“The talk was an absolute success. The Q&A session was interesting and your answers were helpful. The feedback we received after the talk was overwhelming. Everyone said it was just amazing. Thanks so much!” said Divya Swaminathan, a speech and language therapist (SLT), about Dr Nandita DeSouza’s talk on ‘Adolescence, Sexuality and Autism’. Organised by the Infant-Toddler Language Development and Intervention Lab (LiL) at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, the talk was conducted on 6 April to commemorate World Autism Month. It was attended by 60 participants, including speech-language pathologists and mental health professionals from NIMHANS as well as in private practice.
Autism is a developmental disability but not one that affects sexual development. “Most people think autistic children and adults don’t understand matters related to sexuality or have feelings of love, affection, empathy, anger, or romantic and sexual feelings,” explains Dr Nandita. Parents tend to over-protect children to keep them safe but ignorance can lead to confusion, inappropriate behaviour and abuse. All children and adolescents, particularly those with disabilities, need to learn about their bodies, privacy, feelings, friendships, puberty, and intimacy, not least because disabled children are thrice as likely as their abled peers to be sexually abused. We need to change the prison of protection based on isolation, policing and ignorance to a ring of safety that comprises appropriate sexuality education and opportunities to participate in all aspects of life.