Abstract

LOPEZ-CHAVEZ, Catalina  and  LARREA-CASTELO, María-de-Lourdes. Autism in Ecuador: A social group waiting for attention. Rev Ecuat Neurol [online]. 2017, vol.26, n.3, pp.203-214. ISSN 2631-2581.

Although increasing historical progresses have been achieved in defining the characteristics on an unusual behavior among people who could be on the autism spectrum disorder, still remains processes, accuracy and preciseness that must be used in order to get a diagnosis, which requires an urgent attention.

Ecuador is also part of this reality. This study is the first research that has been performed in the country, with 160 school-aged boys and girls coming from the mountains and the coast of Ecuador, 80 diagnosed with autism, and 80 neuro-typical kids. The results reveal the necessity to attend this matter. Surveys and confirmation cases including an innovative way of social insertion analysis show that the diagnostic processes demands important economical resources, and these economical resources could vary according to social insertion, and socio-spatial location; 26% of the children that were part of this study, received between 1 to 5 previous different diagnosis, 13,75% were mistakenly diagnosed; 46,2% of them, that were from the city of Guayaquil, and 23,7% from the city of Quito, spent more than one thousand dollars trying to get the diagnosis. This case-control study with children between ages of 2 and 12 years old, from Quito and Guayaquil, allows us to know the real situation of autism in Ecuador. It reveals major problems regarding on how to obtain a diagnosis, a therapeutic process, most of them related to the socio economical situation of the parents that were part of this study.

Keywords : Autism; diagnosis; educational inclusion; social insertion.

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