Dr. T. R. Paarivendhar opens 'Autism Centre of Excellence' at SRM Hospital

Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) was inaugurated by Founder Chancellor of SRM Institute of Science and Technology Dr. T. R. Paarivendhar at SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (SRM MCH&RC), Kattankulathur. This centre offers children with autism all necessary services under one roof. This centre is also first-of-its-kind in an Indian medical college hospital.

The centre has been setup by SRM College of Occupational Therapy. The mission of this centre is to provide all the essential services, such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, and clinical psychology in one place with well-trained professionals. Strong emphasis on integrating them into regular classrooms and enabling them to live independently in the community. Children with autism can receive free rehabilitation services from SRM ACE. Through research in the fields of occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, and clinical psychology, SRM-ACE will also foster innovation in autism intervention.

Also present on the occasion were SRMIST’s Pro Chancellor (Academics) Dr. P. Sathyanaryanan, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Medical & Health Sciences) Dr. Lt. Col. A. Ravikumar, Dean (Medical) Dr. A. Sundaram, Dean (College of Occupational Therapy) Dr. U. Ganapathy Sankar among others.

Another facility at SRM College of Occupational Therapy is a "Sensory Garden." It is one of the pioneering programmes in India to offer multimodal inputs in the outdoors as a booster to therapy for kids with autism. SRM College of Occupational Therapy has been extending support to autistic children and their families, the community, and since 1996. So far More than 5,000 autistic kids and their families have benefited from SRM.

The occupational therapy services cover a range of therapeutic modalities, including Sensory Integration through Play-based Intervention, Behavioral Modification, Social Skills Training, Group Therapy, Handwriting Intervention, and ADL training. 160 autistic children are receiving occupational therapy treatments at SRM in total. Every day about 50 children with autism acquire Occupational therapy at SRM.