The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEPID) organised a Two Day International Workshop on Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) AT DAIC, NEW DELHI ON 11-12 December, 2023. The conference was inaugurated by Chief Guest, Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS, Secretary, DEPWD, Ministry of S.J&E, Govt. of India and it was graced by Shri Rajeev Sharma, IFoS, Joint Secretary DEPWD, Ministry of S.J&E, Govt. of India, Shri Vineet Singhal, Director, National Institutes, DEPwD, GoI.

Shri B. V. Ram Kumar, Director, NIEPID welcomed the chief guest, guest of Honor and other dignitaries. Dr Saroj Arya spoke about the process adopted in developing the ISSA tool.

Shri Rajesh Aggarwal IAS, Secretary DEPWD expressed his delightfulness about India becoming a scientific hub for innovations and research. He highlighted that India has taken a lead role in contributing to global technological resources, and said that many of the tests and tools developed by NIEPID are being used by many countries. He highlighted the latest assistive devices being developed in ALIMCO.

 

He emphasised the use of state of the art technology (Assistive devices, appliances, therapeutics) while working towards rehabilitation of PWDs and the need to provide services at low costs. He stated that The ISAA scale developed in 2016 has been a a very useful indigenous test for assessment of Autism.

 

I am happy to see that in Two Day International Workshop on Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA), 82 participants from India and 18 participants from 11 countries including,  USA, UK, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. There are many foreign universities that have shown keen interest in collaborating with the National Institutes under Depwd and to adapt tools developed by NIEPID. He informed the participants about the development of Indian Test of Intelligence by NIEPID , which being the first such indigenous test will help in providing a more relevant test to Indian population at affordable costs. He stated that all the tests and tool’s being developed are being made available as open source. A series of national and international training workshops for professionals are being conducted to train them in the test, including one which is scheduled to be held in the NIEPID in the month of January.

The inaugural event ended with a vote of thanks proposed by Dr Sunita Devi Coordinator of the workshop.

The first day begin with the technical session one on introduction to the autism by Dr. Sunita Devi, Faculty in Rehabilitation Psychology, NIEPID. In technical session-2 trends in psychological assessments of the autism were described the latest assessment in detail by Dr. Amrita Sahay, Faculty in Rehabilitation Psychology, NIEPID. The Third technical session covered educational assessments of the autism where importance of behavioural assessment and other method of assessment were highlighted by Dr. Ambady K.G. faculty, NIEPID. Dr. Shilpa Manogna, faculty, NIEPID explained the guidelines for assessment and certification of autism in India. The first was concluded by Dr. Saroj arya by giving the overview of the ISAA and detailed explanation about ISAA was given to the participation. The question and quesries were discussed and explained.

The second the sessions had 2 demonstrations by the experts and hands-on experience for participants. Participants’ feedback and response to training and Evaluation was sought. Feedback and review from the participants were taken. The two days CRE programme on International workshop on Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism was concluded with remarks by Director and certificate distribution. Vote of thanks was proposed by the programme coordinator Dr. Sunita Devi, faculty, NIEPID.

 

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MG/MS/VL/SD

(Release ID: 1985535)