Over 35 years ago, Dr. Smita Awasthi encountered a child who had a textbook case of autism in India, but she didn’t actually know how to help him. There were no resources in India to rely on, and Dr. Smita felt a great deal of guilt for not being able to help this child. That’s when she applied to the online ABA program through the University of North Texas. From this correspondence course, Dr. Awasthi was able to begin her journey learning how to help children and adults with autism in India.
There are some truly unique challenges working with the autism community in India, and one of them is choosing which language to teach a child. Some parts of the country can speak up to four languages, and many students have a dominant language at home but are then instructed in English in the schools. Dr. Awasthi finds that teaching a child to request in the dominant language and reinforcing the listener responding in English can be effective. Whatever route the parents or therapists might choose, bilingualism is an additional piece of the puzzle that the autism community in India must factor in to their programming.
Children with autism struggle with some skills like sleep, potty training, sibling relationships, and speech. There are so many factors that play into how to approach therapy such as the child’s age, family priorities, cultural differences, and whether the child has low or high cognition. Dr. Awasthi has just finished a seven-year study where she worked with 126 children with autism to improve their vocals, and 83% showed a marked improvement. She really believes it’s never too early or too late to help children with autism learn to speak.
Trying to help kids knows no boundaries. One of the most amazing things about online education is how it connects autism professionals around the world and helps them work together to better serve their own communities. I admire Dr. Awasthi’s initiative and I look forward to many more years of collaboration because we can do better to help children around the world reach their fullest potential.
Today’s Guest
Smita Awasthi, Ph.D., BCBA-D holds a Doctorate in Behavior Analysis and has 36 years of clinical experience. During this period, Smita has worked on capacity building, skilling therapists, parent training, advocacy, education, and mentoring students in the latest technologies in autism intervention. She wears many hats and has many Firsts to her credit. In 2004, she became the first Board Certified behavior analyst from India and the region. She has provided leadership in the dissemination of behavior analysis by forming “ABA India”, a non-gov’t organization and an affiliated Chapter of ABA international of which she is Past President. In 2010, she founded the first organization “Behavior Momentum India” to provide 1:1 behavioral interventions to children and adults with autism.
Today BMI is the largest interventional center outside the USA with a team of behavior analysts, RBT’s, and 200+ paraprofessionals. It has 9 centers serving nearly 300+ people with autism and IDD between ages 1.4 years to 30 years of age. She started the first BACB approved behavior analysis consequence in India in 2014 of which she is the Program Director. She formed Behavior Momentum Indian Foundation, a non-gov’t not for profit organization which is currently working towards building a large residential community for adults with autism.
Smita has two publications and one book chapter to her credit. In the last 15 years, she has presented research at international scientific conferences in behavior analysis in various countries and has been an invited speaker at various universities such as Queen’s University Belfast, Panteion University Athens, Greece, and prestigious conferences such as Penn State.
Among other awards, she has also received the Governor’s award in 2005 for the dissemination of autism in the most populous State of U.P. in India and the Metro-city Rotary in 2013 and the SABA award from the Association of Behavior Analysis International, U.S.A. (2009) for the dissemination of behavior analysis. She is currently providing support and mentorship towards the development of behavior analysis in Bangladesh and Nepal.
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