PROBLEMS!

here's the first part of the body which basically talks about existing problems....

Problems

Considering that the studies in show approximate prevalence of 0.6 to over 1 percent of identified individuals with an ASD in Asia alone, the lack of educational spaces is practically the main issue that these peoples face in Malaysia. Meaning, there aren’t any proper mainly educational spaces available for these kinds of disabilities and also, most of the existing spaces are often a basic daycare centre and they usually don’t provide any accurate education or essential knowledge, they usually function as a place that keep these kids busy and managed during the day while parents are gone for their daily jobs.

Another problem with the existing spaces are that they usually placed in residential or trading areas and they aren’t actually built to the intention that brings on so many problems on its own, one would be the lack of space. In these spaces usually there aren’t eongh spaces to have different rooms with different activities. For example the playground issue which is one of necessity areas in such places since playing and interacting with other kids acts a major part in solving the impaired social interaction issues on kids who suffer from ASD. These spaces are usually built in closed indoor areas with very little openings and also often placed on higher floors so it’s highly difficult to have a playground not to mention the danger it has towards kid’s safety.

Safety of the space is a large issue on its own for these kinds of centers, since most of these spaces are not tend to be child proof and kids friendly. The design of these spaces as mentioned before is for a whole different function so the staff and owners of learning centers have to come up with an adjustable safely plan and make the spaces child proof themselves, which in most of times they are not completely accurate and secure because these kind of safety plans are not planned for such important spaces and are usually normal house kits.

Studies also showed that 40% of children with an ASD do not talk at all. Another 25% to 30% of children with autism have some words at 12 to 18 months of age and then lose them. Others may speak, but not until later in childhood. And most of designers don’t take that in consideration while designing learning centers. The kids need to have some basic signs (such as bathroom sign or eating sign and etc,) in their reach so they can communicate easier with the teachers and helpers.

In my opinion, most of these problems with the spaces and design is often rise from the lack of information on such sensitive subjects. Mainly because of lack of recourses and information on newly found diseases designers don’t have enough knowledge and insight on what these kids really need so they end up doing what they’re familiar with. So the lack of awareness on the issues actually has a high effect on how the space is designed for these kids and usually the outcome is not only not satisfying but also very dangerous and impractical for the function. And frankly most of designers today are not as up to date as they should be and they usually stuck in their comfort zone and they don’t cooperate with new ideas and new issues. Mainly because they feel more comfortable with what they know and what is familiar since they have the so called rulebook or regulations on what they want to built. This is why the existing learning centers are either similar to daycares (kindergartens) or basic typical schools which in either cases is not very efficient.

Recent studies also have estimated that the lifetime cost to care for an individual with an ASD is $3.2 million. For instance: Individuals with an ASD had average medical expenditures that exceeded those without an ASD by $4,110–$6,200 per year. On average, medical expenditures for individuals with an ASD were 4.1–6.2 times greater than for those without an ASD. Differences in median expenditures ranged from $2,240 to $3,360 per year with median expenditures 8.4–9.5 times greater. To add up to these expenses, most of learning centers are usually private properties so they usually are established with private founders and the cost of facilitating the place and also the admission and tuition fees are sort of high. There’s also cost of transportation since there are only couple of learning centers for kids with ASDs and most of them are located in high class sort of neighborhoods such as Mont’ Kiara and Solaris.

And last but not least of problems is that considering that the median age of earliest ASD diagnosis is between 4.5 to 5.5 years, and for 51 to 91 percent of children with an ASD, developmental concerns had been recorded before three years of age, the earliest admission in the current learning centers is not before 5 to 6 years old; which in some cases it might even be too late for any practical neurological development.