Knowledge and attitude of Autism among teachers of Punjab, Pakistan. An awareness Survey

Abstract

The current study was conducted in Punjab, Pakistan to assess the knowledge and insight about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among teachers of schools and colleges. This prevalence study was conducted with the help of simple random sampling technique, among 146 teachers from both schools and colleges. The designed questionnaire was having all the necessary questions related to knowledge and insight about disorder. Gathered data was scrutinized by using SPSS (version 22). The stats of present study reveal that 17.6% (39) school and 23.8% 25 college teachers know about autism. And out of 146 teachers only 1.4% (3) school teachers and 0% (0) teacher from college sector knows about the diagnosis which is quite alarming situation. Paired samples T-Test for knowledge and insight among both type of teachers is significant. The overall conclusion gets from this study disclosed that the teachers either they are from school or college lack awareness about the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although school teachers were better aware about autism in contrast to college teachers. The higher education authorities have to arrange seminars and also awareness campaigns for proper apprehension, and drilling of teachers about this disorder and other common disease should be done for a healthy and peaceful society.