapy sessions without any experience or permission, in non-authorized centres such as private schools, private centers and even in their homes. This study is aimed at highlighting the importance of accurate diagnosis and the impact of unauthorized workers on children with ADHD and autism inside Saudi Arabia.
Highlights
Given the limited of number of certified professional speech and language therapists in Saudi Arabia, speech therapy services are currently struggling to provide comprehensive provision as well as to combat misdiagnosis and unauthorised care providers [1]
This study is aimed to profiling the attention behaviour and communication abilities of a group of children, who have been given a diagnosis of autism the study tries to highlight the importance of accurate diagnosis and the impact of unauthorized workers on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and autism inside Saudi Arabia
In terms of anxiety behaviours, no single case in the group study was reported to demonstrate those listed in the questionnaire. This finding diverges from that of Hamed [2], as well as in relation to Amr [3] study of 60 children from Al-Ahsa (Saudi Arabia), Amman (Jordan) and Al-Mansoura (Egypt), which both reported that children with ADHD and/or ASD had a higher risk of psychosocial problems, such as depression and anxiety
Summary
Given the limited of number of certified professional speech and language therapists in Saudi Arabia, speech therapy services are currently struggling to provide comprehensive provision as well as to combat misdiagnosis and unauthorised care providers [1]. A number of teachers, psychologists and even some religious individuals claim to be speech therapists They provide unauthorised speech therapy sessions without any experience, in non-authorised centres, such as private schools, private centres and even in their homes. Individuals have established private schools for children with speech difficulties, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or autism. Many use their schools as business centres, recruiting non-professional teachers, often using celebrities and famous actors as an advertising tool for the school. They may sell expensive products from unknown sources, such as nutrition for children with ADHD, autism or speech difficulties. Other individuals move to small rural cities to establish their own businesses and provide their own therapy, thereby being well away from governmental inspection
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