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28 April 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied
During a recent training session at the ASC. From the left, front: Marisa Viljoen and Noleen Seris; back: Prof Lauren Franz, Dr Nokhutula Shabalala, and Dr David Griessel (Unit Director).

Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old climate and environmental activist who identifies as autistic, calls her autism a superpower. And it might just be this superpower that saves the world. 

Celebrating the strengths of autism
With April being Autism Month, it is a good time to celebrate the strengths of autism, says Dr David Griessel, Director of the University of the Free State Autism Support Centre (ASC), and a registered developmental paediatrician in the UFS Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. This includes a no-nonsense, direct thinking, and ‘outside the box’ way of looking at life, which is not mired in wishful thinking and false hope.

The Autism Support Centre was initiated by Dr Griessel, who has a special interest in neonatal intensive care, perinatal care, neuro-developmental evaluation in high-risk babies, neuro-developmental behavioural problems and learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorders, and the ethics of neuro-disability. The centre is under the auspices of the ‘Make the first 1 000 days count’ project and is located on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

According to Dr Griessel, the current pandemic is asking questions of us as society. “Questions about what is really important to us as humans. Whether we can really keep on expanding and consuming as if tomorrow does not exist. The inconvenient fact is that our encroachment on the habitat of wild animals bring us in contact with wild animals, and although bats are very resistant to viruses, we are not,” says Dr Griessel.  

Dr Griessel says Greta does not care about social codes, and directly asks of us: “How dare you steal my dreams and my childhood with your empty words; our homes are on fire.”

Children with autism need significant support 
“If we, as so-called neuro-typical parents, caregivers, and society can accept and support them, they add to the richness and complexity of life. The first person described in the medical literature, Donald T, had a full and eventful life, but financial support and a small community who had his back, were real enablers!”

“In this time of lockdown, my thoughts go out to parents and the challenges they may face at home. There are wonderful resources available from Autism SA, which may help them navigate these uncertain times. When we listen to Greta, a thought springs up – maybe autism will save the world.” 

A first in Africa
The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a first in Africa, was recently presented at the ASC and is now used to support therapists, caregivers, and patients with autism and related disorders.

This model is one of the so-called naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions, which attempts to change the core features of autism. They all share the idea that normal developmental forces should drive the process of interaction between caregiver and child; this has been  to be effective in different controlled trials.

Three registered ESDM therapists, together with Prof Lauren Franz from Duke University in North Carolina as mentor, visited Bloemfontein at the end of 2019 to become accredited trainers. Colleagues from Tanzania as well as attendees from all over South Africa have visited the centre before.

The unit is also being used by two local therapists, Elize van Rensburg and Angela Correia, to achieve reliability in this therapy. Furthermore, the unit is used as a therapy centre and for ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) evaluations – the gold standard for diagnosis.

 

An inside view of the Autism Support Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS).

Supporting families as caregiversAutism South Africa has adapted a guide from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina on the support of individuals with autism through uncertain times.

Individuals with autism may need additional support to process the news and adapt to the many changes.  This population may face additional challenges related to comprehension, communication, difficulty understanding abstract language, an insistence on sameness, and a greater likelihood of anxiety and depression – all of which may be exacerbated during this stressful period. 

The following seven support strategies are designed to meet the unique needs of individuals with autism during this period of uncertainty.  

• Supporting understanding
• Offering opportunities for expression
• Prioritising coping and calming skills
• Maintaining routines
• Building new routines
• Fostering connections (from a distance)
• Being aware of changing behaviours

News Archive

UFS hones focus to nurture world-class research - Business Day
2006-02-10

 

Sue Blaine
THE University of the Free State plans to concentrate academic study in five areas to strengthen its status as a research institution, the university said yesterday.

The Bloemfontein-based university will focus on areas it classes as development (economics, health, literacy and other human activities) and social transformation — an analysis of how South African society is changing from a philosophical and political viewpoint.

The other three research areas are new technologies, water resources and security, and food production and security.

“It makes sense to concentrate the university’s human resources, infrastructure, financial resources and intellectual expertise,” said university rector and vice-chancellor Prof Frederick Fourie.

The move introduces a style of research that matches international trends.

Universities in Canada, Britain and Australia are setting up their research departments in this way.

In SA, the universities of Stellenbosch, the Witwatersrand, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal have embarked on similar strategies.

Fourie gave the example of his alma mater, the US’s Harvard University, whose Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centre is an example of “clustering” on a larger scale.

The centre is a collaboration with Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Museum of Science, Boston, and universities in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan.

Fourie said the modern research world was so diverse and complex that no university could cover all bases so it was better to establish areas of expertise that made it different from its peer institutions.

Having scientists and researchers work in teams meant certain issues could be researched and developed in a multidisciplinary manner. “I think it’s the only way in which any university can excel. This will help SA become world class in selected areas,” Fourie said.

It is in chemistry that the cluster model has already had its most visible results, with a slice of the university’s on-campus pharmacological testing company Farmovs, established in the 1980s, sold to the US’s Parexel International.

The company is one of the largest biopharmaceutical outsourcing organisations in the world, providing knowledge-based contract research, medical marketing and consulting services to the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, according to Biospace, an internet-based company providing resources and information to the life science industry.

President Thabo Mbeki, in his state of the nation address last Friday, committed government to allocating more resources to research, development and innovation, and increasing the pool of young researchers in SA.

He said government would “continue to engage the leadership of our tertiary institutions focused on working with them to meet the nation’s expectations with regard to teaching and research”.

The university used to be home to several A-rated scientists, who are considered by a peer review, conducted by the National Research Foundation, to be world leaders in their fields, but had lost them to other institutions. Fourie hopes to lure them back, and with them postgraduate students and funding for their work.

“At universities where you get a star researcher they tend to attract people and funding; if they leave they take that with them,” he said.

Fourie said R50m would be spent on the project, with some already spent last year and the last disbursements to be made next year.

There is R10m in seed money to gather experts and improve equipment and infrastructure, and R17m has been invested in chemistry equipment and staff.

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