ABSTRACT

Millions of children are born all across the globe every minute but unfortunately not every born child is medically fit. Some of them are born with different disorders. The present study was initiated to investigate such a neurological disorder named as Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is a complex developmental condition that includes determining difficulties in social connection, which affects nonverbal communication, patterns of socialization, or behaviorsin kids mostly up to 8 years of age. Developed countries including the US and Europe conducted intensive research on Autism and spread awareness about it in masses but it has been observed that people in developing countries are not familiar yet with this disease. After the outspread of Pandemic COVID-19, people’s focus was more towards the pandemic but there is need to work on the other diseases as well that are especially affecting the kids. It has been observed over the past few years that in Pakistan, the number of births with this neurological disorder is increasing. According to the Autism Society of Pakistan, from every 60 kids, one child is facing the issues of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Hence, this study was designed with the objective to know about the awareness people of Pakistan have about this disease and for this purpose a research model designed. Data was collected from 200 respondents from area of Bhara Kahu, Islamabad through questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, correlation and regression analysis was done using SPSS. The results indicated that all the three independent variables including Symptoms or Physical Attributes of Autistic Child (SAC), Parental awareness (PA) and Treatment/ Cure for Autism (TA)have positive and significant impact on people’s knowledge about Autism.