Family Negligence and Social Exclusion: A Study of the Children with ASD in Gopalganj, Bangladesh

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VII, July 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Family Negligence and Social Exclusion: A Study of the Children with ASD in Gopalganj, Bangladesh

Shimon Rahman¹, Md. Noman Amin^1,*, Md. Anisur Rahaman¹, Md Abdur Rashid², Abdullah Abusayed Khan³

¹Department of Sociology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj-8100, Bangladesh
²Department of Sociology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
³Sociology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.
*Corresponding Author

Abstract:- Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that a child exposed due to neural dysfunction. In Bangladesh, there has a great prevalence of such children. Studies show that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are continuously victim of social exclusion and discrimination only for their physical disabilities. Drawing the attention of previous studies, this study aims to discover the existence of negligence and exclusion that an autistic child face from his/her living environment. A group of 128 autistic children are taken for consideration. A structured questionnaire has been used for the collection of data where respondents are being selected through purposive and snowball sampling method. Results revealed that children’s neural impairments have great implication on their social life where they are being treated differently and being neglected from society. This study recommends arrangement of sound and safety living environment for the child with ASD for their survival and better living. However, this study was initiated for discovering the existence of negligence and will contribute for further descriptive and impact-based studies.

Key Words: Children; Social Exclusion; Negligence; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

I. INTRODUCTION

Autism is a lifelong neural developmental disorder originated and lasted from the birth of a child that intervene on daily human behaviour (National Research Council, 2001). Autism is defined as a set of “complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by repetitive and characteristic patterns of behaviour and difficulties with social communication and interaction” (Akhter et al., 2018). This disorder distorts human communication abilities, self-initiated imagination, feelings and the ability to establish relationships with others. It usually a life-long neurobiological dysfunction that hamper individual socialization process, their involvement to the community and understanding of themselves as a human being. There are no fixed behaviours of specific disorder. Individual behavioural manifestations vary from person to person or even within a person over time (National Research Council, 2001).

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